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Skilled Visas
The Australian skilled migration program enables qualified professionals and trades persons to apply for temporary or permanent visas.
This is probably the most important visa program in Australia. The majority of migrants in Australia have applied for a skilled visa based on their occupations and their work experience. It is also the most complex visa program in Australia. To channel demand from industry and trade the Australian government has specified a number of occupations needed in Australia. These occupations are listed on the Medium and Long-term Strategic Skills List (MLTSSL) or the Short-term Skilled Occupation List (STSOL). Occupations on these lists include:
IT Professionals
Medical Professionals
Qualified Trade Workers
A number of temporary or permanent skilled visa options are available for people with qualifications and work experience in above named occupational groups.
However, the skilled visa application process is complex and eligible applicants need to meet a number of requirements. The most important requirements for a skilled visa are:
An occupation listed on the Medium and Long-term Strategic Skills List (MLTSSL) or the Short-term Skilled Occupation List (STSOL)
Qualifications at recognised Australian standard
In most cases: work experience in your nominated occupation
Good (or very good) English language skills
Under 45years old
How to get started:
Visa Assessment: If you would like to apply for an Australian skilled visa please contact Margot for an initial consultation. Margot will look at your situation and discuss your options in detail, to provide you with all the information necessary for you to make an informed decision.
Skills Assessment: Before applying for a skilled visa you will need to have your skills formally assessed by the relevant authority. Each skills assessment authority has their own rules and requirements. Margot has many years experience in assisting clients in different occupations through the skills assessment process and will help you with the completion of relevant application forms as well as with the compiling of necessary supporting documentation.
Expression of Interest / Visa Assistance: Margot can assist with the completion of all required forms and collection of documents. Once all documents and information are gathered Margot will lodge both your expression of interest as well as your visa application with the Department of Immigration and Border Protection on your behalf.
If you are interested to find out more about the process and how Margot can assist you take the next step and arrange for an individual assessment of your options. Contact us for a comprehensive analysis of your situation today.


text: Gentry Stein was seeded into the Semi-Final round at the 2017 World YoYo Contest due to his win at the US National YoYo Contest. Gentry gave a great preview of his highly anticipated Finals routine to make it through semi-finals with a 7th place finish. Being a previous winner, Gentry was a crowd favorite and a huge contender to win the worlds title. Gentry is known for his unique and well executed choreography and captures the audience in a highly engaged and well put together routine. Check out his full routine in the video above! Gentry ended up placing 3rd overall in Finals, and used his signature yoyo the Shutter.

subset: commoncrawl


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Is there anything you can't do online nowadays? Websites were, in part, created to share information and publically (or privately) document the knowledge and opinions of others. In an age where you can literally run a company sitting on your cell phone in a coffee shop, we turn to the World Wide Web for guidance. This
Since before the insatiable itch of trading card games (TCG) hit me, I have always wanted to design and play my own battle card game. Now card games have come a long way and have several classifications, like CCG (collectible card game) and LCG (living card game). After the introduction of Pokémon — which I was a
Stay up to date with ADLiSign Upx


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Best wishes
I always feel a touch of sadness at UIS's annual Retirement and Recognition ceremony, and this year was no different.
I watched and applauded as a few dozen of my colleagues had their names read ceremoniously to signal their farewell. With the dozens of colleagues are hundreds of shared stories, and I always remember a few of them with great fondness. This year, as 33-year computer science instructor Mary Sheila Tracy stepped forward, I thought of her working with students and robots in the tunnel between the PAC and Brookens Library. What a thrill for these students. I also think of Mary Sheila's dedication to our students who have formed an active Catholic student organization and now have Mass on campus every week.
Well done, Mary Sheila and colleagues! I wish you all the best and new discoveries of joy in the next phase of your life.


text: Swimming with Sharks h1> Swimming with the largest fish in the sea is one of the last bucket-list experience. Fortunately, then, there are a handful of destinations around the world where sightings of whale sharks season are almost guaranteed. Remember to keep a respectful distance from the gentle giants, resisting the temptation to touch them or to use flash photography.


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Stephen Fraidin news
No Results FoundIt seems there are no results matching your search criteria.
Latest News From ETHealthworld.com
India sees 50% increase in heart diseases
There is a 50% increase in the prevalence of heart disease and stroke in India in the last 25 years said doctors at Meenakshi Mission Hospital and Research centre.
Man 'left' in MRI machine, Panchkula hospital under scanner
Inquiry is on against the Sector-6 civil hospital, where patient Ram Mehar Singh, 59, was allegedly left in the claustrophobic magnetic tunnel of an MRI machine for 30 minutes on Sunday until he broke a belt to escape.
FedEx Express Showcases Healthcare Solutions at the 10th SCM Pharma Summit '19
FedEx Express, a subsidiary of FedEx Corp will participate as a healthcare solutions provider at the Supply Chain Management (SCM) Pharma Summit in Mumbai on September 24-25, 2019.
Biocon subsidiary acquires research facility from Pfizer Healthcare
Biocon shares were trading 0.64 per cent higher that their previous close at Rs 226.85 on the BSE.
Vitabiotics to launch its women and kids range in India soon: Rohit Shelatkar
The nutrition industry is not controlled by pharmaceuticals, so a lot of nutrition manufacturers who make vitamins and minerals take that leeway thinking they don't have to meet pharma standards.
Separate medical university to be set up in Bihar
Bihar government will set up a separate medical university to boost medical education in the state.
Doctors in UP to fill up bonds to work in villages: CM
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that every MBBS doctor who graduates from government medical colleges in the state will have to work in villages for two years and they will have to fill up bonds in this regard.
A lot of research needs to be done in sleep medicine: Dr Ravindra M Mehta
The biggest breakthroughs in this field have been slow truthfully and again it goes back to no awareness, recognition and not enough implementation.
Mechanism for the formation of new blood vessels discovered
Researchers from Uppsala University have revealed for the first time a mechanism for how new blood vessels are formed and have shown the importance of this mechanism for embryo survival and organ function.
Vaccines drive pharma boom in Hyderabad
With one-third of the world's vaccine demand among children shipped from its doors in Hyderabad, Genome Valley has now emerged as India's top life sciences cluster, beating Bengaluru and Chennai to the game.
French drugmaker, watchdog on trial over weight loss pill deaths
At least 500 people are thought to have died in France after taking the drug Mediator in a major health scandal that was the subject of a 2016 French movie called "150 Milligrams".
Insider trade: Aurobindo, promoters fined Rs 23cr
Markets regulator Sebi on Monday fined domestic pharma major Aurobindo Pharma (APL), along with its promoters and related entities, Rs 22.7 crore in an insider trading case from 11 years ago.
Govt to come up with list of over-the-counter drugs soon
The government is set to come up with a list of over-the-counter (OTC) medicines under a separate schedule by making changes in the drug law with stringent regulations on quality, advertisement and pricing of such products.
Apollo Hospitals' pharma business rejig gets CCI clearance
The move followed a review of long-term strategy for both health care services and standalone pharmacies of the company.
India's new e-cigarette ban goes against its history of being a leader in harm reduction for Asia
Rather than developing a regulatory framework to ensure that e-cigarettes are available alongside their more dangerous cousins — combustible cigarettes — public health officials have simply chosen to ban them.


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Episode 17: Virginity or Purity?
For most of us who grew up in Christian homes, we probably had this command ingrained into our brains. Why? Because sexual intimacy is one of the most special and exclusive gifts God has given to a husband and wife and it should be guarded and saved for marriage.
However, if we emphasize that the main goal of a young Christian is to merely maintain your virginity until marriage, then we are missing the boat - BIG TIME. Christians shouldn't be solely pursuing virginity, but rather aiming for a life of purity.


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By default, Skyscanner's search is set up for roundtrip flights. However, it's simple to change to one-way. Whether you're on our website, mobile website or app, you can search for one-way flights by selecting the 'one-way' option above the 'From' (departure airport) field.
To change back to roundtrip flights, simply re-select 'Rountrip', or click in the return date field, and you'll be able to search for roundtrip flights again.


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Book Reviews
A Wry Jab At Capitalism In 'Young Man's Guide'
A Young Man's Guide to Late Capitalism
By Peter Mountford
Hardcover, 304 pages
List Price: $15.95
Read An Excerpt
Several things set Peter Mountford's impressive debut, A Young Man's Guide to Late Capitalism, apart from the few finance-driven novels that have emerged in the wake of the economic meltdown. For starters, the story doesn't unfold in the echo chambers of Wall Street or moneyed New England (far from it, actually; the novel takes place in La Paz, Bolivia), and our overeducated anti-hero doesn't wander blithely into the world of corporate finance. Unable to resist the allure of retiring by 40 — he's 27 — Gabriel de Boya knows perfectly well what he's getting himself into, and considers vanquishing guilt part of the learning curve.
Not that there's much to overcome: Mountford's protagonist has a postmodern novelist's grasp of ambiguity, and ethical choices are considered in gray scale, making him a realistic character in a surreal historical moment. A welcome contribution to what could be called banker lit, A Young Man's Guide is a quasi-Faustian parable about easy money, rational decision-making in irrational situations, and what James Wood calls "the moral alienation of greed" — but with less gravitas and more pisco sours.
Also, it's very funny.
A Young Man's Guide, opens three years before Bear Stearns' collapse, and spans four weeks in the life of de Boya, a young business journalist-turned-undercover hedge fund analyst sent to Bolivia for political recon. Between posing as a freelancer and sleeping with a barbed and perennially naked Wall Street Journal reporter, Gabriel worries about the shelf life of his job, which he attempts to extend by trafficking in rumors about oil nationalization.
Through fortune-cookie emails to his boss in New York, Gabriel maintains the illusion that he knows what he's doing, and, equally suspiciously, that he's able to discern the economic future of a country that "openly preferred to see things as they should be, rather than as they were." Even after the election of Evo Morales, protesters gather outside his hotel on a daily basis simply to make a point, and it's not lost on Gabriel that his favorite cafe in Laz Paz is ominously named the Cafe de los Presidentes Ahorcados ("cafe of hanged presidents"). Death and revolution hang in the air, and those getting away with something know that their heads could be next on the not-always-proverbial chopping block.
As a half-Chilean, half-Russian American, Gabriel is able to move freely between the worlds of cocaine-snorting journalists and the Bolivian elite, an "amphibious" status that comes in handy when he starts dating Evo's press attache. Lenka is a single mother who bears more than a passing resemblance to his academic firebrand mother, and their relationship pits love against careerism. Gabriel's wildly inflated salary is earned through groveling for information, and while he develops genuine affection for Lenka, he's not above needling her for information — and, when she provides it, threatening her job by putting it to use. Nor is Gabriel above lying to his mother about the nature of his employment — he tells her he's working for an eco-friendly investment firm — when she travels to Bolivia on assignment for The Nation. Game theory and Machiavelli are used as justification, but even in the thick of deceit, Gabriel is goofy enough to be charming, and legitimately likable as a narrator.
The plot starts to spiral when Lenka feeds Gabriel a real tip about the government's plans, setting in motion a scheme to short the market. If it succeeds, his strategy, characterized as "the dapper uncle of clubfooted larceny," will let Gabriel retire in Bolivian luxury. If it fails, he'll be unemployed and back in New York, exactly where he expected to be all along. Such is the moral calculus of a 27-year-old would-be master of the universe.
A writer less talented than Mountford might have left things here, or forced the novel into a neat morality play. Protestant ethics, however, aren't indigenous to the Wall Street or Latin America of A Young Man's Guide, and distinctions between revolutionaries and hucksters are especially slippery. Lenka turns out to be as Mephistophelean as Gabriel; Gabriel's compulsions are framed somewhat sympathetically, driven by ambition and the conspicuous consumption of successful former classmates: "Other people were addicted to gambling, work, sex, but Gabriel was mesmerized by the fluctuations in his brokerage account. It was trite and it was a waste of time and yet somehow Gabriel suspected he was not alone in this." That he's not alone is the novel's main insight, and to Mountford's credit, he explores its implications outside of a moral register. As Gabriel scrutinizes his bank account, A Young Man's Guide captures the moment in which concessions become norms without anybody noticing.
Excerpt: 'A Young Man's Guide To Late Capitalism'
A Young Man's Guide to Late Capitalism
By Peter Mountford
Hardcover, 304 pages
List Price: $15.95
Charm was not among Priya's gifts. She was lean and ambitious and had a temperament of hammered iron. Priya was from Bombay and had been in charge of emerging-markets equity for the Calloway Group for five years. She had studied at Oxford in the nineties and when she finished there had promptly been launched as a fund manager at Lehman, where her portfolio was the only one to turn a profit during the Asian crisis. A millionaire by twenty-eight, she could supposedly intuit peaks and troughs in the market as well as Warren Buffett could. Every day she spent an hour at the gym with her personal trainer, ate a great many vitamins, and drank two liters of green tea. She didn't touch alcohol or cigarettes. "I would like to outlive my own children," she'd said to a Financial Times reporter in an interview in 1997. But as it turned out, the conception, carrying, birthing, and rearing of children were not activities that interested her much.
When Gabriel sat down with her for his interview at the Calloway Group's office in Weehawken, she stared at him and said nothing. He held back too. He had already decided to say as little as possible. Better to lure her out. Oscar Velazquez—Calloway's analyst for the wealthier Latin American countries, and Gabriel's first interviewer—had said she was thirty-seven, which would make her ten years Gabriel's senior, but she looked like a child. Even in her austere gunmetal gray suit she looked juvenile: the most solemn and ponderous adolescent on the planet, but an adolescent nonetheless.
After a while, when Gabriel said nothing, she'd nodded once and said, "You would be Oscar's counterpart in the poorer countries. We like you because you're like Oscar: you know the places, you know people, you speak Spanish, and you even sort of look like a native." She enumerated his qualities very matter-of-factly, including the part about his ethnicity. "Since I came to Calloway," Priya said, "I have steered clear of what I call the cucarachas, those chronically dysfunctional Latin American countries like Guatemala, Panama, et cetera." She inhaled deeply, noisily, through her nose, exhaled slowly and quietly through her mouth. She said, "Our default position will continue to be zero involvement with them, but we need to pay attention, which is why we're creating this position. We can't afford to miss anything."
"I understand," he said. He waited, but she didn't elaborate. She had the corner office, and the views across the Hudson to lower Manhattan were postcard-ready. She also had two large wide-screen LCD monitors mounted on the wall like art running a colorful array of stats from Bloomberg. But she never took her eyes off Gabriel, so he avoided looking at the views and tried instead to match her gaze. She did not seem a particularly mysterious person. She exhibited above all a surgical focus. So while she could address whatever problem sat directly in front of her, multitasking would be difficult, and this, he realized, was the source of her awkwardness, because conversations require a certain talent for juggling.
Hedge funds had traditionally played the numbers from a safe distance, but they had also found that there were huge surprises occasionally, which was why it was theoretically worth it to Calloway to spend a few million in wages and travel expenses every year to have half a dozen analysts out in the world, keeping an eye on things. He waited for her to continue, but when she didn't say anything, he resuscitated the conversation. "So, I'll research the cucarachas?"
"Yes," she said and picked up her line of thought. "Oscar has his hands full with Brazil, Argentina, and so on, so you'll baby-sit the basket cases. There's not much action there, but that's life. Meanwhile, I stay here and go over the numbers with our quant for Latin America, Paul. You should meet him, but I think he just went down to the pier. He goes there twice a day to do a thousand jumping jacks."
Gabriel nodded. "A thousand jumping jacks?"
"Yes, he's concerned about his heart. It's a sedentary life."
"Right. Better safe than sorry."
"Not really. Paul's an idiot." Her mouth twitched as if she was trying to smile, but her muscles couldn't manage it and instead made the gesture of someone who was famished and anticipating food. Gabriel bit his lower lip and laced his fingers together in his lap. He did not let his gaze wander, despite an overwhelming urge to look away. It had been sarcasm, of course. Paul was not an idiot. A quant's analytical powers were expected to be cripplingly powerful. It was one of the few jobs for which a dash of autism was considered a plus.
Priya—who was, it seemed, something of a quant herself—straightened her back, sucked in her cheeks, twisted her head in one direction, then the other, and relaxed. She looked at Gabriel for a while, and when he didn't speak, she sighed as though already exasperated. "Listen," she said, "we like you because you seem kind of cunning, and, after reading your work, we think you might have a talent for reading people. Why do you want to work for us?"
He did not have an answer ready. To buy time, he broke eye contact and looked across the river at lower Manhattan. They were still scooping out the ground down there, but everyone knew that no more bodies would be found; there was nothing left but a giant ragged hole. Gabriel looked back at her and, for lack of a better position, told the truth. He said, "I want to make a shitload of money for a while."
She nodded, unsurprised. She seemed to want him to say more, so he added, "I'd like to retire at forty."
"If you manage to keep your job, that shouldn't be a problem." She glanced at the Bloomberg screens and he thought she almost smiled. Then she looked back at him. "So where do you see Mexican interest rates in a year?"
The millionaire thing hadn't interested Gabriel during high school, when his bright yellow Sony Walkman was full of punk rock, and it hadn't meant much to him when he was in college either, where he manned a soft-serve ice cream stand on campus for fifteen hours a week. It didn't really mean much then that he was broke, because everyone was broke. But five years of scraping by in New York City was another thing. Being young and well-educated and destitute in the city had a way of sharpening a person's desires. Demonstrations, overt and implied, of the advantages of having heaps of money were so common that they ceased to register. So the feeling of wanting matured until what had been straightforward professional ambition became tinged by a hint of avarice. Not that Gabriel was, or ever had been, a greedy person; but money, in general—the plain and unassailable acts of acquiring and spending it—had turned out to occupy a more important role in adulthood than he'd expected. The issue finally wasn't that he wanted to be rich, per se, but that he wanted to be done with so much wanting. It was a feedback loop, and the only way out was deeper in: he needed to have enough money to be done with the issue of money forever.
And though he wished it weren't so, once certain college buddies started buying giant condos in the Meatpacking District and kicking up their midnight blue Prada sneakers on their burnished leather ottomans, he did feel a many-pronged discontent. The shame did not temper the envy; it just made it queasy. Of course, they were all privileged, spectacularly so, on the global level. But this was not a global situation. It was the United States, where he had been born and seemed likely to remain in the bland band of the upper-middle class.
It wasn't lost on him that each one of his young and newly rich friends, all of whom had been dateless for years, was now constantly anchored to the lithe arm of a woman so beautiful that her beauty itself seemed monstrous. Those friends started to look different too. They wore pointy black shoes, sunglasses on cloudy days. At Sunday brunch, they ordered off the menu, made easy banter with the waiters, and were altogether more confident and self-assured than anyone their age had a right to be. It was as if some irksome and never fully identified existential question that still nagged the rest of them had been finally and completely resolved for those few.
So there was, in the end, no question about whether Gabriel would take the job at Calloway. The question literally never presented itself to him. After Gabriel's interview with Priya, Oscar handed him a binder full of legal disclosures and recommended that he go through the paperwork with his lawyer before signing.
Gabriel didn't have a lawyer and didn't want to hire one, couldn't really afford one. Anyway, he didn't want to hear about the fine print. So he signed and initialed the papers while sitting on the PATH train back to New York from Weehawken.
Excerpted from A Young Man's Guide to Late Capitalism by Peter Mountford. Copyright 2011 by Peter Mountford. Excerpted by permission of Mariner Books, a division of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved.
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Monday, April 25, 2016
A Walk in the Woods
In his middle age, Bill Bryson developed the urge to hike the Appalachian Trail. The Trail runs from Georgia to Maine through the hills and mountains along the East Coast of the USA. It is more than 2000 miles long. In some places it is well maintained and in others, not so much. Most of it is up and down and, although many start out, few complete the whole trail in one trip.
Bryson hiked quite a bit when he lived in England. But the Appalachian Trail is not a pleasant stroll through settled and tamed countryside. It goes through rugged wilderness, with amenities few and far between.
Not wanting to tackle this wilderness alone, Bryson searched in vain for a friend to accompany him. He failed to find anyone until a very old friend from back home in Iowa got in touch with him. Stephen Katz needed to get away from troubles at home and offered to go with Bryson on his hike. Bryson had his doubts as Katz was known to be a drinker and he didn't think Katz was up to it. But Katz was the only one who was willing and so they started out down in Georgia.
Hiking with a loaded pack on steep grades is a real challenge. Both of the men were suffering the first few days, Katz especially. Bryson would often sit alongside the trail, waiting for Katz to catch up. They were frequently passed by younger, fitter hikers but they kept on. They kept on through the rain, through the snow, through the mud and dirt and later on, the clouds of annoying bugs. But at the end of their hike, they asked themselves, "Why?' And that's when they couldn't come up with a good enough answer and went home.
Altogether, Bryson walked about 800 miles, Katz somewhat less. And although they didn't do the whole distance, they still felt like they had accomplished something: they hiked the Appalachian Trail.
This was a fun read. Bryson has a great sense of humor and doesn't mind laughing at himself and the world around him. He also gives the reader a real sense of what it is like to be on the trail and the struggles associated with such a grand undertaking. He gives a bit of history of the Trail and the locale and how development has or hasn't affected not only the Trail but the surrounding area. Particularly interesting is the story of Centralia, Pennsylvania, the town that is perpetually on fire. Bryson has wide ranging interests and is a very intelligent man and his books are always informative without being stuffy and are seasoned nicely with humor.
For another review, see https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/05/31/reviews/980531.31garner.html
Posted by Leesa Dee at 1:29 PM No comments:
Labels: Bryson, good read, memoir, nature, nonfiction
Sunday, April 17, 2016
Is There a Doctor in the Zoo?
Even as a small child, David Taylor wanted to care for wild animals, to treat their wounds and cure their ills. Encouraged by his loving grandmother, together they launched him on his career as a vet who specializes in exotic animals.
Taylor got his professional start in a small two-man practice with a veterinarian who also had a zoo as a client. This man sort of inherited the zoo as a client and it was not a particularly important part of his practice. In fact, he was often called in as a mere formality so the zoo keepers could claim that the animal was attended to by the vet before it died.
But Taylor wanted to learn how to take proper care of the zoo creatures, not just be there as a last resort when all else had failed the zoo keepers. To that end, he embarked on a course of self-education, learning all he could from the keepers and other experts on the medical care of exotic creatures, everything from irascible parrots, unpredictable monkeys and apes, giant snakes, zebras, camels, seals and even dolphins and porpoises.
This book is the sequel to his first book, Zoo Vet. Although, time wise, it comes first as it details his efforts to become an expert in the care and treatment of zoo animals. Dr. Taylor has an excellent sense of humor and no problem poking fun at himself in his often messy and painful encounters with his animal patients. I especially enjoyed his description of how he freed a dugong that was being held in cruel and inhumane conditions and beaten daily to futilely provoke it into weeping, as its keeper thought that dugong tears were a cure for impotence. Even more amazing was the revenge he enacted on a bunch of drug runners who were torturing a poor animal for their simple-minded amusement. That episode alone made the whole book for me. The rest was just icing on a very tasty cake.
Posted by Leesa Dee at 8:35 AM No comments:
Labels: animals, Britain, good read, memoir, Taylor (David)
Friday, April 08, 2016
Andy & Don
Andy Griffith and Don Knotts were both sons of the South. Andy grew up in North Carolina and Don in West Virginia. Andy had a fairly normal childhood, even if his parents weren't wealthy. He was a bit of a momma's boy and remained close to his mother his whole life. Don, on the other hand, had a miserable childhood, tormented by his alcoholic and mentally ill father. He was also plagued by illness and grew up to be a bit of a hypochondriac.
Both boys were drawn to the stage. Andy had a fine singing voice and he played a musical instrument. He also had the gift of storytelling, starting out his show biz career with humorous monologues. His success with the monologues led to jobs in theater and in movies.
Don started out as a ventriloquist and served in the military as an entertainer. After leaving the military, he got work on a radio show and eventually came to work with Andy Griffith, first in the Broadway play, No Time for Sergeants, and went on to also appear in the film version with Griffith.
The two men became close friends and when Griffith was offered his own show, Don called him up and suggested that Sheriff Andy needed a deputy sidekick, namely Don Knotts himself. Andy thought it was a great idea and so Don and Andy embarked on the roles that would win them fame and a lasting audience of enthusiastic fans even decades later.
This was a really interesting book, a story of a lifelong friendship with a bit of ego and rivalry thrown in for leavening. The Andy Griffith Show wasn't on TV for a really long time, about eight years, but the characters of Andy Taylor and Barney Fife are part of American history now. However, this book isn't about just the TV show. It covers the span of both men's lives, their ups and downs, their failures and successes, personal and professional.
It was quite an enthralling read and I appreciate the amount of research the author put into the work, even taking the time to note discrepancies in different versions of events. Fan of Andy and Don and of their work will surely enjoy this quite engaging biography of these two giants of Show Business.
Friday, April 01, 2016
Red Rising
Darrow is a miner on Mars. Just a teen, he is really good at his job. His people are the Reds. Their society is divided into classes labeled by colors. Reds are at the bottom, Golds are at the top.
The miners are working to terraform Mars for colonists from Earth. They have been at this task for several hundred years. What they have not been told is that Mars has been terraformed. It now has cities, farms, forests, rivers, lakes, rain, all the good stuff. For some reason, the Reds are kept as virtual slaves in the mines, starved and deprived and deceived.
Darrow's young wife Eo wants better for her people. She tries to inspire Darrow but he is not interested in rebellion until Eo is put to death.
Darrow ends up in the hands of Ares, a rebel group. Since he is one of the best of the Red class, their plan is to transform him into a Gold and place him in Gold society to hopefully bring justice to the downtrodden Reds.
He undergoes extensive surgeries and education and is given a phony background and is placed for an entrance exam to the most elite Gold school. He passes all the tests and is admitted to the school.
School is not what he expected. Instead of classes and tests and books, he and his fellow students are set up in castles in a wilderness and told they have to rule and conquer each other. So Darrow and his classmates go to war against each other in a struggle for dominance and survival.
Darrow's goal is to succeed and go on to be a force for good for his people. He feels to accomplish this he has to come out on top. But he is up against very stiff competition, Gold students who are as athletic, ruthless, intelligent and driven as he is. May the best man win, eh?
This is another entry in the science fiction teen vs teen genre, i.e. Hunger Games and Divergent and Maze Runner, none of which I have read because teenage dystopian novels don't interest me. And now I wish I hadn't read this entry to the genre because, once Darrow enters the "school," it is just battles and brutality. Lots of people love that sort of thing. Not me.
It's a pretty good story, even if I hated it. My problem is the subject matter, not the writing itself. He tells a good story, exciting and engaging and surprising. But I got so tired of the constant battles that I started skipping past those parts. It's not a bad read or even just a fair read but I will not be reading the next book in the series. It's just not for me.
For another review, see http://www.fantasybookreview.co.uk/Pierce-Brown/Red-Rising.html.
Posted by Leesa Dee at 9:19 AM No comments:
Labels: Brown (Pierce), fiction, good read, science fiction, young adult
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Back in May 2016, the Homeless Congress and the women living in the "House of Payne" (the only shelter for single women in Cleveland) testified for change. The Homeless Congress had passed a resolution (without any opposition) in September 2015 for a series of 12 items that they wanted to see changed at the Women's Shelter. We posted those potential solutions on our website here.
At the hearing we offered four items recommended by a dozen women living in the shelter which could be accomplished on that day to dramatically improve the County funded shelter.
1. Fire/Transfer the current supervisor at the shelter who everyone agrees creates a hostile work environment. Sometimes one staff can dramatically change a congregate living environment. There is one staff currently working at the shelter who has been a regular subject of complaints, grievances and heartache and needs to be placed in a position that does not involve client interactions. She tortures these women and embarrasses them regularly. Everyone knows who she is because her name comes up at the Homeless Congress regularly. Her leaving the shelter would go along way to healing some of the problems. Transfer her to some place where she does not come in contact with Frontline clients in the next few days.
2. All grievances submitted will get a written reply in five business days. This seems like it should already happen, but it never does. Residents would have more confidence in the oversight of the shelter if they got something meaningful back in writing when they complained.
3. All stay in notes from health professionals will be respected and not questioned. There will be no further sending them to Care Alliance for a second opinion or excuses that there are not enough staff so they limit the number of people who are allowed to stay inside. The men's shelter does not limit the number of stay ins, so why does the women's shelter violate the fair housing rights of these women? The staff will make this happen and if there is not space will work to transfer the overflow including transportation to a more appropriate facility in the community.
4. Every discharge will be in writing including those forced to be out until 9:30 p.m. (the "time out" policy in which they miss dinner). This was already mandated by the County, but it is never enforced. We want to see something in writing to every single person discharged from the shelter for any reason so that there is something to file a specific grievance. There needs to be more documentation and more professionalism in the discharges at the women's shelter.
The shelter staff who testified at the County hearing in May said that they already did #2-#4. This is contradicted by the residents of the shelter, and NEOCH cannot find evidence that these three items are in place. NEOCH has submitted hundreds of grievances on behalf of the women and have rarely seen a written response. Nearly every night, women are punished or discharged and they never get anything in writing, and medical notes are only accepted if the shelter has the space to serve the women or does not require they get a secondary notes.
But this week, the shelter took action to accomplish #1, and let go the staff who is the subject of the most grievances. NEOCH and the women thank the staff at Frontline Services for working to improve the shelter with the removal of this one staff. This staff was regularly humiliating the women including in front of church groups and was the subject of complaints from other staff. We only asked that she be transferred somewhere else to do paperwork in a back office, but the shelter evidently terminated her employment. We posted a picture of our friend, Loh (who some suspect might be an undercover superhero and this picture might give some clues to her alter ego) who has led the efforts to remove inappropriate staff from the shelter. Loh has railed against staff who bully the residents and should not be around the public in any capacity. Loh has regularly testified before County Council about the shelter and filed many many complaints especially against supervisory staff who do nothing. Loh was recently assaulted at the shelter and got very little help from staff. Loh has spoken to Shelter administrators, the ADAMHS Board, County staff and reported to the Homeless Congress. Loh has gone above and beyond to improve the conditions at the women's shelter and this week, this resident of the shelter helped to improve the House of Payne. The women were so happy to hear that this staff person had been escorted out of the shelter and they thank Loh for leading the efforts.
This is real progress that we have not seen for a decade. Many on the Council, especially Jack Schron, did not like one non-profit (NEOCH) criticizing the hiring practices or personnel decisions of another non-profit (Frontline Services). Here is Schron's comments at the hearing.
"Well, just as a business person, I would hope that you are not going to transfer your obligations for firing or hiring or transferring [staff]. That is ultimately managements responsibility, you have to make that call, you might not do a good job of it, but that is only a recommendation that it seems to me you can never give up that obligation."
The Council were certainly not going to tell a contract agency to fire or move one staff, and in the most litigious society to ever exist, how could they? But in a larger sense how different would One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest have been if some medical professional had just said, "Hey, Nurse Ratched needs to be fired?" How much better would we have all been if someone at Marymount Hospital or the Cincinnati VA hospital had said, "You know Donald Harvey gives me the creeps when he is around dying patients, we should let him go?" Or how many problems could be reduced if we could easily weed out police who feel it is appropriate to chase at high speed two unarmed people from the shelter through downtown to East Cleveland and then shoot them dead or speed up within a foot of a possible shooter and just kill a citizen with a toy gun? Sometimes one person in the wrong job can poison the entire environment of a workplace.
We know that Loh's campaign to reform the shelter will be improved after this one staff person was let go this week. We have to also thank Council President Dan Brady who said positive things at the May Homeless Congress, and said that there is a County investigation committee to look at the Women's Shelter. He committed to living by the Homeless Congress's deadline of improving the shelter by September 2016 and said, "There is a history, in general, that directors of departments are not encouraged to be forthcoming about information with legislative bodies." Rest easy tonight, Loh, you have accomplished what NEOCH and many others have not been able to do for a decade--improve the women's shelter.
Brian Davis
Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry.


text: Born in Germany in 1943, Jil Sander studied textile design and worked as a fashion editor for a German women's magazine before opening her first boutique in Hamburg in 1967. The fashion house Jil Sander GmbH was founded in 1978, but her minimalist designs originally failed to impress during the extravagant era of the late 70s/early 80s. It wasn't until the 1990s that her designs began to attract the attention they deserved.Today Jil Sander retails across the globe, with flagship stores in Paris, Tokyo and Hong Kong and her own Jil Sander perfume range. Her debut men's fragrance, Jil Sander for Men, was originally launched in 1979 and still retails very successfully to this day.


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PPC Training – Google Adwords Training
Pay Per Click (PPC) Training Program
"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.
Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."
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Our 3 Day "On-site Program" is unique in that we train you
on what is current and not a hashed eBook or eCourse
that is yesterday's information.
The following is an overview of our extensive 3 Day PPC Training Program:
|Day 1
8:30am – 4:30pm
Pay Per Click – Then & Now
Market Research
Keyword Research
Advanced Keyword Research
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8:30am – 4:30pm
|Google Quality Score (QS)
Proper Setup of an Adwords
Search Network VS Content Network
Developing High Converting
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through creating a campaign from start to finish.We find this to
be the best use of time.
** Our PPC Training Agenda is customized to
reflect your business, team & budget.


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Eat Your Fruits and Veggies for Healthier Hair
Eating fruits and vegetables may contribute to healthier hair. Many citrus fruits (such as oranges, lemons, and grapefruit), darkly pigmented fruits (such as cherries, blueberries, cranberries, pomegranates, raspberries and plums), and vegetables (like broccoli, greens, and peas) are rich in Vitamin C and bioflavonoids, many of which are antioxidants. Antioxidants help to increase circulation to the scalp which encourages hair growth.
There are many ways to add fruits and vegetables to your diet including eating fresh fruits and vegetables, drinking nutritional juices, eating dried fruits, and taking nutritional supplements. Some of my favorite ways to add fruits and vegetables to my diet are as follows:
Fresh salads with lots of dark green leafy vegetables. My local grocery store carries "Fresh Express" salads in a bag. I look for the ones with dark green leafy vegetables. I open the bag, dump it in a bowl, add chopped tomatoes, sunflower seeds, a little parmesan cheese, and my favorite salad dressing. This makes a tasty side dish that is rich in antioxidants and good for the hair.
A bowl of hot oatmeal with lots of dried fruit. My favorite way to do this is to prepare some organic quick cooking oatmeal with an equal amount of dried fruit rich in antioxidants like. It makes a tasty breakfast treat, rich in antioxidants, and hair healthy.


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Numero Dos- E-bikes
We have the opportunity to be a dealer for a new-to-the-US brand of e-bikes...which sparked our interest in the topic in general. By and large we support e-bikes in a big way as they apply to the transportation cycling segment. We've been a Stromer dealer for a couple of years now. Their bikes are excellent. Beautiful to look at, seamless ride quality and industry-leading from a technical perspective.
The problem, or I should say hurdle is cost. The ST1 bare bones is about $3,499. Get it with lights/rack and fenders (Items that make it a functional transportation bicycle) and you're being pushed into the $4k range before tax.
Welp, just learned to never draft while in the blog app itself…lost an hour's worth of writing. Oh well, so I'm going to bang out where I left off:
Long story short here's some reasons to give the 'Ol e-bike a chance, it may take you by surprise:
WIND- Windy days on a bike blow real hard (see what I did there?). Doubly so when you're hauling a load or destined for hilly terrain. E-bikes balance your output. So it doesn't matter if it's blowing at 20mph and you have to bring a bag of heavy tools to your buddy's house 8 miles away, uphill. You're going to make it there in the same time as if you were load-free, going downhill.
RAIN- Rain gear sucks, no two ways about it. Especially when it's hot out. Same as above, the output balance is a real game changer. No more showing up looking like a drowned rat (either from rain or from sweat).
SNOW- Similar in thought to rain. Winter riding involves a daily algorithm of what layers to consider. That formula uncomplicates itself DRAMATICALLY if you have the even output of an e-bike.
SICKNESS- Let's face it, we're all human and when you're under the weather hopping on your bike for a 6 mile commute kinda sucks. With an e-bike, it's not so bad. The fresh air might even improve your mood once you drag ass-outside.
All of these examples are extra bonus happy times if you are car-light or car-free and you're forced on the bike certain days/situations.
TRAFFIC- I feel a bit more comfortable traveling at or near urban traffic speeds (~20mph). Everything seems to happen a little less dramatically. When you you're being buzzed at differential speeds of 20-30mph it can get nerve racking at times. Also, drivers tend to respond better to taking the lane or merging for a turn when you're closer to their traveling speed.
GRANT PETERSEN- Says that you shouldn't get wooed into the murderous rocky coast by the sirens of e-bike land. Don't listen to him; he's just having a tough time shedding the last of his suffer-fest persona from racing (Normally we say his words are gospel).
IT'S CHEATING- Don't be a wanker, OK? If you're one of those self-hating train-till-you-drop Cat5 racers spouting rhetoric about how e-bikes skirt the purest forms of biking I can guarantee you three things:
1. You're doing it wrong
2. You're ripe for therapy sessions
3. See #1
RIDING EVERY DAY- You don't have to throw away your other bikes. I still ride my other bikes plenty. This frustrates me as much as the notion that either you commute every day of the year or nothing. Enjoy the fruits of variety my friends, the world is your oyster.
Here's to hoping this post has you considering why e-bikes make a lot of sense for transportation cycling.
In my original draft (that I lost) I had figured out a clever way to plug our friend Mario who owns/runs Natural Pet Foods on Clinton Ave. I can't remember how I did it and I don't care to try and re-create that thought. Go buy your pet food there, he's real people.
Oh and here's the brand, Blix, that we are considering stocking. Comes in around half, plus a little, the cost of a Stromer.
Post-post editorial correction- Our apologies. Mr. Petersen is indeed pro-ebike; with the exception being kids and trail riding (We're of the same opinion). Yahoo!!


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Ogemaw County CASA Ogemaw County CASA
Here's a sample of our volunteer opportunities:VIEW AS
Mission Statement
To promote the best interest of children in the Family Court system by providing a trained CASA volunteer to act as a consistent voice to the court, to provide a safe, loving and permanent home.
Ogemaw County CASA represents concerned and caring court appointed advocates for the families in our community. We are a community based organization with well trained, informed, and caring volunteers. We hold a responsibility to the children in our community, while striving for the ideal world in a realistic manner. Our advocates are positive, committed, caring, loving listeners, that believe that every child should have a safe, loving, permanent home based on solid morals and values.
This information
Might be out of date
Do you work for this organization?
Request administrator status and update its information!


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Customer Service Centres
Our Customer Service Centres were created with a complex service of travellers in mind. Where can you find them? Why are they worth visiting? Check out the newest information.
Customer Service Centres (CSCs) are places providing a complex service. In modern and air-conditioned rooms, nice and professional staff will sell you a ticket, help you to plan your travel and advise what offers you can use to make your travel cheaper.
At the CSCs you can buy tickets for all our trains in national and international communication. You can pay in cash as well as by a payment card (VISA and MASTERCARD). At the Customer Service Centre you can also place a complaint in person.
Our Customer Service Centres are currently situated in the following localisations (as at 21.12.2017):
- Gdansk Main Station (ul. Podwale Grodzkie 1, 80-895 Gdansk), open 7 days a week 8:40 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.
- Poznan Main Station (ul. Dworcowa 2, 61-801 Poznan), open 7 days a week 08:15 a.m. - 7:35 p.m
- Wroclaw Main Station (ul. Piłsudskiego 105, 50-085 Wroclaw), open 7 days a week 07:50 a.m. - 7:10 p.m.
- Warsaw Central Station (al. Jerozolimskie 54, 00-024 Warszawa), open 7 days a week 09:10 a.m. - 8:30 p.m.
- Katowice Station (Pl. Szewczyka 2, 40-437 Katowice), open 7 days a week 7:30 a.m. - 6:50 p.m.
- Krakow Main Station (ul. Pawia 5a, 31-154 Kraków), open 7 days a week 9:00 a.m. - 8:20 p.m
- Warsaw West Station ( Al. Jerozolimskie 142A, 02-305 Warsaw), open from Monday to Friday 8:10 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.


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Twenty-three schools under the aegis of the BIRDS (Brihanmumbai Interschool Republic Day Committee) came together to celebrate Republic Day with a spectacular parade at Bandra Bandstand. Schools from all over Mumbai marched to the beat of different school bands. St. Stanislaus High School, which has the only NCC squad in Bandra, was represented by the NCC cadets of the school. Our band, trained by bandmaster Rohan Luhera , added music and rhythm to the marchpast. The marchpast was followed by colourful floats and our Stanislites enthralled the audience with a superb Malkhamb display. The Malkhamb students are trained by Mr Yatin Nachare
The distinguished guests at the function were Vice Admiral A.B. Singh, Chief of Staff, Western Naval Command, Consul General of Sri Lanka, Mrs Saroja Sirisena, Bishop John Rodrigues, Poonam Mahajan, MP, Ashish Shelar MLA, Asif Zakaria, Municipal Corporator H ward and a galaxy of other dignitaries.


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Our Top 10 Tips For Naming Your Business
There's nothing tougher than figuring out those couple of words that describe your business. For some of you, your business is your dream, your lifesaver, your passion, what gets you up in the morning. How the heck are you supposed to name something so important and feel confident in your decision?
We're here to help if you're ready to put pen to paper and name your baby: your brand, business or website. From working with countless companies and learning great strategy about how companies communicate with their audience, we've learned how to avoid common mistakes.
Here's the roundup of our top 10 tips for naming your business so you can confidently start a memorable, sticky business name that will convert a passive audience to loyal customers.
01 – Keep it short and simple. If people can't say or read your business name quickly, it's not going to be effective. (PRO TIP: We feel the same about your Brand Bio. Get our formula here.)
02 – Make sure it's available. Check to make sure the name hasn't been trademarked yet. Check to make sure the domain is still available. Check to make sure the handles aren't taken. That's just three quick searches that can save you from a lot of headaches down the road after finding out someone already had the same idea.
03 – Make sure your product or service is in the name. At the very least, people should be able to tell what you do or what you sell with this name.
04 – Alliteration can be your best friend. Want your business name to sound silky smooth? Stick with words that start with the same letter for automatic flow when you say or read your business name.
05 – Use a name that can grow with you and your business. Do you have big dreams or see yourself expanding your services in the future? Or, better yet, do you know that you're going to narrow down and find a specific niche? Save yourself the headache of starting from scratch with a name that can scale as you grow or specialize.
06 – Decide your name versus a company name. Generally, we recommend if YOU are the most important piece behind your brand, consider that in the name. However, if your product or service is the more important piece behind your brand, consider that. (PRO TIP: if you're planning on growing into a team, consider the fact that some people would rather work for a company name than someone's name.)
07 – Avoid cheesy titles and names. Think lactose-free & stay away from too much cheese. Being too cheesy or kitschy can cheapen your product, brand or service.
08 – Consider how it looks when it's typed out. If you squint, do you get funky words in the middle? Suddenly a great company called Candles Cares reads Candle Scares in a domain name (www.candlescares.com).
09 – Make it easy to remember and easy to spell. Test it out on your grandma. If she can't remember the name or how to spell it the next day, the general public won't be able to either.
10 – Get inspired by your brand's benefits. Still stumped on a name? Start listing the benefits your product or service will provide to your customer. For example, one of our clients "The Six-Figure Chick" teaches customers how to make more money in their online business, with the ultimate goal or benefit that people will be able to reach six figures after utilizing her services.
Once you have your name, the next big steps we recommend are:
- Nail down your Brand Bio so you can tell people what you do in 5 seconds or less.
Get your site launched & live using one of our easy-peasy website templates.


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A person, known as a plaintiff, must file a legal complaint in the appropriate court to sue someone. However, prior to filing a complaint, the plaintiff must hire a lawyer, determine the grounds on which to sue, pick a court that has jurisdiction, choose between civil and small claims courts, and determine whether he can ultimately collect any judgement entered in his favor, explains Nolo.
A complaint is typically the first document filed in a court case, notes FindLaw. In it, the plaintiff outlines the case against the defendant, including the identities of the parties involved, the facts of the case, the legal grounds for the dispute and the legal basis authorizing the court to hear the matter. The plaintiff files the complaint with the court to start the lawsuit.
The plaintiff is also responsible for serving a copy of the complaint on the defendant before the case can proceed. A summons usually accompanies the copy of the complaint that tells the defendant when to appear in court regarding the matter, explains FindLaw. The plaintiff can serve these documents on the defendant personally or hire a third-party company to handle the task. The plaintiff must provide proof of service to the court before it hears the case.


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Residential Architecture in North Laguna: New Renderings
As construction kicks off at one site in Woods Cove, Laguna Beach, zoning plan check drawings have been submitted for our North Laguna residential redesign and addition.
In the coming weeks, we'll be revisiting the 3d model to develop the interiors, refine details, and finalize material options.
View conceptual floor plans and a glimpse of the process at a previous post.


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Spring is here and I've been a busy bee. Working on a ton of new little (and big) paintings. Think moths, dark butterflies, galaxies, scarabs, bones, and celestial mermaids. I'm pretty excited.
^^ Priming things. Sorry for the terrible phone quality. Yuck.
^^ She has her own window, but she prefers mine for some reason. I think it's because she likes looking at herself in the mirror. She knows she's gorgeous.
^^ This little guy is dry so I could finally scan him. Prints soon!
^^ Found this black Victorian frame in Houston. Love love love. I need to pick up more.
^^ Found this sweet note in my shop reviews. So lovely. <3
^^ These Elie Saab dresses may or may not have influenced my celestial mermaid paintings I'm currently working on (they did).
Stay tuned for in progress pieces. Oh, I'm also going on a mini trip to OKC in April for family and the arts festival. I love spring. <3


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4 June 2013 at 4.45pm | Comment on this article
Scotland is rather interested in Scottishness these days. When independence talk is in the air, now is a good time to call on Sir Walter Scott, the man who told 19th-century Scots how they should think of their history, and wrote it himself.
Scott's novels and poems took Europe by storm. More than two dozen operas were inspired by Scott, the first of which was Rossini's La donna del lago, which had its premiere 1819. Scott's original poem, The Lady of the Lake, encapsulates his uncanny ability to spin a story with which he can paint a vast landscape so natural that it seems to have been there all along – misty and dark, thrilling and dangerous.
Now is just the right moment to recover for opera audiences the cultural significance of the poem. It is much more than a drama of love, says John Fulljames, whose new Royal Opera's production of La donna del lago is currently on stage at Covent Garden. 'The Lady of the Lake is about King James's crowning, his legitimacy and his right to rule. We are talking about how we tell the national story.'
In Scott's poem, Elena (Ellen) is the beautiful lady on the island, daughter of the king's sworn enemy, who encounters James V in disguise. She is the agent of reconciliation in the realm, and simultaneously finds love. All ends peacefully, and happily. It is easy to see Scotland herself in the character of Ellen. Scott's desire - in reinventing a blazing history of Highland feuds, warring ambition and passionate love - was to give Scotland confidence in its own story, not to incite rebellion.
In his new production, John Fulljames interprets the piece as being about the making of history:
Scott invites his readers to join him in imagining a national past, constructed partly from landscape and partly from the tokens of history. He argues that a national story is essential, because without one, a nation has no legitimacy and so no stability. Meanwhile the love story offers a rather utopian, fairy-tale view of how political conflict can be resolved into national peace."
So La donna del lago, first and foremost a love story, has made a timely return to Covent Garden. I saw the last production, with Frederica von Stade and Marilyn Horne, in 1985 on one of its rare UK outings. The opera, Rossini at his most gloriously melodic, is perfectly suited to the moment because it reminds us how easily Scott's poetry and prose fitted into the politics of the time.
Elena on her island will emerge on the stage as a figure who carries Scotland with her, its particular story and its myths and legends. La donna del lago is an opera in which atmosphere matters as much as plot.
La donna del lago runs until 11 June. Tickets are sold out though returns may become available.
The production is sponsored by the Peter Moores Foundation and the Friends of Covent Garden with generous philanthropic support from Celia Blakey, Hélène and Jean Peters, Judith Portrait and Susan and John Singer. The Production Director generously supported by Hamish and Sophie Forsyth.


text: Handing the captain's shorts to Simone and the t-shirt to Rea I said, "Ok … I think we should get in. It's too nice of a day. I'm going to swim in what I have one. You may take these if you wish." I held my breath for fear of their reaction and released it when their faces broke into wide smiles.


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Hau'oli Makahiki Hou/
A most Happy New Year to one and all. !1/1/11 ( wow, we are all One, as a friend just reminded me!)
Such a beautiful time of year, a time of letting go of the past and welcoming the future. People tend to set new personal goals at the first of the year. I like to think about what is within my reach that I can re-commit to, and maybe stretch myself a bit as well.
All across the world people celebrate this day with traditions all their own. I saw a Brazilian friend at the beach today. She was practicing her traditional Brazilian ritual of releasing flowers in the ocean for the goddess Yemanja on the first of the year.. (1/1/11) once again!
Much like the tradition in Brazil, local folks in Hawaii also enjoy their fireworks on New Years. Many neighborhoods across our islands spend a few hours on the night of the 31st with all shapes and sizes of rockets, bombs, firecrackers and sparklers.. On the island of Oahu this was the last year for fireworks .Since health and safety issues have been connected with the fireworks free- for- all, there is now a ban in 2011.
Daylight today, Jan 1st, came with clean air and a beautiful pink sunrise. My tradition of a New Year's Day beach walk was as delightful as always. I usually spend the whole day relaxing and swimming, but I made it a short walk instead. Tomorrow I will be going out kayaking with friends to view the humpback whales. A full day out in the water is alot of sun for one weekend. Hopefully we are able to hear their haunting songs and watch their playful antics.
So, Hawaii calls.....it is beautiful, rain or shine.
May your coming year be filled with joy and happiness. May you stretch to reach your own personal goals , may we all respect the earth, and take good care of eachother. Remember, we are all One.
Warmest Alohas,


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Published November 10, 2011
There has for a long time been a misunderstanding within the voiceover industry. Sometimes clients want actors, and sometimes they want models.
As voice talents, we have to determine if we are being asked to be a voice actor or a voice model? There is absolutely nothing wrong with either, but it helps to understand the difference.
What's the difference?
Well, normally we think of a model wearing articles of clothing and showing them off with the attitude the client wants. The model's specialty is to show off the fashion. The voice model is really no different. He/she simply takes the words and shows them off.
Don LaFontaine was a classic voice model. He didn't create characters. He just made words come alive. He was a genius at that. Sam Elliot is a voice model. He doesn't create a character (he is his own character). He just uses his voice to make the words something special.
The voice actor, on the other hand, takes the words and creates a character; he/she breathes life into the words to make them more than words. With a great voice actor, the words become emotion, and color, and texture.
The examples of voice actors are innumerable. Personally, I think Tom Kane and Roberta Solomon are the ultimate examples. Each of them can do the voice modeling thing, but when called on to create character with the copy…emotion…a sense of attachment, they are the best.
Now please understand that I could have listed pages and pages of voice talents that excel as actors and models. I simply don't have the time and space to do that here. But my point is that sometimes the client wants a voice model, and sometimes the client wants a voice actor. As a voice talent, it's my job to figure what my client wants.
However, there is that little limitation of "the writing." It is the very thing that allows great stage and screen actors to excel…or bomb. On a much smaller scale, the same principle is true in the VO industry.
I'm always somewhat amused and frustrated when clients say something like, "It's really dry copy, so you need to bring it to life." Really? Isn't that sort of like trying to inflate a popped balloon? I mean, I'll give you my best shot, and color the key words and phrases, but dry copy is, well…dry copy. It is what it is.
Aside from that, it's my responsibility as a voice talent to figure out if my client is looking to show off the words, or to take the words and create a character that evokes emotion.
Let me give you an example of what I'm talking about. Generally, car commercials are voice modeling. I have a number of car dealer clients that just want me to show off their words. And that's what works for them! Why try to make it anything other than what it is? On the other hand, hospitals generally want me to create some emotion with their words and thoughts. That's voice acting.
So, as a client, are you looking for a voice model or a voice actor? As a voice talent, can you differentiate between the two?
Each has its strengths. It's just a matter of determining what works best.


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Geographical entities
|Countries, regions, river basins
|Water resources
|Water uses
|Irrigation and drainage
|Institutional framework
|Other themes
Information type
|Summary tables
|Maps and spatial data
Info for the media
|Did you know...?
|Visualizations and infographics
|SDG Target 6.4
|UNW Briefs
|Latest version (5.0)
|Irrigation by country
|Map quality
|Map in Google Earth
|Interactive map
The data layer on area equipped for irrigation was developed by combining sub-national irrigation statistics with geospatial information on the position and extent of irrigation schemes to compute the fraction of 5 arc minute cells that was equipped for irrigation, which is called irrigation density. The figure below gives a schematic overview of the methodology:
In the following, we provide a concise description of the mapping methodology. A detailed description is given in Siebert et al. (2005).
Irrigation statistics for sub-national units (e.g. districts, counties, provinces, governorates, river basins), from national census surveys and from reports available at FAO, World Bank and other international organizations, are being collected on a continuous basis. For most of the countries, these statistics refer to the area equipped for irrigation. Due to several reasons (e.g. crop rotation, water shortages, and damage of infrastructure) the area actually irrigated maybe significantly lower than the area equipped for irrigation. However, some countries only report the area that was actually irrigated in the year of the census. Statistics for the year closest to 2005 were used if statistics for more than one year were available. For countries, where the irrigation statistics reported by the AQUASTAT database were assumed to be more representative, the collected subnational statistics were scaled so that the sum of the irrigated area equals the area equipped for irrigation as given by AQUASTAT at the country level.
In order to distribute irrigated area within the sub-national units, geospatial information on position and extent of irrigated areas was derived by digitizing hundreds of irrigation maps available in reports of FAO, World Bank, irrigation associations or national ministries of agriculture. Additionally, information from several atlases or inventories based on remote sensing available in digital format was utilized. For most of the countries, more than one data source was used.
As the relevance and reliability of the maps varies, it was necessary to decide which geospatial record should be used in a specific sub-national unit. This was realized by applying a priority level to each record. Only if the extent of all digitized irrigated areas with the highest priority level was smaller than the total irrigated area reported for the specific sub-national unit, also records with the second highest priority were considered. This distribution process was repeated down to the next lower priority level until the sum of irrigated area in the map was equal to the irrigated area in the sub-national statistics. Several different criteria have been used to assign priorities to geospatial information, for example:
In many sub-national units, lack of geospatial information on irrigation made it necessary to use indirect information to infer areas within the sub-national unit where irrigation is probable. Such information includes areas where the main irrigated crops are grown, or cultivated areas in very arid regions. For arid regions, remote sensing data were additionally used to verify the available maps. If no direct or indirect information about the spatial distribution of irrigation within a sub-national unit was available, irrigated area was distributed according to one of two global landcover datasets (USGS-GLCC-2.0 and JRC-GLC2000)
Statistics on area equipped for irrigation with groundwater, with surface water or with water derived from non-conventional sources and on area actually irrigated were collected from national census reports or online data bases and complemented with country information available from the FAO-AQUASTAT library, data collected by other international organizations or statistical services (e.g. Eurostat) or data taken from the literature.
In many countries different ministries are responsible to collect, process, and provide data on area equipped for irrigation, area actually irrigated or on the water source for irrigation resulting in different reference years and different resolution of the statistics. We used the following rules for the selection of statistics used for this data set and to fill data gaps:
For most of the countries the data reported at the level of subnational administrative units were not further disaggregated (except of a few countries for which borehole inventories were used). This results in equal values of the percentage of area actually irrigated or the percentage of the different water sources for all pixels belonging to the same subnational administrative unit.
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Your business will face multiple crossroads where you'll have to decide if "best practices" are really what's best for you (and your customers).
We faced a recent conundrum of this sort in regard to content: is it really the right approach for us to gate some of our resources behind opt-in pages?
If you aren't knee deep in marketing every day of the week, using an "opt-in page" simply means putting a piece of content behind a gate, that only opens when a reader enters their email. Upon doing so, their email is also added to your newsletter (you should always tell people when this is the case).
Our company is built on content. Doing right by customers has been the strategy that has carried our business to where it is today. Needless to say, we take content very seriously.
We're a company that truly believes in looking after customers. We want ease of use and long-term value for each piece of content we create, and the resources we put out need to reflect that.
The always-articulate Seth Godin has written a succinct summary of what we're after:
"Working to maximize the short-term value of each transaction rarely scales. If you hoard information, for example, today your prospects will simply click and find it somewhere else."
Our marketing strategy is driven by the customer experience, not by "growth hawking." We believe companies should be about fewer games, fewer hoops, and more value. We feel like open content speaks to that.
I'd love to fill you in on the details. Below I'll explain what our thinking was, and why we decided to move away from our tried-and-true gated pages to 'open' resources for all.
The Genesis of Our Resource Page
It began as I'm sure many do—we wanted to have that little something extra to show our appreciation for folks kind enough to give our newsletter a chance. As it was just finding its legs at the time, it made sense to add an element of exclusivity for people who chose to follow along via our preferred medium.
Truth be told, it worked well then and it certainly works well now. Email is a channel guarded like few others, and word gets around fast if your company is overly aggressive or irresponsible with people's emails.
Word-of-mouth certainly affected us, but in the best way possible—people couldn't stop talking about the "beautifully designed eBooks housed Help Scout's site," and on customer service no less!
From a strategic standpoint, they helped us establish an early footing for our blog. As we managed to land on great business sites like FastCompany and Copyblogger, we found having an incentive to offer their readers far and away outperformed linking to our homepage and hoping for the best (example below).
Building a resource page, with a multitude of meticulously designed eBooks, also served to win over those on the fence about subscribing to a new blog. I've personally received dozens of emails that have read: "We found you guys through [X resource], and have been reading the blog ever since!"
Long story short, putting some of our best content behind gated pages allowed us to offer a win-win outcome for readers, and it aided in growing our newsletter from a barren wasteland to over 30,000 subscribers in 12 months.
These weren't "bribes," they were bonuses, and qualifiers that sorted out people who were truly interested in customer service content that was a bit different than what was out there. If you were willing to enter your email to get great customer service information, it was obvious that our blog would be to your liking.
With such glowing praise for the old style of our resource page (we'd recommend it to all budding startups), one has to ask—why the change?
Storm the Gates: Content Open for All
The transition to open resources, once the topic had been up for debate, honestly came down to a few simple arguments.
We felt like we were evolving from a rookie blog to a fairly established online presence. In the beginning, blogging was this crazy experiment for us, and we were nobody. It made sense to focus on building our newsletter with opt-in pages, because without an email list as a foundation, our other marketing options were limited (as it turns out, ranking for tough keywords without an army of loyal readers is kinda difficult!).
There comes a time, however, when you need to stop obsessing over "the metagame." In competitive games, the metagame is defined as the current environment of best practices for top players. Expert chess players have confessed that one can become quite good at chess just through memorization. Many books on chess for beginners thus curiously read like playbooks.
The problem is that you can never be great at chess (or anything else) by mimicking someone else's innovation. World-class chess players often criticize this obsession with memorization, because it isn't about understanding the moves, it's just about copying them.
Inbound marketing has the same problem—there's a sea of people copying the current metagame, but those who are winning big are those who are doing what nobody expects.
What got you here won't always get you there, and it began to dawn on us that it was time to stop following the current trends and start writing our own playbook.
All things considered, we had four important reasons why we believe un-gating our eBooks is one move that will take our business to the next level.
- Our priorities have changed. You'll never hear me utter these words: "Okay, that's enough newsletter subscribers!" But honestly, we have grown to a point where things like guest posts don't offer the returns they used to. We needed to turn inward, and start doing things on site that brought our ideas and reach to a whole new level. Making each resource available without a single hoop felt like a step in the right direction, strategically.
- It's on-brand for us. Your brand is what customers think of you, not what you think of you. We value ease of use and our goal with content is to empower every company with strategies to provide better service. Open content feels like "us," and making it easily accessible aligns better with our goals for a universal lift in service quality (a rising tide lifts all boats).
- We don't have sales people. No slight to sales teams, but entering your email on our site will never end in a call from me (slick backed hair and a business card in hand). We're high touch for service, but traditional selling just isn't a part of our strategy at the moment. Our email is used to deliver content only, so why bother with gates now that we have a large newsletter?
- The long term value of reciprocity. That's a subject we tackle a lot on this blog—the practice of giving without an ulterior motive and allowing the goodwill to make its way back to us. We believe open resources will accomplish that. This is an ongoing experiment that I'd love to update you on, but the gut feeling is that the love comes back tenfold when you give and ask for nothing in return (even a simple email sign up).
Last but not least, you'll have to allow me to brag on our designer, Jared McDaniel, here: these new resources are straight up beautiful!
Why show them to newsletter subscribers only? Sure, we do have a small army of 35,000+ people, but one golden rule of content is if 10,000 people love it, 100,000 people will love it. Once the traction is there, it's just about scaling up to a new audience. Your job simply becomes getting the content in front of them, and open resources make this much easier.
I'm no mind reader, but at this point in the article I'm pretty sure I can pinpoint your thoughts:
Greg, shut your yap and lemme see these new designs!
I couldn't agree more, so let's begin with a brief description of each resource along with a link to where you can read the full thing, no opt-in required.
75 Customer Service Facts, Quotes and Statistics
Our first resource ever published, this is a collection of some of the classic data that has been published on customer service, loyalty, and retention.
To top if off, we include a few quotes to solidify the major points made by the numbers. If you love writing about customer service, this is a great piece to start with to add a data-driven element to your next article.
10 Unforgettable Customer Service Stories
In a world where marketing departments use terms like campaigns and email blasts, it's nice to step back from the apparent warfare and be reminded of what matters—taking care of customers.
Stories often offer more than just inspiration. Ideas and insights can always be found by examining how the greats create lasting goodwill with their customers.
The Art of Customer Loyalty
Loyalty programs, feedback, personalized service, and increased retention—all important elements of creating "sticky" customer loyalty, and all topics covered in this guide.
A compilation of 2 years of some of our best content from the Help Scout blog, this resource will get you up to speed on the tactics and strategies we value the most.
10 Ways to Convert More Customers (w/ Psychology)
I'll let you in on a little content marketing secret—it is very important to appeal to "affinity" personas with your content. These are the people who care about your topic, but who don't work in the field directly.
We found that marketing managers (the good ones) cared greatly about brand loyalty. Making an eBook all about marketing thus worked very well, because it attracted them to our site, and generally won them over to stick around and learn more about creating customer loyalty.
25 Ways to Thank Your Customers
Watching how customers react on social media to a handwritten note paints a clear picture—in some customers' minds, the simple act of saying thank you is becoming a lost art.
If you need some fresh ideas on how you can let your customers know you appreciate their business, this is the guide you should read.
Acquiring Customers with Email
This is certainly an interesting resource to write about, because I'm pretty sure back then I recommended a gated eBook or two! Times change, but one marketing truth is still certain: email is the channel of choice for businesses who want to make sales, not #hashtags.
We break down how we were able to build up a newsletter of 30,000 subscribers in a paltry 12 months, and what a large (and well cared-for) email list can do for your business.
A Brief Guide to a Better Email
Since so much of your support and communication with customers is done over email, you have to make each message matter.
We teamed up with Chase Clemons, support champion at Basecamp/37 Signals and founder of Support Ops, to showcase the good, the bad, and the ugly in email communication with new and long-term customers.


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Outfit: Sneaks & Stripes
I love love love this outfit! I am all about the comfy/cute most of the time. Give me a pair of jeans, a t-shirt, and my chucks and I'm a happy girl!
This olive Top Shop jacket (similar, but a little more rugged here) is my new favorite wardrobe piece! It goes with so much and is a great little jacket to travel with. I found the cute striped shirt (similar) from my local JCrew Factory store and thought it would be great under this jacket. Really any t-shirt will go good with this!
Shoes are original Chuck Taylors. The necklace and earrings (older style) are both Kendra Scott.
I'd suggest getting this for your closet ASAP ;)
Carly Patterson


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One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.
If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand.
Milton Friedman
Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.
John F. Kennedy
Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress; but I repeat myself.
Mark Twain
Those who stand for nothing fall for anything.
Alexander Hamilton
If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all.
Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky
Politics, it seems to me, for years, or all too long, has been concerned with right or left instead of right or wrong.
Richard Armour
Richard Armour
Bad politicians are sent to Washington by good people who don't vote.
William E. Simon
Do you ever get the feeling that the only reason we have elections is to find out if the polls were right?
Robert Orben


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Mana Pools National Park
About Mana Pools National Park
After Lake Kariba comes the lower Zambezi valley and here you will find the Mana Pools National Park. The river spreads out over a floodplain and forms pools, oxbow lakes and other formations. There are four main pools, with Long Pool being the largest, and lots of smaller ones. The flora and fauna of this area are outstanding and it's a very popular area for either walking safaris or canoe safaris, both excellent ways to get close to the wild animals in a safe way. Bird watchers can try and spot one of the 380 different species of bird including the Livingstone's flycatcher and the banded snake eagle. In the Mana Pools area, you can stay in a traditional safari camp in tents with no electricity or running water, a truly eco-friendly holiday.
Situated in the extreme north of Zimbabwe, Mana Pools is part of the 10,500 square kilometre Parks and Wildlife Estate that runs along the Zambezi River from the Kariba Dam in the west to the Mozambique border in the east.
This unique park has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, based on its wildness and beauty as well as the wide range of large mammals, over 350 bird species and aquatic wildlife. It is a large area is without physical boundaries and the wildlife is free to move throughout the region - even northwards across the Zambezi River into Zambia, where there are also large wilderness areas set aside for wildlife conservation.
Four main pools and several smaller pools are scattered along the river course and the cliffs hanging over the river and floodplains provide shelter to a large and varied wildlife population. The landscape includes islands and sandbanks fringed by dense forests of baobabs and indigenous trees, as well as the rugged Zambezi escarpment. Hippopotamus, crocodiles and a wide variety of aquatic birds are associated with the pools. ''Long Pool'', is the largest of the four pools, extending some six kilometres in a west-east direction. This pool has a large population of hippo and crocodiles and is a favourite for the large herds of elephant that come out of the thickly vegetated areas in the south to drink.
One of Africa's Most Renowned Game-viewing Areas
The park is in a region of the lower Zambezi River in Zimbabwe where the flood plain turns into a broad expanse of lakes after each rainy season. Mana means 'four' in Shona, in reference to the four large permanent pools formed by the meanderings of the middle Zambezi.
As the lakes gradually dry up and recede, the region attracts many large animals in search of water, making it one of Africa's most renowned game-viewing areas. It has the country's biggest concentration of hippopotamuses and crocodiles and large dry season mammal populations of elephant and buffalo.
On the old river terraces, tourists can walk unaccompanied by guides in the open woodland because visibility is good and there is little danger of unexpectedly coming across dangerous animals. Elephant, eland, buffalo, impala, waterbuck, baboons, monkeys, zebra, warthog and hippo are some of the larger herbivores to be seen regularly on the river terraces as they come out to eat the fallen fruit of the tree Faidherbia albida.
Lions, leopards, spotted hyaena and cheetah are present in the area, but their secretive nature makes them more difficult to see. Despite this, it is not often that the visitor leaves Mana Pools without seeing at least one of these large predators.
The Best Time to Visit Mana Pools
For comfort, March to August is perhaps the best time to visit Mana Pools. The temperatures are moderate and the climate is warm and dry. September and October are the best months of the valley for game viewing as the animals come to the river to drink. September is warm and October is hot with clear blue skies. The rainy season from November to February is hot but cooled by frequent thunder storms
Tourist facilities include lodges, a communal campsite with ablution facilities and exclusive campsites where the visitor can be alone.
There are 5 lodges in the Park, all located along the Zambezi River. There are 2 large lodges situated a short distance upstream from Nyamepi Camp, Musangu and Muchichiri. These lodges have a bathroom and shower with hot and cold running water; 2 toilets and a fully kitted kitchen with stove and deep-freeze and all utensils such as cutlery, crockery and cooking utensils. All bedding and towels, etc are supplied. There is a large dining room and lounge, an outside braai area with seating where one can view the river and the wildlife coming down to drink or simply watch the African sun setting over the Zambezi River.
There are also 3 four-bedded lodges, all under thatch. Each lodge has 2 bedrooms with 2 beds each, a shower and toilet and seating areas outside near the Zambezi River. The kitchen is supplied with a deep-freezer, cooker, crockery and cutlery and other cooking implements. Bedding and towels, etc are supplied.
Camping Sites
There is one large communal campsite along the Zambezi River, and a number of exclusive campsites where visitors can ensure their solitude.
Communal Campsite
The Nyamepi Camp camping area located along the Zambezi River is situated near the Mana Pools National Park reception office. Visitors need to bring their own camping equipment, bedding, toiletries, cooking implements, etc. There are ablution blocks nearby with hot and cold running water, flush toilets and laundry basins. Visitors can buy firewood at the reception office, and each campsite has a braai area. This camping ground has 30 sites.
Exclusive Campsites
There are a number of exclusive campsites situated along the Zambezi River. These camps are for the visitor who seeks solitude and who wants to truly experience the wildness and challenges of the bush. There is a braai stand at each site and rudimentary toilet. Water is collected from the river or the reception office. Visitors to these sites need to be fully self-equipped and be able to handle the remoteness and solitude of these unique camps. The camps are only allowed 2 vehicles and 12 persons per stay. Water may be drawn from the river
8 kilometres west of Nyamepi and has 4 secluded camp site
Just over 1 kilometre east of Nymepi and has 1 camp site
Just east of the carpark area and has 2 campsites
A short distance upstream from the lodges has 1 campsite, with cold-water shower, flush toilet and basin and a braai stand.
Wild Exclusive Camp Sites
There are 2 completely wild camping sites located in the southern sector of the Park - close to Chitake Spring, near the foothills of the Zambezi Escarpment. The check-in point for these camps is at Nyakasikana Gate. Both campsites are without any facilities and are accessible only with four-wheel drive vehicles.
Chitake Camp 1 (Nzou)
Located 150 metres downstream from the Chitake River crossing under a large Natal Mahogany near the river.
Chitake Camp 2 (Shumba)
Situated on top of a small hill near a number of baobab trees and has a magnificent view south to the escarpment, north to the far off Zambezi, east to Mangangai and west to the Rukomechi River. The camp is about 1 kilometre from the spring.
The following are some of the main activities offered at Mana Pools National Park:
Available around the Park at developed, minimum development and exclusive sites
Canoeing on the Zambezi is a favourite activity in Mana Pools and affords an unparalleled opportunity to experience the river.
Guided Walks
Visitors can hire qualified armed Parks staff to take them for game viewing on foot .
Walking Safaris
These safaris are offered at full moon. Parks staff will take visitors on a 3 day hike in the wild of Mana Pools National Park. Visitors will need to be fit, provide their own rucksacks, food and toiletries. This is a unique experience for the nature lover and those who enjoy the challenge of facing nature one on one.
Lion Tracking
This is a limited activity whilst the lion research project at Mana Pools is in progress. Visitors can join Parks staff as they track radio-collared lions on foot. Visitors are guaranteed a close view of the lions in most instances. This activity is unique and also assists in data collection for research projects.
Visitors can fish in the Zambezi River and experience the excitement of hooking large fish for the pot. Half of the joy is experiencing the quiet, solitude and beauty of the unspoiled bush around you.
Game Drives
Usually most rewarding in the early morning and late afternoon. Long Pool is often worth visiting soon after sunrise.
The Park is generally remote and far from any business centre. The nearest shops and fuel supplies are nearly 100 kilometres away, therefore visitors should be fully equipped for their visit.
Why Visit Mana Pools?
- The unique guided and self-guided walks in the Park amongst many wild animals
- Renowned ''World Heritage Site''
- One of the world's wildest and preserved natural ecological areas
- Rated the 5th Best Park in Africa by Getaway magazine (September 2003)
- Excellent canoeing and river fishing
- The remnant pools of the mighty Zambezi River are a marvel to watch as a prime habitat for several bird and mamal species
Information and images kindly contributed by www.zimparks.org and www.wildzambezi.com