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The airport industry is going through a major business transformation. To ensure a smooth operation, you need to understand the triggers and how to adapt.
This post explains the triggers, highlights the key technologies impacting airports now and in the future, and what elements to keep in mind when adopting them at your airport.
The four triggers behind the transformation:
#1 The first trigger is passenger growth.
Airports that have previously been able to operate without constraints are now feeling the pain of long lines snaking through the terminal, causing delays, unhappy passengers or misconnections resulting in social media uproar.
#2 The second trigger is the rising importance of retail revenue.
The increased significance of non-aeronautical revenue (NAR), is forcing airports to shift focus. At an airport conference, I overheard a vendor describing airports as malls with runways attached. This is in line with a recent ACI analysis that shows that retail concessions remain the largest source of non-aeronautical revenue for airports at 30.2% (ACI Economic Report March 2019).
#3 The third trigger is the need for increasing passenger satisfaction.
The importance of retail revenue is closely tied with the third trigger, the need for increasing passenger satisfaction: Having a bad experience at the airport once, leaves the passenger with a lasting impression of not wanting to show up early, resulting in fewer sales and less revenue. Also, being stressed by the passenger journey through the airport reduces the desire to spend time in retail. Even though your airport may stay within your service level agreements for wait time at security or check-in, the actual passenger experience may still be poor, if lines snake outside the roped-off queuing area or if the airport layout causes confusion and a sense of chaos.
#4 The final trigger is the increased applicability of new technologies.
Biometrics, CT-scanners, and baggage tracking software have now reached a level of accuracy and affordability that can significantly improve processing times and security measures while making passengers happy. However, the technologies are not just plug 'n play. Airports need to understand their operational processes and have a holistic approach to airport operations to gain the full benefit of adopting new technologies. The technologies driving the transformation and how they create a better airport:
The first step before adopting new technologies is, therefore, to map your current processes and harness the data already available at your airport. The use of data-driven decision making and optimization goes a long way in improving both the passenger experience and ensuring growth without expansion. Furthermore, through data integration and the use of smart, easy-to-use planning tools you will be able to identify your airport's specific operational pinch points, select which type of technologies to focus on and consider how they can supplement existing business processes. The following section briefly outlines key technologies and their value for different operational areas.
If your pinch point is within check-in, the future rhymes with taking control while introducing mobile infrastructure and continuing to push self-service:
- The full-service kiosk will partly be phased out within the next 5 years and the check-in and boarding card process will take place before arrival at the airport.
- Mobile kiosks can be the more flexible replacement for the full-service kiosks.
- Development and adoption of face recognition and the single token concept will also help to decrease transaction times and passengers' satisfaction, although this will take longer.
- Operational optimization also depends on the willingness of airlines to agree to the use of shared services. This will be affected by the airlines' need to differentiate and brand themselves and reflects the level of competition at your airport. However, using accurate planning tools will usually get you a long way before having to expand infrastructure.
- Within baggage, the permanent bag tag will gain traction within the next 5-10 years, with RFID being the more expensive option, due to high implementation costs.
- The smaller bag tag printers can help airports deal with an increasing number of passengers in the coming years.
- The permanent baggage tag is unanimously selected as the future within baggage
- Airport operators will start engaging more actively in the baggage operation where millions of data points are generated. The data points are not only valuable for the baggage operation, but for other operational areas as well.
For security, the main development centers around security level differentiation, biometric solutions, advanced scanners, and automated tray return systems.
- The main driver of performance improvement in security operations is the adoption of advanced scanners. C3- or C2-level scanners that let passengers keep liquids and/or laptop in the bag will increase throughput and improve process times and the passenger experience.
- The introduction of centralized image processing (CIP) and automated tray return systems contribute to an increased throughput and reduced wait times.
- Security level differentiation works towards an overall reduction in the process time and Risk Based Screening helps security staff focus on the few travelers that pose the biggest threat.
Emigration / immigration
Within emigration and immigration, the main development centers around biometrics, eGates and mobile apps.
- The wider use of Primary Inspection Kiosks (PIK) and eGates improves processing times and reduce wait times during entry and exit into the country.
- Also, the wider use of mobile apps for the border can help streamline the traveler inspection process and enable border security officers to focus more on inspection and less on administrative functions.
- As officers become more familiar with the automated solutions, transaction times are expected to decrease significantly and through this, reduce reliance on border officer staffing
- The use of new technologies, like biometric face scans, will also play a key role in the retail aspect of running an airport. The pre-enrollment of personal information provides airports with valuable information on individual preferences to tailor offers to each individual passenger. This will enable airports to increase NAR significantly, although it also requires airports to think carefully about data security and regulations.
What to consider when adopting new technology
When adopting new technology to your airport, there are some basic steps that you need to take to ensure you are getting the expected return on investment:
- Do a test run! Before purchasing new technology, make sure to either test it at your own airport or visit other airports that have it, to see how it works in a live airport environment.
- Get the required know-how! Ensure you have the right skill set to assess the value of the technology to your airport. If you are missing the skills, get it from outside your organization. This can be done by carrying out a technology maturity assessment.
- Get the right people! Ensure you have the required skills needed to work with the technology implementation. It is important that the required resources are identified as part of the project acceptance.
- Measure the value! Have a clear understanding of what the aim of implementing the technology should be, and make sure to measure the new piece of technology from implementation. Quantifiable metrics should be put in place to support this.
- Take small steps! By doing a limited installation at first, you get a chance to harvest learnings and use them for a full roll-out. Also, make sure that you have a framework contract that allows for quick project extensions without another round of procurement.
- Decide on one or more suppliers! Consider the value of having one versus several providers. For certain areas, multiple suppliers may be required to deliver the services.


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A VERY BIG THANK YOU to Tim Ezell from "The Thread" for visiting Story Stitchers this week!! Artists have enjoyed interacting with Tim and his awesome camera man Cecil.
Watch for the story coming soon on Fox 2's "The Thread"starring Tim Ezell and Virginia Kerr. The 30-minute show airs at 8:30 a.m. Saturdays and again at 7 a.m. Sundays.
Story Stitchers give a big thumbs UP to the show and share the concept behind it… stitching our city together by getting to know each other.

subset: commoncrawl


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The verdict is in, the crush of television crews have left the Riverhead courthouse and the 19-year-old Medford man convicted of killing an Ecuadorean immigrant in Patchogue is waiting at Suffolk County jail for his sentencing day, but just because the case that recast the national spotlight on Long Island's troubled race relations is over does not mean the tension is going away anytime soon.
On Tuesday, the day after Jeffrey Conroy was found guilty of manslaughter as a hate crime for fatally stabbing 37-year-old Marcelo Lucero in the chest in November 2008—Suffolk County's first hate crime death conviction—prosecutors announced two teenagers were charged last month with robbery as a hate crime for allegedly targeting Hispanic men in violent street muggings (The announcement was held off until after the trial so as to not influence the Lucero jury). Investigators say the suspects called the victims "Papis," Spanish for father.
Two of the seven teens charged in the Lucero attack who haven't pled guilty to gang assault and conspiracy—Christopher Overton, 17, of East Patchogue and Anthony Hartford, 18, of Medford—are still awaiting their day in court. Conroy had testified last week that Overton was the killer, not himself.
The findings of the Suffolk County Hate Crimes Task Force, created to encourage reluctant hate crimes victims to come forward, are expected to be released in August. And it is not clear when the U.S. Department of Justice will complete a probe into hate crimes in Suffolk and police handling of those investigations.
Despite the intense pressure on the detective in charge of the unit tasked with making the sometimes controversial determination if allegations are motivated by hate or not, Monday, the day the Lucero verdict came in, was just another day on the job.
"We've been in business for 30 years, this is not something that popped up on Nov. 8 [2008]," the night of the Lucero stabbing, says Detective Sgt. Robert Reekes, referring to the Suffolk County police squad he leads, the Hate Crimes Unit.
"Contrary to some of the advocates that have said that the police department is not sensitive, certainly [the verdict] shows that the police department did an amazing job," he continues, adding that the seven teens were arrested minutes after the attack.
While many agreed that police and prosecutors did their job to the best of their ability, critics took issue with the jury not finding Conroy—who killed Lucero during a regular outing of what the teens called "beaner-hopping," in which they assaulted Hispanic men—guilty of the top charge.
"I personally was looking for a murder as a hate crime," says Rev. Allen Ramirez, pastor of Brookville Reformed Church and an immigration advocate, who is a spokesman for the Lucero family. "I think it would have been the only clear signal to send in a community such as this."
Anti-illegal immigration activists did not speak highly of the verdict either, but on that side of the aisle, the point of contention is the fact that the teens were charged with hate crimes to begin with.
"When you're dead you're dead, whether the person killed you screaming out racial epithets or whether they shouted, 'I love you,'" says Margaretann Bianculli-Dyber, a New York City schoolteacher with the Farmingville Civic Association, a group that has been at the center of the immigration debate in Suffolk for a decade.
"I'm sorry [Lucero's] mother is crying, but that is the consequence of her actions of not telling her son to stay home where he belonged," says Bianculli-Dyber, who also believes the federal government shares blame for not better enforcing immigration laws.
Suffolk County police have repeatedly emphasized that they do not check the immigration status of crime victims, so it is not known if Lucero was here legally or not. Those charged with attacking Hispanic men are not known to check green cards prior to their crimes, either.
"I hope it'll be a long time before I stand before you announcing another hate crime prosecution," Suffolk County District Attorney Tom Spota said at the news conference announcing the robbery arrests of Sean Allen, 19, of Middle Island, and Felicia Smith, 18, of Selden the day after the Lucero verdict—both of whom allegedly told police they were banking on Hispanic victims not reporting the crimes. "I know it will probably not be long enough."


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Much of the water on Earth and elsewhere in the solar system likely predates the birth of the sun, a new study reports.
The finding suggests that water is commonly incorporated into newly forming planets throughout the Milky Way galaxy and beyond, researchers said — good news for anyone hoping that Earth isn't the only world to host life.
"The implications of our study are that interstellar water-ice remarkably survived the incredibly violent process of stellar birth to then be incorporated into planetary bodies," study lead author Ilse Cleeves, an astronomy Ph.D. student at the University of Michigan.
"If our sun's formation was typical, interstellar ices, including water, likely survive and are a common ingredient during the formation of all extrasolar systems," Cleeves added. "This is particularly exciting given the number of confirmed extrasolar planetary systems to date — that they, too, had access to abundant, life-fostering water during their formation."
Astronomers have discovered nearly 2,000 exoplanets so far, and many billions likely lurk undetected in the depths of space. On average, every Milky Way star is thought to host at least one planet.
Water, water everywhere
Our solar system abounds with water. Oceans of it slosh about not only on Earth's surface but also beneath the icy shells of Jupiter's moon Europa and the Saturn satellite Enceladus. And water ice is found on Earth's moon, on comets, at the Martian poles and even inside shadowed craters on Mercury, the planet closest to the sun.
Cleeves and her colleagues wanted to know where all this water came from.
"Why is this important? If water in the early solar system was primarily inherited as ice from interstellar space, then it is likely that similar ices, along with the prebiotic organic matter that they contain, are abundant in most or all protoplanetary disks around forming stars," study co-author Conel Alexander, of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C., said in a statement.
"But if the early solar system's water was largely the result of local chemical processing during the sun's birth, then it is possible that the abundance of water varies considerably in forming planetary systems, which would obviously have implications for the potential for the emergence of life elsewhere," Alexander added.
Heavy and 'normal' water
Not all water is "standard" H2O. Some water molecules contain deuterium, a heavy isotope of hydrogen that contains one proton and one neutron in its nucleus. (Isotopes are different versions of an element whose atoms have the same number of protons, but different numbers of neutrons. The most common hydrogen isotope, known as protium, for example, has one proton but no neutrons.)
Because they have different masses, deuterium and protium behave differently during chemical reactions. Some environments are thus more conducive to the formation of "heavy" water — including super-cold places like interstellar space.
The researchers constructed models that simulated reactions within a protoplanetary disk, in an effort to determine if processes during the early days of the solar system could have generated the concentrations of heavy water observed today in Earth's oceans, cometary material and meteorite samples.
The team reset deuterium levels to zero at the beginning of the simulations, then watched to see if enough deuterium-enriched ice could be produced within 1 million years — a standard lifetime for planet-forming disks.
The answer was no. The results suggest that up to 30 to 50 percent of Earth's ocean water and perhaps 60 to 100 percent of the water on comets originally formed in interstellar space, before the sun was born. (These are the high-end estimates generated by the simulations; the low-end estimates suggest that at least 7 percent of ocean water and at least 14 percent of comet water predates the sun.)
While these findings, published online today (Sept. 25) in the journal Science, will doubtless be of interest to astrobiologists, they also resonated with Cleeves on a personal level, she said.
"A significant fraction of Earth's water is likely incredibly old, so old that it predates the Earth itself," Cleeves said. "For me, uncovering these kinds of direct links between our daily experience and the galaxy at large is fascinating and puts a wonderful perspective on our place in the universe."


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Spanish tennis player Rafael Nadal has regained the number one spot in the men's Association of Tennis Professionals world singles rankings for the first time since July 2014, the ATP said on Monday.
The 31-year-old was set to take over the ATP top position from Britain's Andy Murray this week, regardless of his performance at the Cincinnati Masters, reports Efe.
Nadal on Friday lost 2-6, 5-7 to Australia's Nick Kyrgios at the quarterfinal stage in Ohio. Murray, who was out of action because of a hip injury, drops to second spot with 7,150 points.
Switzerland's Roger Federer remained in third place after he withdrew from the Cincinnati Masters with a back injury.
Bulgaria's Grigor Dimitrov jumped to the ninth spot after he won the Cincinnati final against Kyrgios, who climbed to 18th place.
The current ATP rankings and point scores are as follows:
1. Rafael Nadal (Spain) 7,645 points
2. Andy Murray (United Kingdom) 7,150
3. Roger Federer (Switzerland) 7,145
4. Stan Wawrinka (Switzerland) 5,690
5. Novak Djokovic (Serbia) 5,325
6. Alexander Zverev (Germany) 4,470
7. Marin Cilic (Croatia) 4,155
8. Dominic Thiem (Austria) 4,030
9. Grigor Dimitrov (Bulgaria) 3,710
10. Kei Nishikori (Japan) 3,195.


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2007 Hyundai Santa Fe GLS Review
SEE ALSO: New Car Buyer's Guide for HyundaiSPECIFICATIONS
Model: Hyundai Santa Fe GLS
Engine: 2.7-liter DOHC V6
Horsepower/Torque: 185 hp @ 6000 rpm/183 lb.-ft. @ 4000 rpm
Transmission: 4-speed automatic
Wheelbase: 106.3 in.
Length x Width x Height: 184.1 x 74.4 x 67.9 in.
Tires: P235/70R16
Cargo volume: 79.4 cu. ft. (max.)
Economy: 21 mpg city/26 mpg highway/19.8 mpg test
Price: $22,240
Assets – Impressively solid on the road.
Debits – Could use more power, although a 242-hp 3.3-liter V6 is available.
I am continually impressed by how quickly Korean manufacturers have ascended the learning curve. The Hyundai Santa Fe is a prime example. Here is a top-notch mid-size SUV with solid features, a good ride, a great warranty that I understand is not costing as much as had originally been feared, and a ton of attributes that make other manufacturers' mouths water.
At this same stage in their manufacturing lives, the Japanese manufacturers still hadn't begun creating cars that would appeal to large numbers of American buyers, even though they did eventually
Our base GLS tester was equipped with the smaller of two engine possibilities, the 2.7-liter double overhead cam V6 rated at 185 horsepower. While I didn't feel this was so underpowered to make the Santa Fe a danger on the road, I thought it was decent and would appeal to the majority of Santa Fe customers. There's a 242-hp 3.3-liter V6 available if you feel that you really need the speed.
The engine drove the front wheels through a 4-speed automatic transmission. All-wheel drive is available as an option and might have been necessary if it had snowed during our test, but we've been blessed with spring-like weather lately and snow wasn't even a thought.
The combination of engine and transmission was very good. There wasn't too much power, nor did we need the added advantage of AWD, yet the Santa Fe functioned excellently as a good-size STATION WAGON with a maximum of 79 cubic feet of storage. Yes, I used the dreaded term, but that's what the vehicle is, a wagon that doesn't even pretend to be a sport utility. Don't complain, wagons are great.
With the rear seat up, rear storage is very good at 34.2 cubic feet, and includes a covered compartment with an adjustable tray that was great for hiding purchases at the mall.
Handling was also decent considering that the Santa Fe has a fairly tall aspect ratio. We were able to drive the Santa Fe reasonably hard around corners without fearing tipping over. On the highway and rural roads the ride quality was about standard for a small SUV. Some probably would opt for a softer ride, but at least the Santa Fe wasn't as truck-like as many SUVs.
The seats were comfortable front and back. We noted that even with a child seat installed in the rear seat there was good front-seat travel. The LATCH is locate don the rear of the rear seat. There was also decent rear seat legroom and the center passenger in the rear had an almost-flat floor to deal with, so knees wouldn't have to be tucked up under chins.
I liked the features of the Santa Fe that included extendable visors to give just that much more sun protection for the front passengers. There were two overhead sunglass holders up front as well, recognizing the fact that there are often more than one person in the vehicle.
The rear hatch door has a handle located on the left of the door that makes it so much easier to lift. There's a covered cubby on top of the dash that's so practical for small objects. Besides two cupholders in the center console, there are cupholders in the door that are great for water bottles. There's also a nice drawer and cubby in the rear of the center console for the rear passengers.
But overall, the solidity of the Santa Fe is what will impress you in the first �-mile of driving it. I think you'll like it if you're in the market for a small wagon and don't need the added feature of AWD.
� 2006 The Auto Page Syndicate


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After spending some highly enjoyable fishing throughout September on a relatively small syndicate near my home, it was time to head back to the big pit I have been targeting for the last couple of seasons after the few I still really wanted to catch!
I had timed my first trip back to coincide with the time that I had caught well from a certain swim on the 'Noddy Bank', and after arriving at first light on the Sunday morning I was soon setting up in that swim. It was not all plain sailing, and on my first cast into the lake I managed to hook a cracked off spod, and the next one managed to hook a rig and nearly 100 yards of braid. This did not boost my confidence, thinking of the chances of landing anything that I was able to hook! I then managed to crack off, and couldn't find any areas that felt presentable in front. I was in a bit of a mood by now (understandably!) and about to pack up, but a chat with a couple friends made me have another lead about, but further to the left this time. The first cast landed with an almighty 'donk' and I knew it was an area I would happy fishing on for this trip. All the rods were quickly rigged up with a Kinetic braided mainline, Covert Lead Clip set up, long length of Covert Shrink Tube to prevent tangles and a size 6 Covert Wide Gape Talon Tip. The hookbaits were all 18mm Odyssey XXX bottom baits tipped with a 12mm white NS1, a hookbait I would confident of catching on anywhere.
It was dark by now, but I wasn't happy fishing with singles so I quickly spodded out a couple of kilo of XXX chops and a good helping of hemp covered in Chilli Hemp Oil. With that done, it was time to get the bivvy set up and put the kettle on! It was not exactly how I wanted my first night back on the lake to go, but the rods were out and I was fishing. At around 10pm the left hand rod pulled up tight, and I lifted the rod up sort of expecting to be connected to a carp, but it turned out to be ones of the lakes supercharged bream. I quickly recast the rod and about fifteen minutes later heard a carp show in the area out in the darkness. At 11pm the left hand rod again pulled up tight, and assuming it was a bream again I was in no rush to hit the rod so quickly finished the teas I was making for a mate who was sat in the swim before going to the rod. I picked up the rod, and suddenly realised the clutch was locked tight, and I was attached to a carp! It felt quite big all the way in, but after about ten minutes it was nestling in the net. I was a big disappointed to realise it was a recapture, and at a smaller weight of 35lb 6oz (3lb smaller than last time) I was happy to get back amongst the fish.
I decided to not recast the rod after having a carp bite, thinking there may be a few more still on the spot. This was the right decision when around an hour later the middle rod was away! It was a strange bite, as I had somehow managed to not put the line in the roller of my ATTS, so all I heard was a screaming clutch! It put up an incredibly powerful scrap, and I just knew it was going to be one of the lakes real big ones. A few minutes later it was in the net, and unbelievably it was another recapture of a fish called 'The Lord' weighing in at 44lb 6oz. Two bites in my first couple of hours back on the lake, but sadly both of them were recaptures.
The next night I was completely destroyed by bream, catching five by midnight. This lake is classic for this, and by the 5th bream I was so tired that I stopped recasting the rods, so I could try and get some sleep and be able to wade through them the next night. The next day the weather was much nicer, with a gentle south-westerly blowing over my head so casting the rods out was easy. The obligatory bream was soon hanging itself on the middle rod, and it seemed like I was going to have another nightmare with the bream. It was all quiet until 3am when the middle rod was off to a flier! It came in most of the way with weed on its head, but once in the margin put up a really dogged battle and it was with great relief that I slipped the net under it! It turned out to be a stunning fish called 'Roach Head' weighing in at 38lb, and I couldn't believe I had three bites in my first three nights back on the lake!
On the final night a strong northerly wind started blowing into my face, meaning getting the rods and bait out was a nightmare. However, after a lot of trying I did manage to get them out and felt mildly confident of making it four in four! I was rewarded in the early hours of the morning with my fourth carp of the session, unfortunately another recapture of a 30lb 10oz mirror with the biggest tail I have ever seen on a carp! It was a really big confidence boost and I was keen to return and try and get amongst some more of the lakes real lumps.
I was back the next week with the intention of getting back in the same area, but due it now being an extremely busy club water, everyone had the same idea and the area was stitched! Fortunately the person in the other area that I really fancied was just packing up, so I hot footed it round there to secure the swim. This swim gave long range access to the middle of the lake, but also a prominent feature that the big one had been caught from the previous year, so I was keen to get a rod on that! The first night passed quietly, but it felt much better on the second night with still, warm conditions. On the stroke of midnight the middle rod let out a few beeps, and I was soon at the rod to find the bobbin on the floor- typical bream. As I was about to lift the rod however, it picked up and line ticked off the tight clutch, and on picking up the rod it was obvious a carp was on the end! I managed to gain a bit of line before it managed to pick up my right hand rod and everything ground to a halt! Fortunately, the club now has a boat to go out and deal with situations such as this, so we were soon setting sail and without too much of a drama a decent common was in the net. It was a proper character with only one eye, and weighing in at 29lb 8oz it was the biggest common I had caught from the lake.
That was the only action of the session, and it was similarly grim the next week with heavy rain, strong cold winds and thunderstorms every night! The next and final action of my brief autumn campaign was back in the same swim I had caught the common from. I had given up on the middle as I hadn't seen anything showing there, so had a lead around more where the fish were showing, to the right of the swim. After a few casts I found a lovely clear area at the back of a weed bed which needed a rig on it! In the early hours of the morning that rod was away with another of the lakes characters, a bright orange koi weighing in at 18lb 8oz. The next night the middle rod was away again, and after an epic scrap under the rod tip a stunning mirror of just over 27lb was nestling in the net. It turned out to be a repeat of my first carp from the lake, I just didn't know how to avoid the recaptures! I thought that might have been the start of some good fishing, but the next week the lake seemed to have just shut up shop, and with rumours of the big one coming out on the quiet I felt it was time to call it a day and return when the weather was a bit warmer!


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'Brief Journey' Premiere
This Thursday the 19th I'll be conducting the premiere of George Holloway's 'Brief Journey', for soprano, string ensemble and piano at St. Michael's Church Southampton. The fantastic mezzo Lucy Williams is singing so it's going to be a really special event. It starts at 7pm and I think tickets are £8


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The Paper Jam Comics Collective hasn't done an anthology in a while.
People have all kinds of exciting projects of their own going on, but
we all forgot to keep it real and bust out some team awesomeness in a
new ...And That. So, to remedy that, we're going to ruddy do one!
Having done: miscellaneous, Halloween, 'You will have to wait',
Robots, children's comics, Art and History, what's next? Well, after
some discussion, the consensus has fallen on 'Alcohol'. The fact that
the decision was made in a pub had nothing to do with this.
So submissions are open! Usual criteria apply: it's open to anyone
who's a Paper Jammer (i.e. been to a few meetings at some point), you
can do one or two pages, and team ups are allowed and encouraged (in
which case you can combine page allocations if you want to do
something a bit longer).
We're looking to go a bit old-school on this one after the large
format extravaganzas we've had recently, so it'll be A5 black and
white (well, greyscale), with the cover either b&w too or maybe colour
depending on how the Collective finances are looking. Remember to leave about a centimetre of white space around the edge of your page so nothing gets cropped off!
Content: it would be quite a nice linking factor if everyone's stories
could be based on a particular type of alcoholic beverage, so aim for
that (but don't worry too much about it, or what anyone else is doing,
we could easily have 'Gin' and 'More Gin' for example!) Interpret the
theme however you like, keep it vaguely clean (usual Paper Jam tone: a
bit of rudeness is permissible but nothing too extreme), and come up
with something great.
Timescale: The official "sharing ideas/drawings" meeting will be Thursday 18th August, 6:30pm onwards at Travelling Man (free entry, 18+ only), and the deadline for all submissions will be the following meeting, Thursday 1st September, same spiel. You can either bring in your hard copies (no bigger than A3 per side, and nothing weirdly shaped - i.e. stick to "A-Sizes" like A5, A4 etc.) or you can e-mail your submission, preferably as a .png or .pdf file of no greater than 300dpi, to firstname.lastname@example.com
Anyone with brilliant ideas about format or covers and suchlike, tell
everyone at the next meeting or in the blog comments below.


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The problem with heart rate monitors is that they are often bulky and ugly. People don't want to wear something that sticks out like a sore thumb. Omron is evolving blood pressure monitors by making them smaller, more attractive, and connected like never before.
Three different blood pressure monitors were shown off at CES 2017. The Evolve is a wireless upper arm monitor that just went on the market. Coming in spring, is the HeartVue, the smallest monitor Omron has made. More impressive is Project Zero 2.0, an ultra-compact prototype that resembles a smartwatch.
Looking toward the future, Project Zero 2.0 is the most attractive, wearable blood pressure monitor to date. In addition to blood pressure, the device can measure physical activity and sleep patterns. This marks the first time blood pressure technology has been shrunk down effectively enough to produce accurate measurements and still fit in the form of a watch.
Just like every other Omron device, Project Zero 2.0 will connect wirelessly to the Omron app. Users can track and share their data easily with healthcare providers. Currently, a full charge offers about one week of use.
Later in the spring, the HeartVue wrist monitor releases as the smallest blood pressure monitor Omron has created. While not as small as Project Zero 2.0, it provides the same information in a form factor only slightly larger.
Available now is the Evolv upper arm monitor. This sleek, one-piece monitor gets rid of excess tubes, wires, and tabletop units. The entire unit is placed around the upper arm and the readings are easily displayed right on the face of the device. The Evolv is sold on Omron's website for $83 and will be made available later in January at Amazon, Walgreens, and CVS.
Each of these Omron blood pressure monitors syncs up with the Omron Connect app. Through the app, users can view their systolic, diastolic, and pulse readings. Additionally, the app tracks body mass index, body fat percentage, and weight so that users can track their progress over time. Charts and graphs can easily be emailed directly to family or doctors anytime, anywhere. The app can be downloaded free from the Apple iOS or Google Play stores.
Editors' Recommendations
- I used a smart blood pressure monitor for the first time — and it blew me away
- Most promising blood pressure monitoring tech in years isn't out in the U.S. yet
- FDA clears heart monitor for coronavirus patients using hydroxychloroquine
- Omron HeartGuide brings blood pressure monitoring to your wrist


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Monday 2 April 2012
Six Days by Philip Webb
8 comments:
- AnonymousMonday, April 02, 2012 8:22:00 am
Ooh! This sounds really interesting, fab review :)ReplyDelete
Totally agree with your review Viv. Absolutely loved Six Days!ReplyDelete
Sounds like one my son would be interested in, thanks for a great review, Georgina. :-)ReplyDelete
This book sounds so good! It's definitely jumping onto my must read list and I know teenage me would have thought the same :)ReplyDelete
A great review. Its just that if your opening paragraph is anything to go by I'm just not too sure that I like the authors style of writing.ReplyDelete
I love the sound of this one! :)ReplyDelete
Now this does sound really cool :DReplyDelete
- AnonymousSunday, April 26, 2015 7:50:00 pm
I've read the book and it is actually really good by my standards, considering I have read most of the books I am allowed to read in my school library. To be honest I find the review quite sexist considering I am a girl and have read such books as Artemis Fowl, Time Riders and the Percy Jackson series. I'm not trying to be rude, but just take into consideration that girls read Science Fiction and Fantasy too!ReplyDelete
Hiya, thanks for stopping by, it is always nice to hear what you have to say, so do leave a comment if you have time.


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All of our scarves are made of 100% West Indian Sea Island Cotton, which is Known as "gossypium barbadense" one of the most precious cottons in the world. Its production is about 0.0004% of the total cotton production and is known for its softness, a natural sheen and fineness. The West Indies is the idyllic location for the production of this rare cotton.
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Resources | Webinar
Disinformation and Deep Fakes: Identifying Fake News to Fight Business Threats
April 13th, 2021 | 1 PM ET
Matthew F. Ferraro, a former US intelligence officer and currently an attorney at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, will present on Disinformation and Deep Fakes: Identifying Fake News to Fight Business Threats. He will discuss the dangers disinformation and synthetic media, or deepfakes, pose to politics, society, and business. Through deep fakes and other means, disinformation attacks on the private sector are an ambient and growing business risk. Whether they come from trolls looking to sow chaos, market manipulators aiming to make a fast payday, or foreign governments attempting to boost "national champion" companies in a given industry, misinformation attacks in the private sector are growing in both size and complexity. Mr. Ferraro will discuss concrete steps companies of all sizes can take to prepare for and mitigate these threats in the evolving information environment.


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Laser Treatment Keratosis Pilaris
Obviously, there are various other strategies needed to treat as well as manage keratosis pilaris, including the kinds of items that you utilize in your daily skin care regimen.
Generally of thumb, the products that you make use of to relieve this skin problem ought to be mild sufficient to consume, as well as several treatments can be made with organic natural home remedy. If you experience from keratosis pilaris through making basic dietary adjustments that will decrease flare-ups of this condition in your skin, the bottom line is that there is hope for you.
Also much better, these nutritional changes might give lasting wellness advantages to assure a longer and fuller life because of this!
Keratosis pilaris resembles little white bumps on the skin, something akin to acnes, and when squeezed will release a difficult grain like drug.
There many kinds relying on its type. The reddish colored swollen bumps are called keratosis pilaris rubra, while the ones that show up on the face, especially the cheeks, are called keratosis pilaris rubra faceii.
The skins around the bumps are generally really completely dry and also might show up swollen and also aggravated. The term hen skin is usually associated with this condition.
A natural therapy
You will simply "grow out of" keratosis pilaris with time, as well as it does not leave scarring like acne.
Applying a combination of petroleum jelly with water, or salicylic acid, assists to remove the top layer of skin and makes the locations impacted by pilaris appear smoother. Taking temperate showers as opposed to hot baths appears to have a positive impact as well. Laser hair removal appears to assist some instances.
There is a tiny animal called Helix Aspersa Müller much more commonly referred to as the brown garden snail.
This creature's skin is of comparable structure as ours and the fact that these snails are revealed to sunshine throughout the day makes it vital to them to be able to safeguard themselves against the hazardous UV-lights.
The immune system of these little creatures makes them produce a secretion to secure them against the external aspects. Researchers have actually discovered that this lotion helps several of our skin problems, amongst them Keratosis Pilaris.
The appearance of KP may trouble the persons experiencing from this skin condition that makes it essential to have treatment alternatives offered. There are different sort of treatments readily available to alleviate this skin problem, but if you do not wish to pump your body with chemical therapies you could wish to consider what nature has actually got to provide.
There is no "cure" for aside from the passage of time, however it can be treated by applying creams to the affected locations often. Creams which contain urea, salicylic acid, or alpha hydroxy acids are most practical.
Applying acne treatments does seem to assist, even though keratosis pilaris is not acne.
KP has a tendency to break down much more throughout the winter months when the skin has the tendency to be drier due to climate or when the weather condition is incredibly humid.
It's during these times that you have to be on your guard not quit any type of treatment to your skin. This skin disorder is a lifelong condition so preserving a long-term treatment plan is likewise a life-long job.
Making simple adjustments by eliminating unhealthy foods from your diet and also incorporating foods that your body is not conscious might make a severe distinction in minimizing this problem in your skin.
This is a strategy that is accustomed by numerous leading skin specialists and also dietitians considering that the types of food within your diet plan might influence and also possibly heal several skin conditions.


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In Crete, except the sea and all the facilities that are offered by hotels, it really worths to enjoy the beauty of the landscape and the mountains. In a scene with many alternations from rough wild and deserted to green serene and passable, one can meet our gorges and mountains, track our history and civilization of the areas through archeological ruins, historic monasteries, churches and settlements. The High Mountain, the White Mountains and the rest of the mountains hide countless paths of all difficulty rates, while the gorges that are shaped between them are a unique experience as well as a challenge for every walking or climbing person. In Crete there is also a part of the Ε4 path which crosses a long area of the island and has very good signaling. And finally, for the lovers of climbing there is a well organized climbing field in the village of Kapetaniana, in the Asterousia Mountains of Heraklion.
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Sportsman Series Races in Quebec in July, at Cayuga during NAPA Auto Parts Super DIRT Week XLII
WEEDSPORT, N. Y. – March 8, 2013 – DIRTcar officials announced today the addition of three dates to the DIRTcar Sportman Modified Series schedule. Two dates will take the series to Quebec tracks in July and one to Central New York during NAPA Auto Parts Super DIRT Week XLII.
In addition to the DIRTcar Northeast series schedule released in February, the DIRTcar Sportsman Series will also run Monday, July 22, at Autodrome Drummond and Tuesday, July 23, at Autodrome Granby. These dates correspond with previously scheduled dates for the Super DIRTcar Big Block Modified Series. The DIRTcar Sportsman Modified Series will join the Big Block Series on these nights.
Additionally, the DIRTcar Sportsman Modified will help the DIRTcar 358-Modified Series open NAPA Auto Parts Super DIRT Week XLII for the event's first satellite event Wednesday, Oct. 9, at the Cayuga County Fair Speedway.
The full DIRTcar Northeast series schedules can be viewed below or online at www.dirtcarump.com/schedule/10844-2. For more information about NAPA Auto Parts Super DIRT Week, please visit www.superdirtweekonline.com. Tickets can be purchased online at www.dirtcar.com/tickets or by calling the event hotline at 1 (877) 395-8606.
The Super DIRTcar Series and DIRTcar Racing in the Northeast Region is brought to fans by several sponsors and partners including Hoosier Racing Tire, VP Racing Fuels, Chevy Performance Parts, Gander Mountain, NAPA Auto Parts, Nationwide Insurance, and Safety-Kleen. Promotional partners include the University of Northwestern Ohio. Contingency sponsors are ASI, Bicknell Racing Products, Bilstein Shocks, Brodix, ButlerBuilt, Cometic Gasket, Comp Cams, Edelbrock, Intercomp, JE Pistons, Klotz Synthetic Lubricants, KSE Racing Products, Motorsports Safety Systems, MSD Ignition, Penske Shocks, Racing Electronics, Superflow, Vicci Racing Apparel, and Wrisco Industries.


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Pages: 416
Format: Paperback
Buy on Amazon
Olive is always unlucky: in her career, in love, in…well, everything. Her identical twin sister Amy, on the other hand, is probably the luckiest person in the world. Her meet-cute with her fiancé is something out of a romantic comedy (gag) and she's managed to finance her entire wedding by winning a series of Internet contests (double gag). Worst of all, she's forcing Olive to spend the day with her sworn enemy, Ethan, who just happens to be the best man.
Olive braces herself to get through 24 hours of wedding hell before she can return to her comfortable, unlucky life. But when the entire wedding party gets food poisoning from eating bad shellfish, the only people who aren't affected are Olive and Ethan. And now there's an all-expenses-paid honeymoon in Hawaii up for grabs.
Putting their mutual hatred aside for the sake of a free vacation, Olive and Ethan head for paradise, determined to avoid each other at all costs. But when Olive runs into her future boss, the little white lie she tells him is suddenly at risk to become a whole lot bigger. She and Ethan now have to pretend to be loving newlyweds, and her luck seems worse than ever. But the weird thing is that she doesn't mind playing pretend. In fact, she feels kind of... lucky.
When this popped up in my email, I wasn't sure what to think. I've wanted to try this author (these authors technically, since they're a team), but I'm not a huge fan of Contemporary Romances written in first person present point of view. These books always have a certain Rom Com vibe, and while I enjoy Rom Com movies, for some reason, I don't enjoy that in my books. I don't like when the heroine is embarrassed over and over (like in Bridget Jones' Diary for example).
The voice took me a bit to get used to, but the authors are funny and the book seemed fun, so it wasn't too difficult. I just really don't love that present tense. I've also discovered I don't usually care for first person point of view in a Romance. It works for me in Urban Fantasy, but it turns out I want the hero's point of view in a Romance as well as the heroine's. The main reason is that first person can make for an unreliable narrator.
Olive is maid of honor in her twin sister's wedding, and her entire life, Olive has always been the unlucky twin. This is a point that is beat into the reader's head over and over. Seriously. It's like the driving action for the first chunk of the book. Her sister has won the wedding, the vacation, the dresses, the food, well you get the picture. But what Olive doesn't see is that entering all those contests is practically a full-time job. Her sister isn't actually luckier than she is.
Ethan is the groom's brother. He and Olive have hated each other since they met. Or have they…
There's a food poisoning issue at the wedding, and Olive and Ethan are the only two who didn't eat the food. Her sister tells her that she and Ethan will have to go on her honeymoon. The catch is that they'll have to masquerade as the bride and groom or else they would have to pay for the free honeymoon.
The idea is so cute and fun and totally something I normally enjoy. But this one didn't completely do it for me.
This book was a mixed bag for me. I almost DNF'd it about 60% in. There's a scene where they are talking about something important, and Olive makes a skeevy comment. It's out of character and I hated it. I'm glad I finished the book, but this comment, this stupid throwaway comment was unnecessary.
I also feel like this book was too long. It was fun and funny, and then certain parts of it dragged, or seemed unnecessary. There's a subplot involving her sister and new husband that I just found frustrating. I won't spoil it, but I was really surprised that's the direction the authors went.
I feel like the ending was a great ending, and the book on the whole was good, I just don't think these authors are for me.
***ARC provided courtesy of the publisher


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Mexico City [Mexico], June 24 (ANI/Xinhua): At least 12 people were killed in a confrontation between police and armed civilians in the town of El Salto, in west Mexico's Jalisco state, state governor Enrique Alfaro confirmed Thursday.
Four police officers were among the fatal victims, Alfaro said via Twitter.
"El Salto police and state police shot down eight criminals yesterday and left three seriously injured, after responding to a report of a safe house where there were hidden weapons," Alfaro said.
"Unfortunately, 4 police officers from the town of El Salto were killed in the line of duty," the governor added.
In March, the Ministry of National Defense (Sedena) deployed a group of soldiers to violence-ridden Jalisco as part of the Mexico Joint Task Force program to strengthen surveillance of criminal activity in the state in the wake of a wave of killings.
The Jalisco New Generation Cartel emerged in 2010 as a cell of the Sinaloa Cartel and now has a presence in at least seven Mexican states, as well as Mexico City. (ANI/Xinhua)
This report is auto-generated from ANI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.
Source: The Print


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Example of how to recursively delete files
find / -name .DS_Store -delete find . -name error-log -delete
Just because I disagree with you, does not mean I hate you. We need to relearn that in society.
Code is poetry
Poor planning on your part does not necessitate an emergency on mine. — Bob Carter;
We are so creative that when we have no problems, we invent them. — Augusto Cury
A person is smart, people are stupid
The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge — Stephen Hawking #RIP
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is — Jan L. A. van de Snepscheut
He is all of them. And he is one of us.
In computer science, there are only two hard problems: cache invalidation, naming things, and off-by-one errors.
If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one? — Abraham Lincoln
Could'a, would'a, should'a … that's me
I didn't say it was your fault, I said I'm going to blame you.
You can never have enough of too much
A person is smart, people are stupid. — Agent K
Nobody notices what I do until I don't do it
In the end, you only regret the chances you didn't take.
Should I shut up now?
The grass is ALWAYS greener on the other side of the fence, but there is also always cow shit in the grass somewhere
Quantity has a quality all of its own — Joseph Stalin
They can't even. They lose all ability to can.
« A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP — Leonard Nimoy aka Spock »
There are two ways to write error-free programs; only the third works — Alan J. Perlis
For all that they did, and for all they were never able to do, we remember. Lest We Forget
Dumb as a bucket of rocks
If it's a good idea, go ahead and do it. It is much easier to apologize than it is to get permission — Grace Hopper
Working on it …
Questions are easy, it is the answers that are hard
We have met the enemy, and he is us.
So dumb he can't fart and chew gum at the same time — Lyndon Johnson, on Ford
One of these days I'm gunna climb that mountain
ASAP means As Soon As Possible, not Right &#^ing Now!
Society has become so fake that the truth actually bothers people.
Perseverance, the secret of all triumphs — Victor Hugo


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Irwin and McKnight, P.C.
AttorneysHot Deal Participant
About Us
A full-service law firm that emphasizes business issues, family, litigation, real estate, estate planning, worker's comp, social security disability, automobile accidents and municipal services.
Rep/Contact Info
Marcus A. McKnight III
- Phone: (717) 249-2353
- Fax: -(717) 249-6354
- Send an Email
- 60 W. Pomfret St. Carlisle PA 17013


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Even though he is hanging on in the Alaska House District 36 Democratic Primary Election, candidate Dave Kaplan suspects it will be difficult for him to bridge the 18-vote gap between him and Andy Lundquist. And even though he will not concede unless he's still behind after the election's certification, he is preparing to set his sights on a different elective office, just in case.
Kaplan announced yesterday (Thursday) afternoon that barring a turnaround in the House race, he will run as a write-in candidate for Kodiak Island Borough Assembly, where only two candidates are running for three open seats.
— (Kaplan 1 30 sec "I didn't think about it … always been important to me.")
Kaplan received 405 of his 579 House race votes from within the Kodiak Island Borough, so his name recognition is high among voters. And while he thinks he should have a leg up as a write-in assembly candidate, he says he will still have to work for every vote:
— (Kaplan 2 18 sec "You know we don't … voter need to be educated on this.")
The past year has been a tumultuous one for the borough assembly. There have been lawsuits and counter-lawsuits, land and water use disputes, and now, a push to build a new high school. Kaplan says he's ready for the challenges and wants to help put the troubles of the past behind the borough:
— (Kaplan 3 36 sec "I would like to bring an … Borough Mayor Jerome Selby.")
The Alaska House District 36 Democratic Primary Election should be certified by Wednesday or Thursday, after 27 overseas absentee ballots are counted.
The Kodiak municipal election is less than a month away, on October 7th.


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Leadership Conversations: Navigating Blind Spots and Transforming TeamsRead More
https://youtu.be/38kVypj4fuk?si=x7hG_4wZ6tWcAR-nHosted by NAESP member, author, and keynote speaker Adam Welcome, NAESP Leadership Conversations is a new way t…
Leadership Conversations: Self-Reflection: Being Your Own Determinant of SuccessRead More
Hear from Baruti Kafele, Author and Speaker, as he discusses how to effectuate development and growth.
A Research Adventurer's Guide To Asking QuestionsRead More
Hear from Ellen Galinsky, CEO and founder of Mind in the Making. as she discusses how to keep your fire burning as an educator.
Leadership Conversations: Building Better SchoolsRead More
https://youtu.be/KSDNDJFdi3oHosted by NAESP member, author, and keynote speaker Adam Welcome, NAESP Leadership Conversations is a new way to bring you professi…
Webinar: Stretching at Your Collaborative EdgesRead More
Our ability to collaborate respectfully with one another matters for the collective well-being of all within it. Based on the book, Stretching Your Learning Ed…
SEL Leadership Cohort: Leadership and ForgivenessRead More
In this sixth and final session, Jamie Selfridge, principal of Caribou High School in Caribou, Maine, will discuss strategies to maintain professional relation…
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This webinar addresses the legal issues when parents insist on an active presence or role in their child's education to the point that it may cross certain bou…
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In this fifth session, discussion and activities focus on how to cultivate healthy relationships in the workplace. We will explore the value of "managing up," …
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In this fourth session, discussion and activities will focus on understanding the brain to get to the heart of SEL. We will explore how the brain functions in …
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This session is designed to begin the journey of infusing racial equity practices into all aspects of your leadership. To engage in curriculum, pedagogy, and p…
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Positive culture shaped by school personnel has never been more important and lays the foundation for optimal performance. Participants will learn high-leverag…


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An unusual number of wolf sightings have been reported of late in western Uusimaa, mostly in an area some 80 km west of Helsinki. The Finnish Wildlife Agency says a wolf pack has set up a new territory there.
This autumn it granted an exceptional license to shoot one young male near the western Uusimaa coast. However the male wolf that was shot was an adult. It was shot in southern Karjaa on October 27, just before the license expired.
"There was an alpha pair, that is a male and a female, as well as six cubs. At the moment it appears that wolf that was killed was the pack's alpha male. Therefore it is very difficult to say how permanent this territory will be," says Visa Eronen, a game manager at the Wildlife Agency.
20 observations in 2 months
The largest number of wolf observations have been made around the village of Snappertuna, part of the sprawling municipality of Raseborg. The Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) has received about 20 reports of wolves in the area within the past two months.
"Wolves cause concern in the area, although it is usually not very well grounded. Of course you can't give any guarantees as to how wild animals will behave. But we can say that the animals in this pack aren't very afraid of humans," Eronen tells Yle.
More than 40 wolf observations have been reported in all of western Uusimaa in recent times. The only other reports in Uusimaa are in the northern part between Hyvinkää and Mäntsälä, some 100 km north of the capital, where the tracks of a lone wolf have been spotted.
Story continues after graph
Further north, some residents of Ullava, near the west-coast town of Kokkola, have this autumn been calling for local hunting permits and special school transportation following reports of a pack of around six wolves in the area. The last time a wolf killed a human in Finland was in 1882.
Wolves move in from west coast
Antti Härkälä, a research technician at Luke, says he's not surprised that a pack would establish itself along the western Uusimaa coast.
"If you think about the fact that there have been wolves for more than a decade only about 100 kilometres away in south-western Finland, it's no surprise that some of them have ended up on the western Uusimaa coast. Based on DNA from the wolves' scat, the Snappertuna pack's male was from the Satakunta wolf territory [near Pori] and the female was from the border area between Raseborg and Salo."
Härkälä says that the wolves' origin explains their boldness, as they have lived relatively close to built-up areas their entire lives.
The Wildlife Agency and Luke plan to intensify their monitoring of wolves this winter. They are teaming up with the Finnish Hunters' Association to collect wolf droppings for DNA analysis, which can provide more detail about the size of wolf packs and their territories – which typically range between 700 and 1,000 square kilometres in Finland, according to the state forest agency Metsähallitus.
Standing-room-only public meeting
On Monday, the Wildlife Agency hosted an informational meeting on wolves in Karjaa. The event was packed with local residents, some presenting heated arguments for and against the proliferation of wolves in the region. The agency says it aims to ease the co-existence of humans and wolves in the area, and is setting up a committee including local residents to discuss the issue.
However Eronen points out that the Snappertuna pack may fade away following the death of its alpha male. On the other hand a new male wolf may enter the territory.
The Finnish Hunters' Association meanwhile is hosting what it bills as the first-ever national 'wolf forum' in Riihimäki on Thursday.
Last spring, Luke estimated Finland's wolf population at 150-180 individuals. The agency is to release its next estimate in May or June 2018.
The EU has in the past filed complaints with Finland over allowing the hunting of wolves, arguing against culling as they are listed as an endangered, protected species.


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https://blog.breckenridgegrandvacations.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/GC8_FI4.jpg 165 340 Breckenridge Grand Vacations https://blog.breckenridgegrandvacations.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/bgv_logo.png Breckenridge Grand Vacations2015-07-09 10:50:392015-07-10 09:40:22Grand Colorado on Peak 8 Property Information
Construction on Grand Colorado on Peak 8 is well underway. As of June 30 the following has been taking place:
- Concrete work will be complete in Phase 1 over the next 2 – 3 weeks
- Steel is set through Phase 2 and we have started on 1F and 2F in Phase 3
- The framing is 90% complete in the Phase 1 residential units, 2F – 5F
- We began hanging drywall in the residential units, 2F
- Fireplaces are being installed in the residential units, 2F – 3F
- The windows continue to be installed
- Exterior fascia and window trim is being installed in Phase 1
- Work will begin in earnest on the pools, etc. within a couple of weeks


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Creating Manufacturing Training That Works
The ultimate goal of job training is to teach employees skills that they will perform on the job as desired, leading to real and measurable progress toward business goals (such as increasing revenue, decreasing waste, improving compliance, etc.). However, it's not unusual for people to be involved in the creation and delivery of training without having a proven, formulaic method for doing this. This webinar will give you a roadmap you can use to create better, more effective training that really gets results at work.
- You'll Learn To:
- Determine business goals and KPIs relevant to training efforts
- Analyze training needs before creating training
- Create learning objectives
- Create assessments
- Create more effective training materials
- Evaluate training
- Determine if training is having a positive effect on business goals


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Towery et al v. Brewer et al
Filing 104
ORDER granting 103 Motion to Continue: The Court will grant the motion with the caveat that argument will be rescheduled if Defendants do not withdraw the motion or if Plaintiffs do not seek leave to file a fourth amended complaint by September 2 8, 2012. FURTHER ORDERED that Plaintiffs may seek leave to file a fourth amended complaint no later than September 28, 2012. FURTHER ORDERED that if Plaintiffs seek leave to amend, Defendants shall file a new motion to dismiss no later than fourteen (14) days after filing of the fourth amended complaint. Signed by Judge Neil V Wake on 8/17/12.(SJF)
Disclaimer: Justia Dockets & Filings provides public litigation records from the federal appellate and district courts. These filings and docket sheets should not be considered findings of fact or liability, nor do they necessarily reflect the view of Justia.


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Loving life as a lawyer: How to maintain joy in your work (podcast)
Do you dread going to work? If so, maybe it's time to look at the other ways you can flex your legal skills, Nancy Levit says. There are many types of jobs for lawyers, and sometimes what you thought you wanted to do doesn't work out, Levit tells the ABA Journal's Stephanie Francis Ward in this episode of Asked and Answered.
Levit shares tips on how to find the work you want to do and how to find joy in the work you're already doing.
One way to adjust your mindset at work is to look at who you're spending time with, she says. Are you hanging out with colleagues who have positive outlooks, or with the workplace worrywarts and complainers?
Levit advises keeping a mindset of "downward" comparisons. Comparing "upward" means focusing on the things others have that you don't, while comparing downward makes you grateful for the things you do have. Lawyers tend to want perfection, she says, and the quest to keep up with the Joneses—or the Jones Days—can cause people to be unhappy.
Updated Feb. 5 to correct passage about "downward" comparisons.
In This Podcast:
Nancy Levit
Nancy Levit is a professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law and the interim associate dean for faculty. She teaches defamation and privacy, employment discrimination, gender and justice, jurisprudence and torts, and is the co-adviser to the UMKC Law Review. Levit is the author of several books, including The Happy Lawyer: Making a Good Life in the Law and its sequel, The Good Lawyer: Seeking Quality in the Practice of Law, both co-authored by Douglas Linder.


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AAF Omaha binds together mutual interests of corporate advertisers, agencies, marketing and media services, suppliers, academia, and other advertising and public relations professionals.
When great minds come together, good things happen. Our programming offers a mix of educational, service-based, community-focused, and downright fun opportunities to connect, develop and release with colleagues, competitors and friends.
AAF Omaha is your club and your advocate for a host of advertising industry-related issues. Read the latest issue of AdMuse for upcoming events and happenings.


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The 2008 Class That Explains Elizabeth Warren's Style
She's been tagged as a "lecturer" on the campaign. The students who watched her scrap her lesson plan to tackle the financial crisis saw something more compelling at work.
In the middle of the volatile fall of 2008, with foreclosures skyrocketing and companies failing and unemployment spiking and the stock market sinking, 80 rattled first-semester Harvard Law School students stood outside a classroom and watched the Dow plummet yet again. Then they stepped inside and took their seats for their contracts course with professor Elizabeth Warren.
"And professor Warren's like, 'We're actually not going to talk about contracts,'" former student Danielle D'Onfro told me. "'We're going to talk about what's happening in the world.'"
Warren ditched the syllabus and instead gave a lecture on the cratering economy and its causes, encapsulating the collapse as she understood it. In interviews over the past couple weeks, her former students described it as "riveting" and "engaging" and "eye-opening."
"She basically proceeded to explain the financial crisis as it was happening," Nigel Barrella said. "It was pretty amazing—at a time when no one else, really, seemed to have answers like that—that she would come in and talk about credit default swaps and collateralized mortgages, junk mortgages, carved up into tranches, and sold to financial institutions as high-quality financial products."
Her impromptu primer on the crisis spanned two days, November 12 and 13, according to the calendar of one of her students, and their takeaway was twofold: (1) Professor Warren sure had a knack for talking about this stuff, and (2) this skill might take her somewhere beyond even the august confines of HLS.
"I think for all of us sitting there at that moment," D'Onfro said, "we realized that, you know, this person is not just going to be our contracts professor."
They were right. Warren's gift for explication has led her almost inexorably from there to here—from explaining at Harvard, in classes, in a reading group, on a blog and on panels of academics and in the popular press, to explaining in Washington, where she came to prominence as a piercing watchdog before she was elected to the Senate. And on a historically crowded presidential campaign trail, she has steadily distanced herself from most of the field with her grasp of detail and capacity to break it down, standing as the top-polling Democrat not named Joe Biden heading into this week's curtain-raising debates.
Warren's professorial background, and her history as a Washington player on an issue as complex as financial regulation, has led some political observers to ask of late whether this particular gift could be a mixed blessing—a talent that also defines her ceiling, especially with the working-class voters who could make the difference in a presidential election.
"She's lecturing," David Axelrod, the top Barack Obama strategist, recently said of Warren in the New York Times Magazine, wondering how that approach would play with non-college-educated white voters. ("I regretted that the rest of my thoughts were excised," he told me in a subsequent conversation, saying Warren has "phenomenal strengths." But still: "I think this is the last big hurdle for her," he said.)
He's not the only one who's considered this. "It's a fascinating question," former Jeb Bush senior adviser Michael Steel told me. He called it "a huge challenge … figuring out how to explain her policy positions, the problems they purport to address, and how it fits in with her theory, in a way that somebody sitting on a stool in a Waffle House will understand and agree with."
Others, though, push back on just the basic terms of this conversation. Progressive consultant Rebecca Katz said in an email, "Let's call the attack on her 'lecturing' what it really is: sexist." Added Boston-based political analyst Mary Anne Marsh: "She's been defining this race."
On the debate stage Wednesday night, facing off against nine other contenders, Warren will have a platform, if a narrow one, to make the kind of vivid and persuasive case that grabs voters. In the Democratic Party, at least, there are footsteps for an expert explainer to follow: Obama had a professor's demeanor and rhetorical tics, and Bill Clinton laid out big ideas and policy nuances at length, all while forging personal connections with a wide variety of audiences.
Some who've gauged her as a candidate think Warren is honing these same skills. "I thought at the beginning of the campaign watching her that she was lecturing," longtime Democratic strategist Bob Shrum told me, "and then as time has gone on, and she's done these town meetings, she's gotten better and better at explaining and relating what she's saying in human terms."
Republican consultants I contacted concur. "I think she's a much more formidable politician than a lot of people, especially, on the right, think," Liz Mair, a communications strategist who's worked for Scott Walker, Rick Perry and Rand Paul, said in an email.
If Warren grabs the spotlight on that crowded stage, there's a group of former law students who can explain why.
"Will the Middle Class Survive?"
In the fall of '08, that's what Warren called her reading group, a quasi-extracurricular klatch of a dozen students who had signed up to explore the topic at the heart of her life's work. The reading: some chapters from a book about class, some chapters from a book about health care and some chapters from a book of her own—The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Parents Are Going Broke, which she wrote with her daughter and was published in 2003. "I'm looking forward to this," Warren wrote to the students, according to emails one of them shared with me.
It took no time at all for current events to scramble the group's schedule.
"Class Matters is beginning to feel a bit dated," Warren wrote to the group ahead of its first real get-together. Class Matters had come out just three years before. "Would you like me to talk with you about how the subprime crisis started and what might be done about it? If that would be more timely, I'm glad to do it."
The students made plain what they wanted. "Your responses overwhelmingly favored talking about the mortgage meltdown," Warren wrote.
The rest of the semester, meeting on intermittent Thursday evenings at Warren's dark green Victorian house with a wrought-iron fence, Warren served them salmon and ribs and ordered in Redbones along with peach cobbler that almost every student I talked to mentioned without prompting. They drank herbal tea and talked, taking turns petting Otis, Warren's convivial golden retriever. They discussed the reading—but their conversations, members of the group told me, couldn't help but veer away from the pages of the texts and toward the topsy-turvy economy.
"There's a tendency in elite law schools to just remove yourself from the realities of the world, and it was a really strange time to enter law school, when the economy was collapsing around you," Rachel Lauter said. "And I remember feeling incredibly lucky to have her on the ground floor explaining what was happening."
"She can talk to normal people and explain complicated things in a way that's comprehensible," Jad Mills said.
"That's not always how law professors communicate," Libby Benton said.
Neither is this: Throughout that fall, Warren penned op-eds (families losing their homes were "casualties of a financial system that saw them not as customers, but as prey," she wrote in the Chicago Tribune on September 22), she blogged at creditslips.org (the $700 billion bailout was "keeping me awake at night," she wrote on September 23), fired off quotes on network news shows (she called a credit card "a poisonous snake in your wallet" on ABC's "Nightline" on September 25) and lit up panels with fellow academics at Harvard.
At one, "The Financial Crisis: Causes and Cures," she proved to be "an audience favorite," according to the student newspaper, describing subprime mortgages as "35-cent bananas" that should've cost 15 cents. She was the only woman on the panel with five men.
"They were talking, just trying to explain the basics of, like, credit default swaps, and what a securitized trust was, and what had happened generally," one of Warren's former students told me, "because no one really understood what was going on, period. And so I remember that other people on the panel would speak and everyone would sort of tune out. … But then Elizabeth started speaking, and it just, like, made so much sense, and people were, like, cheering and standing up, and it's hard to get a crowd on their feet when you're talking about credit default swaps! … It was one of the most incredible things that I had ever seen in terms of somebody being able to take these really arcane concepts and make them feel relevant, accessible and outraging at the same time."
Back in the classroom, in another meeting of students, Warren asked what they would do if they were in charge of a big financial institution. Hunker down, some said, and tighten up. She made it clear that wasn't the answer she was looking for. And then students' hands started to shoot up. The answer, actually, was the opposite. "You grow as fast as you can. You buy as much as you can with borrowed money. And you lend and borrow from as many other large institutions as possible. Because then the government can't afford to let you fail," Warren would recall a student saying. "It took my students about two minutes," as she put it later, "to see how to build a bank that would be Too Big to Fail."
Warren's teaching style was amped-up Socratic, fostering lightning-quick dialogue one student I talked to likened to dodge ball and another compared to machine gun fire. Her teaching assistants kept index cards to track who'd been called on how often, and it was standard, according to former students, for every one of them to be called on once if not twice every class. "Very demanding," Marielle Macher said. "It was the class that we were all the most prepared for," Caitlin Kekacs said. Warren's classes, Charles Fried, her Harvard colleague who served as one of Ronald Reagan's solicitor generals, told me, were "electric," and her student evaluations were effusive. And she was known, at least inside the law school, specifically for never lecturing. So what happened on November 12 and 13 was decidedly different from what she usually did. Mainly, on those days, she just talked—and her students just listened.
In its way, many students told me, Warren's lecture was strangely comforting.
"The world's ending," Dan Mach remembered. "And here was a professor who knew a lot about it and could explain it better than other people," Dave Casserly said. It was something they mostly weren't getting from their other professors.
Larry Tribe, the preeminent constitutional scholar and Warren's Harvard colleague, told me he heard this sentiment from students that fall. "That has stuck with me," Tribe said. "It's also stuck with me partly because of my own memory when I was a law student at Harvard when dramatic, terrifying things would happen. I mean, I was actually a first- or second-year law student when Kennedy was assassinated, and I remember coming to class the next day, barely able to hold myself together. And the professor, who was someone I really liked and admired, not only then but years after, barely paused. He basically said, 'Terrible things are going on, but we have our work to do.' And then he went right back to discussing complicated issues of civil procedure. And that was kind of an inhuman and inhumane environment. And in some ways Elizabeth Warren is … the absolute opposite of someone who would treat legal education as an insulated bubble separate from the world."
Tribe told me, too, about the way Warren at the time helped the woman who would become his wife. Elizabeth Westling was going through a divorce, riddled with worry, when her therapist gave her … books—The Two-Income Trap and All Your Worth—by Warren. "I thought to myself, 'Well, this is ridiculous. What would I need this for?'" Westling told me. "But I went home, and I read them, and lo and behold, it really transformed my psyche, I think, because what it did was give me a sense of empowerment and confidence."
It's something I heard from many of the 19 former Warren students I talked to for this story. What they got from her in 2008 was not only edifying but also eased their anxieties about the economy. She helped them because they felt she maybe could be a part of helping to fix it.
And on the evening of November 13, hours after finishing her lecture on the economy to her contracts class in Pound Hall and minutes before hosting a third of them for the first of three straight nights of dinners with students at her house, she got a call from Harry Reid. The Senate majority leader asked her to take the oversight position. And she was off to Washington. "Harry Reid," she would say, "forever changed my life with that phone call."
The next day, Reid made the announcement about Warren's new role.
That afternoon, she sent an email to her students. One of them shared it with me. It was … not about her new role.
"Some of you have met Otis, the 100-pound golden retriever who lives with us," Warren wrote. "He's sweet and he's lonely right now—desperate for someone who would like to play. If you are around and would like to have some puppy love, would you drop by to get Otis?"
Midday this past Saturday, in Columbia, South Carolina, I stood near the rear of the main hall of the convention of the South Carolina Democratic Party and took in what quickly turned into an episode of the prosecutor versus the professor.
Kamala Harris was first up among the catalog of 2020 Democrats, and she gave a spirited personal statement to the near-capacity crowd of 1,800. She said she knew how to "take on predators"—she didn't need to say the name of the person she was talking about—and then built to a crescendo. "I'm going to tell you we need somebody on our stage when it comes time for that general election who knows how to recognize a rap sheet when they see it and prosecute the case!" she said. "Let's prosecute the case!" Her speech elicited raucous cheers.
Warren came on some 20 minutes after Harris. She introduced herself as a practically accidental politician, self-identifying from the start as a teacher, although she didn't mention Harvard. "Teachers," she said, "understand the worth of every single human being. Teachers invest in the future. And teachers never give up." In a checklist rundown of her "big plans," she said her proposed 2 percent tax on net worth above $50 million could pay for universal child care and pre-kindergarten, tuition-free college, zap student loan debt, make billion-dollar investments in historically black colleges and universities, and provide higher pay for teachers. But her seven minutes on stage felt a little rote and a tad flat. As Warren spoke, I stood next to the raised platform made to be an MSNBC set and watched Harris get interviewed live.
Something that's helped Warren vault past Bernie Sanders and others in the polls and into that second slot behind Biden? Her town halls. In Iowa and New Hampshire and other early states. Even in places like West Virginia. And on CNN and MSNBC (but not on Fox News). She's generally better, most observers and analysts agree, interacting with voters rather than delivering speeches. "I've seen her be very effective in small groups," Axelrod told me. It's the sort of setting that allows her to delve more deeply into her myriad detailed policy proposals.
An hour or so after her convention appearance, just across the street, Warren bounded into the homier, more intimate environs in the building hosting Planned Parenthood's "We Decide" forum. In front of a gathering perhaps a quarter of the size, sitting between two women asking her questions instead of standing behind a lectern, Warren was kinetic in a way she simply hadn't been at the convention. Here, she answered questions from people in the crowd. Here, she came off as a teacher but also as a fighter. Asked about Roe v. Wade, she was nothing if not animated. "The truth is," she said, "we've been on defense for 47 years. And it's not working. … I say it is time to go on offense!" She held her microphone in her right hand and gesticulated energetically with her left. She sat on the edge of her seat. She dropped a "by golly." She left to a standing ovation.
A little later, up one floor, Warren darted into a small room set aside for candidates to talk to reporters if they wanted to and plucked a grape from a picked-at tray. She popped it into her mouth and faced the hasty half-moon of cameras. She was asked about Donald Trump. She dinged him for his "ineptitude." She was asked about Pete Buttigieg and his trouble at home. She said she wasn't going to criticize her fellow Democrats. And then she was asked why people should trust her. She gave an answer that would have sounded familiar to her first-semester law students in the fall of '08.
"This is a fight I've been in for all my life, long before I ever got engaged in politics of any kind," she said. "I've spent my whole life on exactly this issue. What's happening to working families in this country? Why is America's middle class being hollowed out? Why is it that people who work hard every day find a path so rocky and so steep and for people of color even rockier and even steeper? And the answer is a government that works better and better for billionaires and giant corporations and kicks dirt in everyone else's face. Well, I say: In a democracy, we can change that. And that's why I'm in this fight."
At that, it was time to go. It was her 70th birthday. She had a flight to catch to get home to continue to prepare for Wednesday's debate. She reached for another grape.
"We got cake in the car," a staffer said.
"We got cake in the car!" Warren said.


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Used to gather loose weeds and debris from ponds, beaches and wet areas, this oversize rake works two ways. To rake on or near the bottom, you can use the slow-sinking head as is, or fill it with sand or other weight to sink it faster. To collect material from the surface, you can make the rake head float by attaching a length of foam pool noodle or other buoyant material. The 37" wide head lets you cover large areas quickly and the strong, flexible plastic tines deflect off rocks and obstructions. Made of aluminum and weighing less than 7 lb, it can be held by the 11' handle or pitched and retrieved using the 43' rope.
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Recreational Diving
For more than 40 years, SSI has provided training, scuba diving certification, and educational resources for divers, dive instructors, dive centres and resorts around the world. Started in 1970, SSI has expanded to include more than 30 Service Centres, is represented in more than 110 countries with over 2.500 International locations, and has materials printed in more than 40 languages.
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Open Circuit
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Gas Blender Courses


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Monday, April 5, 2010
Mike Butler: Tax Working Group errors spottedLabels: Mike Butler, Property investment, Tax' and expenditure
The working group claimed the $200-billion invested in rentals was an over-investment considering the NZ Stock Exchange only has a market capitalization of $55-billion. With 299,607 tenanted properties owned by a private person, trust or business, according to the 2006 census, the average value of each rental property would be $667,540, Evans wrote. "Even allowing for the growth in the number of rental properties from 2006 to 2008, the average value for each rental property is clearly too high when the median price for all properties in 2008 was $335,000," he wrote.
"The total value of rental property in New Zealand is actually around $80-billion. As much of this amount is in the form of debt, the actual investment in NZ rental property is closer to $30-billion", he wrote. He also noted that the working group chose to focus on the loss made in 2008 rather than the fact that for the vast majority of the study's past 28 years, property investment was profitable meaning tax was paid on rental property income.
The academic who cast doubt on the robustness of the $200-billion figure was Michael Littlewood, of Auckland University's Retirement Policy Research Centre. He said in an APN report dated April 5 that a lot of sponginess in the 2006 census split between owner-occupied and rented housing derives from the fact that more than 6 percent of Census results on dwelling tenure were either unstated or unidentifiable, and in another 4 percent of cases the usual residents neither owned them nor paid rent. Also, 4.3 percent of all dwellings are state houses, rented, but not from private landlords.
Littlewood said that the $200-billion looks high or very high when compared with data from the national accounts or from the 2002 household savings survey.
The Key government's hasty reaction on rental property taxation is not the first time shoddy advice has sent it on a wild goose chase. The Emissions Trading Scheme, which will bring an increase of five percent in the price of electricity and of four cents per litre in the price of petrol from July 1 this year, was based on advice from taxpayer-funded climate-doom zealots.
Government departments such as Housing New Zealand and Work and Income already co-operate with private accommodation providers in the course of their work. I would have thought an enlightened government would seek to do the same.