text:
A Dance in the Waves
Today has felt like a vacation more than the rest of our time here. All we had to do this morning was our presentation which went pretty well. Great job Sienna and Bryce for getting the best presentation award. They studied how much time cleaner wrasse spent cleaning fish of different sizes. It was an awesome study!
For the rest of the day we played hide and go seek tag and swam in the lagoon. Swimming by the spotted eagle rays and the turtles was for sure my favorite. I also love that the parrot fish let me get so close to them.
I have learned to make deliberate decisions during this trip. To make deliberate choices surrounding my faith and my school work. I have also realized that I can do anything I want to do. If I want to study fish in foreign countries, I can. A main reason people have a hard time being scientists is because they don't know how to fail, but that is a part of life and a part of the scientific process. Nothing successful comes before a failure. My goal is to master the art of failure. I am so grateful for everyone who has helped me out to get here. I am especially grateful to my God for blessing me with opportunities and showing me the joy of dancing in the waves.
As my time at Heron Island is coming to a close, I am taking advantage of every moment to get in the lagoon. This is especially true because all we have scheduled these days is to work on our presentations and reports. We are getting a little stir crazy sitting inside.
At about 2:30 we went out for a swim on the conservation side of the island. Up to this point, I had only been to the research side. This was a real treat because I saw so many new things! One of my favorites was the clownfish. In one spot, there were two Barrier reef anemone fish in a leathery sea anemone. They were so cute swimming by each other. In another spot, there were some cinnamon clownfish in another anemone. Clown fish are weird! Did you know that the male will become a female if its partner dies? Newsflash! Nemo's dad is really a girl! 😲 Man, ocean life is weird – but that is why I love it!
Once Colt and I swam back to shore, we were waiting for everyone else to get back. I decided to stick my head under and swim around by shore for a little bit. A whole school of parrotfish came up and started munching on the dead coral around. It was so cool because they let me get really close and I could hear their beaks scraping the rock. I am really glad these guys don't eat meat because a munch from one of them would really hurt!
Eventually Trisha swam back and told us there was an octopus back by Ed. I sprinted straight off because I didn't want to miss out on all of the fun. When I was about 100 meters away, I looked up and saw a black tip reef shark swimming away. Boy, that was an exciting moment because I hadn't yet spotted one on my own! I chased after him for a little bit, but he was too fast for me. I thought it was ironic that I was chasing a shark. When I got to where the octopus was, he had stuffed himself into a hole and turned the stark white color of the sand. He really wanted to be left alone, so we left. I felt like I had a lot of really good luck on this swim with spotting wildlife.
The other highlight of my day was the beautiful sunset. Trisha told us about that as well. I really appreciate that she always makes a point of telling us when cool things are happening and is sure not to leave anyone out. I have been able to see a lot of cool things because of her.
Well folks, it's been real telling you about all of the experiences from today. If you aren't a little bit jealous, then I haven't done my job. Stay curious, friends!
What fish is that?
We did a lot of video analysis today. I mean, a lot… and we only got through two hours of footage. There were so many new fish to identify! It was so exciting to actually figure out a fish that was giving us a hard time! It was also really cool when stingrays went by in the picture. In one instance, a ray just flew over the camera and we could see the whole underside of it. That was a real treat.
After we did all of this work, we spoke with Ed and Trisha, and they suggested that we just analyze the bite marks on the herbivore assays rather than go through a bunch of footage for our class presentation. That was a real bummer because I love going through those videos.
After we found this out, Ed decided to go for a swim and Saul, Colt, and I decided to go with him. Even though I have so much to do, I have decided to just enjoy every moment on this island. I mean, when am I going to come back here again? I really hope that I am able to as a researcher one day, but that is a long way off. I have decided to stop letting my business control my life. If there is something out there to experience, grab on to it, because you never know when you will get the chance again. Savor the little things in life that make it enjoyable.
Ed got the crap scared out of him by a shark while we were out swimming. He dove down to check out a little hole and out comes a shark that barrels right toward his face and veers off to the right. Yeah, that one startled him quite a bit, but it made for a fantastic story. I am pretty sure Saul got his face on video afterward as well. That, I really want to see. 😉
It's been a great day! I can't believe we only have two more days here! Don't forget, savor every moment!
White Caps
I really love starting off the mornings with a swim in the boat channel. Checking out the life there is just a refreshing way to start off the day. The cool sighting of the day there was a spotted eagle ray that just chilled out by us for a little bit. Not as cool as the turtle yesterday, but still a cool moment.
This was the last day of data collection! It's kind of a bitter/sweet moment because I actually enjoy going out every day to the same spot and see how things have changed or how they are staying the same. I have grown very fond of a little white tail dascyllus that likes to sit by our reef one, zero meter spot. I think they are my favorite of the little fish. There is also a sharp nose puffer that likes to sit by that site as well. If you don't know what these guys look like, I highly suggest looking them up. Sorry, I don't have a picture of these guys yet, but I intend to get them from the footage from my project. Since today was the last day, we had to collect all of the gear from the lagoon. This was about 150-200 lbs of gear 200 meters out from the reef. Imagine swimming that in. Luckily, I have a wonderful teacher and classmates who kindly consented to helping us get all of this back. Thank you, Cassie, Camp, and Ed! We distributed all of the weight between three buckets. Honestly, you cannot tell how much weight it is until its starts sinking the bucket. Let me tell you, it feels like a million bucks to get rid of the bucket though.
The water was pretty rough today. There were even some white caps in the lagoon. This can be concerning because there is coral all around, luckily the tide was high enough that we weren't getting bashed into anything. There was a kind of heart pounding moment on the way back, bringing the gear in. We swam into a whole school of frenzied large fish. It definitely seemed there was something after them. We didn't see anything though, and just picked up the pace a little bit.
For my project, I have been leaving a go pro at nine different locations for three hours each day. We have done this for four days, so it is going to be a lot of fish activity to go through. Even in just analyzing the first bit, we have already seen two cowhead stingray, one spotted eagle ray, and a whole bunch of fish. Screen shots of these guys are soon to come! I am really excited to go through this footage this summer. It's like Christmas because you just don't know what you are going to get! I am sure my family will love looking over my shoulder at the footage while I am going through it.
Well, it has been a long, good day and I am glad that it is winding down. Field work is done for my project, so now it's just lab work and video analysis. I'm excited to see what results we get!
Swam through a Cow Herd
This day started off with an early morning swim. The water was pretty murky so we had to get pretty close to things before you could see them. We did have a really special moment though. We looked up at one point and saw a massive loggerhead turtle swimming toward us. It swam about a foot underneath me. I turned around to swim with it and it was legitimately as tall as I am. Loggerhead get the largest out of all the turtles in this area. Later on, we were swimming down the other side of the boat channel and the same thing happened again! Two special moments for us!
It was fairly stormy today, so setting the go pros and lettuce out for my project was more of an adventure. On the swim back in, we ran into probably about 40 cow head stingrays. This was in only about 4 feet of water and these guys have huge spines on their tail – the kind of spines that killed the Crocodile Hunter. Granted, he was trying to hug one of these guys at the time, but it still unnerving. Their wing span is about four feet across, so these are definitely not small.
The rest of this day has been full of data analysis. The rest of the class started their projects today. It is cool to see what everyone else is studying. There are so many questions to be answered. One thing I noticed while swimming back is that the sand perches take their time to go back in their burrows when the live next a reef structure versus when the live out in the open sand. In the open sand, they dart into their burrows as soon as they come into view. The ones in the coral only dart in when you make sudden movements. There is so much to learn about the ocean, and I am glad that I get to contribute to this knowledge.
Here is to science!
I'm Free. Free Diving.
The day started out with a wonderful trip down to the beach to see the sunrise. Tia, Kim, Sienna, and I took some beautiful pictures. I am in awe of the beauty of this place. There is just natural beauty everywhere you look. I am so blessed to be here broadening my research abilities and soaking in this ecosystem.
Today we had another great time on the outer reef. I have gotten pretty decent at free diving. It is so fun to dive down into the channels made by corals and check out the things hanging out there. One time I dove down and there were just three groupers chilling out down there. I got pretty close and continued to swim through the channel. When I came out, the most beautiful array of yellow and blue fish were before me. It was breath taking. When I decided it was time to come back up, I realized how far down I had gone. Once you get past a certain depth you don't really notice how far down you are – that is until you need air. I was considerably more comfortable in the water today than yesterday.
The next major part of my day was data collection. Things are going much more smoothly now that we have the all of the gear out there ready for set up.
On the swim back, we saw a gigantic cone shell. It was about the size of a football. They are extremely venomous and it was awesome! Don't worry mom, we kept our distance. 😉
Well this has been a great day. There has been some challenges with getting enough storage to transport all of the videos home for analysis, but we will figure it out. Here is a big shout out to Colt for being so great at solving problems. Ed and Trisha really are just phenomenal instructors and their experience is invaluable in knowing how to make things work. I am blessed to get to work with all of them. Life is good and I am lucky to be here!
Now THIS is a Coral Reef
uWhat a wonderful day this has been! My favorite part was going to the outer reef. The outer reef is what I imagined reefs to be like before this trip. Heron reef has three distinctly different areas – the lagoon, the reef crest, and the outer reef. In the lagoon, the water is more shallow and the coral are subject to large temperature changes. This means that the hardy coral live here. This is also true on the reef crest as this is where the waves break as the water become shallow. The outer reef has deeper water with larger fish and more vibrant corals. It was incredible to explore this area! Saul and I were buddies and we had a great time swimming around. Since this area was deep, you had to equalize pressure in your ears, which was the most painful part. My favorite part was diving and going right down by the coral. My favorite sightings were the grouper, the nudibranch (sea slug), the white tip reef shark, and the green sea turtles. I saw the sea turtles on the swim back to the boat. It was in the open water. I dove down to swim by them and they didn't swim away, so I swam by them for a minute. It was one of the most magical moments! That was my tender mercy from the day.
I have a confession. I have a fear of open water. It is really unnerving because all you can see is blue. I have grown up as a competitive swimmer and have always had the comfort of seeing the bottom of the pool. I feel like I got over that fear a little bit today while swimming next to the sea turtles. I have decided I want to get a scuba certification because fear of open water has been what is holding me back. I am so excited to go to the outer reef again tomorrow!
I feel like I have been growing so much during this course.
Data Collection
Today was the first data collection day for my URCO project. We started out the day with a Coral Watch activity. They are a citizen science group. We learned how to check the health of corals and got to snorkel and do a bit of it ourselves. Camp, Cassie, Trisha, Ed, and I had to duck out early though to set up the cameras and lettuce for my project. We decided to do this at high tide because that is when fish abundance in the lagoon is greatest. It was a lot of work getting all of the gear out to the patch reefs. We had about 17 five-pound dive weights, two mallets, and 9 GoPro Cameras on large stakes to swim out. It was about a 200-meter swim in fairly choppy water. We used big tubs to transport all the gear out. The trickiest part was finding the patch reefs again. We had to do quite a bit of swimming around to find an area with no patch reefs near a 20 meter transect line. Once the transect was laid, we staked the cameras into the ground with the mallets and clipped a 2 by 10 centimeter piece of lettuce to a dive weight. We let the cameras sit for two hours before picking them up again. This part went by much more quickly because we could find them easily with the buoys. The tide was also lower and the water calmer. Hopefully I captured some statistically significant data. By the end of all of this, Ed's watch said that we had swam about 5 kilometers.
This day has pretty much been full of my project. We also did quite a bit of coral watch stuff later in the day. I caught a picture of an amazing sunset. This place is amazing!
Living Up the Researcher Life
By the end of today, I feel like it has been at least three days of hard work. This morning, I really got to start my URCO project. We will be studying how fish species graze around patch reefs as distance increases. Ed and Trisha have been wonderful at pulling strings to get us time to officially start the project tomorrow. Colt is also enthusiastically helping me with this project. This morning, he, Cassie, Hanna, and I went out to shark beach to find some patch reefs that have at least 30 meters of distance between them. Previously, I had gone on google earth and estimated some suitable locations, but just to be sure, we had to go out and find them. The morning were in the water swimming by 6:30am. The water was rather choppy because of the wind, which made the swim a little bit more difficult. We did find some good areas to set the go pro cameras and the lettuce. The hope is that we will be able to find these locations again tomorrow.
While out there today, I swam by a small jelly fish. I know Cassie swam by a couple as well. I am continually amazed by the unique wonder of reef and all the amazing things to find here. I also got to see a moray eel which investigated my GoPro camera while I was recording it and a snail drilling into the head of a small pregnant crab. That was really sad to see, but it was cool because we had just learned a bit about the anatomy of mollusks in lecture.
For the lab today we examined the abundances of fish in the lagoon at high and low tide. We set out a 30 meter transect line which we swam along and videoed with a GoPro. However, at low tide, we had to walk, which was much more difficult as we had to maneuver around coral while bending over, holding the GoPro in the water and trying to keep it somewhat still so we could actually see fish swimming by.
This day has ended with getting everything ready to set out for tomorrow. This includes the weights and clamps to attach the lettuce, the GoPro cameras, and the buoys. I have really appreciated Ed, Trisha, and Colt's help to get everything going for this. I am learning a few things about the research life. One – you absolutely, positively cannot do it alone. Two – it will never go exactly the way that you plan. Three – it requires a lot of self-sacrifice. The main thing that I have learned about marine scientists specifically is that they have the most difficult field of any scientists. The most difficult thing is that you don't have gravity working with you. When you push down, you go up. This makes tasks such as driving a stake into the ground incredibly difficult. I count myself lucky that I have a swimming background.
The people I am around really have made this class enjoyable. If any of my class members or Ed and Trisha read this, just know how grateful I am for you friendship and help today. I feel like I have known all of you for so long even though it has only been a few days. Here is to another good day tomorrow! Wish us luck in setting the cameras and lettuce "sea grass".
The Greatest Classroom
This morning began with a bright and early splash into the water for snorkeling induction. The first instruction was to hock a loogie into our snorkeling mask to prevent fogging. The most beautiful scene was the sun peaking over the island while snorkeling. It was amazing to see the marine life! I recognized many of the fish from my studying. I also saw green sea turtles, cow head stingray, and guitar sharks. A blue spine unicorn fish even swam next to me for a little bit. It was so magical!
We also did a benthic invertebrate lab. Dylan and I were partners and we had so much fun! We had to extract core samples from the sediment. To do so, we used a syringe which was enthusiastically driven, twisted, tramped, and stamped into the sediment. (Note: It is not advised to do this while wearing a wetsuit in shallow water. Let's just say Dylan looked pretty silly trying to drive that think into the sand.)
While hanging out with Dylan to do the write up portion of the lab, we first tried to be productive in the hammocks, but that was just too comfortable. At one point, Trisha came up, and told us that there were baby turtles hatching! We ran through the sand and… didn't see any baby turtles. They were all in the ocean when we got there, but we were on the same island as a bunch of baby sea turtles! That is close enough right?
It ended up being a great day in the greatest classroom on earth.


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cPanel (7 Articles)
Documentation on how to use the cPanel control panel.
Databases (9 Articles)
Most applications require a database to function.
Domains (21 Articles)
Information on what domains are and how to use them.
Email (11 Articles)
Everything you need to know about using your email.
Security (4 Articles)
Tips & tricks for keeping your website safe and secure.
SSL Certificates (14 Articles)
Common questions about SSL certificates.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Decision 2011: Social Chairs
· Dormitory Activities Council Chair (DAC) ·
Peter Fankuchen
Number one priority: "Party hard(er)."
Why should you be elected?
"I have years of related experience, including sitting on the board I wish to chair, twice, and organizing schoolwide events as a highschool student body president. Perhaps more importantly, I have an even longer history of throwing parties. As DAC, I would try to introduce a greater diversity of nighttime and daytime dorm events, and hopefully bring glitchmob back, or at least pursue bringing more live dance music to our parties. I also believe student input is an essential part of my job."
Steven Limandibhratha
Number one priority: "My number one priority is improving the variety and themes of the parties around CMC."
Why should you be elected?
"Although I'm only a freshman, I believe that my international background gives me the advantage of having a different perspective. I've been throwing parties in the Philippines since I was 17, with attendance ranging from 150 to 400 people. I know what it takes to throw a good party. In collaboration with the freshman class president, I was able to take a lead role in organizing four parties: Freshman pong tournament, Garden of Eden pregame, Freshman Fiesta, and the Ski Club Party. As DAC I'll work hard, pick things up quickly, and get things done."
Clare Riva
Number one priority: "My main priority is yes, to throw great TNCs, and also to expand dorm and CMC social life to encompass more than Thursday nights."
Why should you be elected?
"At CMC, I have seen many great barbeques, TNCs, sports games, hub quizzes, trips to Baldy, and other events. As your Dorm Affairs Chair (DAC), I will normalize these great aspects of CMC social life, beyond what goes on the Party Inform.
I have been on the Dorm Affairs Committee my entire time here, and I have also been on ASCMC Executive Board this term. So I have plenty of experience event-planning and working with DOS. I want to use this experience to continue throwing great parties, and to create closer dorm communities. We can do this by making sure each dorm has an event for its residents at least every other week. I also want to increase attendance at athletic events by having events before and after, such as tailgates or parties.
CMC, vote for me, and I will bring experience and diversity to your social chairs."
· Student Activities Council Chair (SAC) ·
Will Brown
Number one priority: "Party hard(er)."
Why should you be elected?
"You should vote for me for Social Affairs Chair not only because I'm the only candidate running, but because I'm entirely qualified for the position. I served as Boswell dorm president during the entirety of 2010. During this time I threw four TNCs and spearheaded the planning and execution of Oktoberfest.
Some common criticisms of previous students who've held SAC are that their parties are poorly themed, poorly timed, ill attended, and generally not reflective of the popular consensus amongst the student body. To combat this pitfall, I want to garner your input on party themes, acts to bring to campus, and other social events. Immediately upon my election, I will send out a school wide email inviting students who want to be involved in planning the social scene to apply to be on the Social Affairs Committee."
· Student Life Council Chair (SLC) ·
Number one priority: "I want to find out what events CMC wants to see more of, and plan them!"
Why should you be elected?
"Vote for me, because Hilary rhymes with SLC! Ok, I do have better reasons than that, but it was very helpful for making posters! I may only be a freshman, but I LOVE CMC! Student Life Chair would be the perfect way to help me help you! I have a lot of experience with event planning, and I am very organized. I was involved in student government for three years of high school, earned my Girl Scout Gold Award (like the girls' version of an Eagle Scout), and was captain of my cross country team. Also, I've been a Fawcett Dorm Senator since the beginning of this year. I will listen to what all of YOU guys want, and do my best to plan events YOU want to see. HIL-A-RY, S-L-C, Vote-4-Me! Got it? Good!"
Burk Zanft
Number one priority: "Making everyone feel welcome at SLC events."
Why should you be elected?
"I think everybody at CMC should be able to have a good time at any event. I know what it's like to skip right through the SLC emails because the dry events listed therein don't apply to the party animal inside of me. I know what it's like to sit in my room Thursday nights because I can't bear five sober minutes at TNC. I hope we'll feel more comfortable going out when I use SLC funds to provide non-alcoholic drinks at parties. I hope events that appeal to the whole school (Karaoke, Open Mics, Arts & Crafts, Food Fights, live student bands) will be enjoyed by all students whether they pregamed with a bottle or an Xbox. I hope to follow Grace's lead in planning off-campus activities, and to make every student feel welcome walking on the SLC bus. CMC, unite the parties. Come together, right now, over me."
Editor's Note: Because the ASCMC Constitution forbids candidates from online campaigning and the authors of comments cannot be exactly identified, we have disallowed commenting on this and all other election-related posts.


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Varying sizes, varying paper
Two to ten minute poses
Chalk, pencil, colored pencil
High resolution scans from drawings made in "A bientot 1'" — Learning French.
Braille, 1985, publisher: Deutschen Blindenstudienanstalt, Klett, Stuttgart.
Fineliner, charcoal
Originals still in book, 28 x 35 cm
Works on white or brown paper
42x60 cm - 30x42 cm
Pastel chalk, charcoal
White paper, up to 50 x 70 cm
2017 - 2018
On sturdy brown paper
36 x 48 cm
High resolution scans & photographs, drawings in "Die Arbeitstechniken der Grafischen Industrie'" Leipzig, 1955 ('Working Techniques for the Graphic Industry')
Chalk, pencil, fine liner, water color
Originals still in book, 24 x 17 cm
Category 5 — Storm Drenched
Water-soaked 300g paper, lavender dipped in acrylic ink applied with force and grace. Images 4-7 depict one work in progress, with white chalk coating and reapplication of ink. image 7 is a detail thereof. Final image, 1m x2m on wall, is a work-in-progress.
BAI studio residency, August 2019.
80x100, 100x120, 100x 200.
Fresh bundles of lavender are soaked in black ink, then hammered, scraped, smashed, rolled and/or tossed onto large white paper. The prints are then handcolored with oil pastels, ink, and occassionally embellished with gold leaf.
With the exception of one image from a sketchbook, all works are 50 x 70cm on 300gr paper.
The 2015 series was shown at Spud Bencer, the 2017 series at Cedré Blanc.
NOTE: Images here are full-size as well as detailed.
The seaweed is invasive, brought in by
Chinese freighers.
Photos printed on premium plexiglass,
various sizes.
2016 & 2018
For Venice Glass Week 2018, master engraver Amy West used my work as inspiration. She had vessels blown especially for each artwork and then engraved freestyle. Her spontaneous interpretations of the figures onto this fragile and ancient medium sets them free with light.
The works are on display at Amy West Design on Murano, Venice.
For more information: http://amywestdesign.com


text:
Our open banking ecosystem is boosting innovation
AAZZUR is inviting all fintechs on the market to join our platform.
We're re-imagining retail banking to create the best integrated money management experience you can get on a smartphone.
AAZZUR is building a one-stop shop for an entire ecosystem of fintech products and services so you can bank wherever, and however, you want.
To do this, we're teaming up with other fintechs to build a banking ecosystem where basic services such as access to customer accounts and toolboxes, like an AI engine, will be available through an open API.Get in touch to find out more!
We know that every single fintech startup has the burden of customer acquisition, regulation and KYC compliance.
So to make your life easier, AAZZUR will build, sell and manage our banking ecosystem so you can focus your time and resources on innovation.
You can build your tech, while we handle the boring stuff.
Predicts the future balance of a customer's account according to their spending.
Automatically references and stores IBANs by user, so you never need to look one up again.
Influences customer behaviour to drive bank profit and improve the customer's finances.
Scores people without a credit rating by looking at their profile to offer short-term loans.
Humanises our service to improve customer engagement and drive product discovery.


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Simply Me! :D
Happy Birthday zararina,
Many Happy Returns of the Day!
Can I get a exchange.i am from India
Hi !
I'm from Bangladesh and interested exchnage use stamps 1:1 basis by register mail 100-150 stamps at a time .If intereste in copies then we can more as per desire,So,Would you like to Exchange with me?
Have a wounderful time with the HOBBY
Used, fine or better?
Hi Zararina,
I propose a stamps exchange but I just collect most west europe countries, RSA, USA, Japan, Australia, Israel, Canada and themes europa CEPT and america UPAE. We can trade in 1x1 basys or by catalogues wantlists basys. I suggest to start 100-500 different stamps by letter in our collected countries. Let me Know what do you need about stamps. I´m Brazillian.
Regards, firstname.lastname@example.com
Paulo Ludgero
I would like to explore the possibility... I have a lot of Brazillian stamps and would consider putting together a collection.
Separate names with a comma.


text:
When to Use Paid Advertising on Facebook for your Hypnosis Business
Yesterday on the new OurHypnoSpace website where I lead a Marketing Hypnosis group, someone posted a question about how to use Facebook to attract business and "likes" to a Facebook page, so I thought why not just write an article on when to use paid advertising on Facebook. Facebook has changed quite a bit in the last few years. It used to be a great way to connect with your fans for free, but now Facebook is focusing on paid advertisements, and in general for anyone with a Facebook page for their business, the trend is that business pages will need to do more and more paid advertising as they are limiting the organic reach of any post. So it's harder to get your message out to your fans in Facebook without paying for it, and there's speculation that it will get even harder over time.
How to get more Facebook page "likes"
Simply put the best way to get page "likes" is to create great content. This is the same message for anything online. Want to grow your email list? Create great content. Want to increase your SEO rankings? Create great content. It takes time, and for Facebook and other social media outlets, most experts recommend posting at least 3 times per week. Write about what you know, and what you're passionate about.
So when should you use Facebook paid advertising to promote your hypnosis business?
When you want to use specific interest targeting to attract business
Facebook advertising is relatively inexpensive and highly configurable. You can target people to view your ad or boosted post based on interest which is great since you could target people in your local area that are already interested in hypnosis, self-hypnosis, or other things you think your clients or students would be interested in to attract the right people to like your page. Interest targeting is a unique selling point for Facebook - Google (AdWords) does not offer this type of interest targeting without a lot of work, so it's a great feature of Facebook.
I do this to attract people to my website for community based education classes on self-hypnosis, stress management, and other classes I teach. Facebook is a great way to bring in new students for community classes because of the relatively low barrier to entry for interest targeting.
How it compares with AdWords : There are fewer people searching for hypnosis classes online, so I use Facebook and interest/geo targeting to advertise upcoming classes.
When you want to highlight a specific blog article or content on your website
Facebook is a great way to drive people to your site for a specific article you have created. This is part of creating great content for your website. Doing so will increase your organic search rankings. Once you have a great piece of content, promote it on Facebook, Goolge+, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Then, you can further promote it on Facebook by "boosting" your post for $5 or $10.
How it compares to AdWords : AdWords and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is great at driving potential clients to your website when they're looking for something like "lose weight" - the ads are highly targeted and potential clients are looking for your service right at that moment. But AdWords campaigns are really targeted at bringing people to your site on an ongoing basis - not to highlight a single blog article you authored, at least not affordably. Promoting a single page post or article on your website with Facebook is really easy and cheap. Ideally once a potential client read a great article you wrote on your blog, they'd sign up for your email list and be a potential client or student.
When you have an event that you want to highlight
Facebook is a great way to promote an event, or class you're teaching. This is one area that I regularly use for Facebook advertising - I will create a post for a class, then boost the post for $5 to attract local clientele to attend. It's one of the best ways I've found to bring in new students. To be clear, I DO NOT use a Facebook Event for this. That did not work well for me. I did not like how those worked, because you basically need to invite all of your "fans" for which they'll be notified and possibly be annoyed.
As with anything online - whether you are advertising with AdWords, or improving your SEO rankings, it takes time. Yes it's possible to "buy" Facebook fans with a lot of advertising which is geared at getting people to "like" your page, but it's better to build your fan page organically, because the purpose of fans on a Facebook page is to have an audience to post content, and events that they would be interested in. It doesn't make sense to have 500 fans if they don't care to interact with your content. So I believe that organic page likes is preferable. This can be done by adding a link to Facebook on your website, in your email marketing, and of course create great content! Then people will actually "like" your page and what you have to say.
I hope this helps, and as always I want to hear your input, please leave comments and questions below.


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When some people hear "crown," they think of royalty — but as your trusted local dentist, we've got something else in mind. Dental crowns in Van Wert are a wonderful solution to a number of dental health problems, and Dr. Nick Shuff provides sturdy, natural-looking crowns from the comfort of Westwood Family Dentistry. When do you need a crown, and how are they completed? Keep reading to learn the ins and outs of your next dental restoration.
When Is a Dental Crown Necessary?
Simple fillings or inlays/onlays (indirect fillings) can solve a lot of issues, but for more significant decay or damage, a dental crown is usually the best answer. Also called a "cap," a crown is a thin covering that is created according to the specific dimensions of your tooth.
A crown can be made from a number of materials, including porcelain, porcelain fused-to-metal, gold, or metal alloys. The best material for the crown depends on the location of the affected tooth. Teeth in the front of the smile are best restored with a natural-looking ceramic/porcelain, while back teeth usually benefit from sturdier gold or metal.
You may need a dental crown if you have any of the following.
- Broken tooth
- Weak or worn tooth
- Severely decayed tooth
- Have just had root canal therapy
- A missing tooth (crown restores a dental implant)
What's the Procedure for a Crown?
If you need a dental crown, we'll schedule you two visits at Westwood Family Dentistry. During the first, we will put together your treatment plan and reshape your tooth to make room for a crown. Dr. Shuff will remove tooth enamel so that the base of the tooth is wider than the top. Then, impressions and x-rays will be taken. This information will be sent to the lab where the crown is manufactured according to your specific needs. You will wear a temporary restoration in the time between appointments.
Once the crown is ready, you will return to our office for its final placement. Dr. Shuff will remove the temporary and checks to make sure the new crown functions properly. Final adjustments can be made and the crown is then bonded into place — and the process is complete!
Taking Care of Your Dental Crown
After your tooth is restored with a dental crown, you'll find that maintenance is not so different from what you are already used to. Continue to brush your teeth for two minutes, twice a day, and floss daily (make sure your flossing technique is in check!). Concentrate on the area at the base of the crown to prevent the buildup of plaque and bacteria.
With proper care, your dental crown can stay sturdy for years. No restoration, however, lasts forever and ever. We will continue to check in on your existing dental work in follow-up exams and cleanings, so make sure you stay on top of your six month visits to Westwood Family Dentistry. Notify your dentist if you have problems with your dental crown.
Let's Book Your Appointment Today!
If you have tooth damage or decay that can't be fixed with a simple filling or inlay/onlay, you may need a dental crown. The next question is, "Where's the dentist near me providing high quality dental crowns?" He's Dr. Shuff at Westwood Family Dentistry! Go ahead and make an excellent decision for your oral health. We invite you to schedule an appointment today!


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Seasonal Splendor
Seasonal Splendor
from 30.00
A gift wrapped hand tied of our specially selected winter blooms with lots of texture. This bouquet is delivered stood in water.
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We reserve the right to substitute any featured decoration for a suitable seasonal alternative.
Would you like to have a vase delivered with the flowers? Click here VASES to see our range.
Order before 1pm for Same Day Delivery. Delivery £5.95 See Terms Of Sale


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Charities & Second Hand Shops
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Charities & Second Hand Shops in Wigan
Grab a bargain in one of Wigan's many charity and second hand shops. Being an affluent area, people come from far and wide to rummage through the local thrift shops that often contain designer items and vintage collectables. Whether you are looking for second hand books, clothes or just want to help out a local Wigan charity, you can find a number of little shops in and around Wigan town centre. Unsure of which charity shop holds the best items? Look at our customer reviews or leave some of your own to let others know where they can find those hidden gems.


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Life ban for Tejinder, Raju if charges stick
Melbourne, Mar 24 (UNI) Indian Olympic Association (IOA) today made it clear that tainted lifters Tejinder Singh and Edwin Raju will be slapped life bans if the dope charges against them are proved.
''There is no way they will be shown any leniency in case allegations are proved,'' chef-de-mission H J Dora told newsmen here this evening.
''The (Indian Weightlifting) Federation's bylaws are very clear that if any athlete is found positive in an international competition, they will be subject to a life-ban,'' he later said in a statement.
Mr Dora, also President of the Indian Weightlifting Federation, informed that the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) has referred the matter to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and ''We await the outcome.'' ''I may have to appear before the court to represent the lifters.
Let's see what happens there,'' he added.
He admitted that there was a threat of ban being imposed on the Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWF) by the International federation.
''Yes the threat is there and that can be a possibility. This is a very embarrassing situation for us, I admit '' he admitted.
''There was case of dope testing in 2005 and I was thinking that we have overcome this menace. But this incident has come as a shock,'' he said.
Both the lifters have pleaded innocence claiming they did nothing wrong and pointed out that they were tested in Delhi before coming here.


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LYS – Peony koi light
Hi-Lo tunic dress, organic cotton voile, Peony koi light print.
Wide boat neck.
V back neck opening with bow tie straps.
3/4 drop shoulder adjusted sleeves.
Hi-Lo above the knee length with side slits.
Our model wears size S, she is 178cm tall.
Cleaning recommended at 30 degree in washing machine


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"I just can't get enough." - Depeche Mode
Cyber security is without question one of the greatest threats facing businesses in the coming years. This is especially true for manufacturers in the Athletic & Outdoor and Consumer Product industries, who typically have troves of confidential records and information stored electronically. These risks are magnified given the industries' increased focus on direct-to-consumer sales strategies, which necessarily involve taking and storing confidential customer data such as names, addresses, phone numbers, and bank/credit information.
In addition to practicing good cyber hygiene, it is important for your company to have adequate cyber insurance in the event of a cyberattack or data breach. First-party cyber insurance can help with costs incurred to recover lost or damaged data, notify customers of the breach, credit monitoring services, and public relations. Third-party cyber insurance covers legal defense costs in the event of lawsuits against your company for data breach, settlements and judgments, and regulatory fines and penalties.
Many companies are pretty good about making sure they have some level of cyber insurance in place, but it is astounding how many do not know exactly what specific coverage and exclusions exist in their policies. The increasing likelihood of harm to your company of an attack or breach (especially if you're a small business), coupled with the catastrophic consequences of those attacks, means buying cyber insurance without fully understanding what you bought is putting a bandage on a bullet wound.
In this first installment, we'll take a look at the importance of understanding the aggregate limit and sub-limits of your cyber insurance coverage. According to the 2017 Ponemon Institute Cost of Data Breach Study, the average cost of a data breach to a company is as follows: (1) $1.9 million if less than 10,000 records compromised; (2) $2.8 million if 10,000 to 25,000 records compromised; (3) $4.6 million if 25,001 to 50,000 records compromised; and (4) $6.3 million if more than 50,000 records compromised. In the United States, malicious data breaches cost companies an average of $244 per compromised record.
First and foremost, work with IT personnel to assess the size and scope of a potential data breach on your company. Get a handle on the number of research and development records, employee information, business-to-business and individual customer data, and other confidential records and information that could be damaged or stolen. Then go back to your cyber insurance policy and determine whether the aggregate policy limit protects you. If not, you may need to consider more coverage. Many insurance underwriters use benchmarking to determine appropriate limits, which includes cyber insurance. Such benchmarking may not apply to your particular situation and leave you vulnerable to damages well above your limit of coverage.
Next, look at your cyber insurance sub-limits, which are part of and not in addition to your aggregate limit. Your aggregate policy limit is the absolute most an insurance company will pay in the event of a breach, and these sub-limits can dramatically eat away at this overall limit. For example, you may have sub-limits in place for items such as: (1) costs related to computer forensics costs; (2) crisis management and PR costs; (3) customer notification costs; (4) reimbursement of regulatory violations; and (5) fines or assessments related to Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS), which we will discuss more in the next installment. In the event of a data breach, each of these on its own could significantly erode your overall limit of coverage. If more than one is maxed out—and you then have stare down the barrel of numerous customer lawsuits arising from the data breach—the results could be catastrophic to your company.
In sum, make sure to understand the extent of your company's exposure in the event of a cyberattack or data breach. Then make sure your cyber insurance aggregate limit and sub-limits are aligned with that exposure. Finally, make sure your employees are practicing good cyber hygiene to minimize the likelihood of an occurrence. As always, we're here to help.
In Part 2 of this series, we'll discuss the need to have (and understand) PCI DSS coverage as part of your cyber insurance program, especially if you conduct on-line business.


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Happy New Years 2017!
Now that we have begun a New Year - it is time to start on that "New You!" Change is easy with hypnosis and guided meditation. Balanced Perceptions, has several audio products available to help you easily create those changes you seek in the new year!
"Your Brand New Start" is a guided meditation we produced to help you get started on creating a positive "new you" it is a full length guided meditation that takes you Isme Island, a place where change happens.


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Weird Science Movie Poster
I was given an 80's movie at random. The concept was to incorporate iconic imagery from the movie while keeping a 3 spot color maximum. While I disagreed with the writer's oversexualizing the female lead, I tried to use her sexual prowess to emphaszie her power, and mystery rather than weaken through oversexualization.


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We believe that salvation is the gift of God brought to man by grace and received by personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, whose precious blood was shed on Calvary for the forgiveness of our sins.
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:8-10
Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. John 1:12
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace Ephesians 1:7
For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. 1 Peter 1:18-19
We believe that salvation can only be found in the person and work of Christ.
Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before! And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them. And he is also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised. Romans 4:10-12
We believe that any attempt by sinful mankind to approach a perfect and holy God other than through Jesus Christ will result in rejection by God and eternal separation from Him.
Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. John 3:16-18
We believe that our Savior's death and shed blood made salvation available to the entire world.
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! John 1:29
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16
but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. John 4:14
that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 5:19


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AKI Solutions group is guided by its focus on solving community problems. In its search for solutions to meet the needs of its community partners, AKI follows its corporate philosophy, and uses its network of experts, to identify opportunities that may lead to the development of an operating division.
As it responds to these needs, and these opportunities, the company continues to grow. While the current structure includes the following divisions, it is anticipated that current projects will eventually lead to the development of new, important ventures.


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How to be a Christian in Business
Tell Your (Whole) Story
Charlie Paparelli
This is part of a series on taking Jesus to work.
I was asked to present to Peachtree United Methodist Church on the topic of becoming known as a Christian. This forced me to think about what happened to me after I surrendered my life to Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior.
You'll see how each step was guided by my good friend and mentor, Bill Leonard. Bill, with the prompting of the Holy Spirit, put me in situations where I shared my faith. Most of the time, it was by just being there, but sometimes I needed to speak boldly.
I attended a breakfast the other day at the invitation of Bill Leonard. He wanted me and others to meet Nancy Ortberg. She is the wife of pastor, writer, and speaker John Ortberg who leads a church in Silicon Valley. She leads Transforming the Bay Area with Christ, a nonprofit in the Valley started by Pat Gelsinger, CEO of VMware.
Bill is always on the lookout for great speakers who will share their faith story for the High Tech Prayer Breakfast. He believed Nancy would be a good referral source for speakers. After all, she and her husband have been serving in the Valley for over ten years.
There were six of us at that breakfast—Nancy, Bill, me, Blake Patton of Tech Square Ventures, Chad Merrill of Fellowship of Companies for Christ International, and Tim Erwin, a behavioral psychologist, author, and speaker. We only had an hour, and there were multiple agendas.
At one point during the breakfast, Tim Erwin looked at Blake and said, "I don't know you. Could you share a bit of your story?"
I know Tim was looking to understand what Blake does for a living and why he was at this breakfast. But that's not how Blake took the question.
If Blake was asked this question in any other environment, I am sure he would have talked about his resume and Tech Square Ventures. But because of this very Christian crowd, he answered more completely. He shared his life with all of us. He talked about his wife, Stephanie, and his kids, Luke and Alexa. Then he talked about his career and transitioned to his faith in Jesus Christ and how it happened. I noticed everyone leaned in for this part of his story because it was here he shared his heart. He finished up with the great work he is doing with his VC fund and Engage at the ATDC.
But it didn't stop there.
Tim's request of Blake to tell his story turned into each of us telling our story. Person by person in a clockwise direction, we shared. First Blake, then Chad, then me, then Tim, and finally Bill. For some reason, Nancy didn't share her story. It was probably because she was our host and was assumed to be so well known.
The breakfast was special.
Everybody's agenda was satisfied, but something no one expected happened. We really got to know each other in a very short time. When our hour was up, Nancy had to run to another meeting. All of us Atlanta people were left to talk. It was interesting how we paired off and stuck around for the next hour.
I believe this happened because we became closer over a meal. We shared our stories. We shared our hearts. We shared our struggles. We shared our personal lives. We shared our successes. We shared our common belief in Jesus as our Savior. All in one hour with six people present.
I do this all the time.
I recently met with a young man who just sold his business. He netted close to $100 million. An amazing accomplishment at any age. And here he is in his early thirties.
I was introduced to him by a friend who said, "I met Tom at an industry association we both belong to. He just sold his company. I think you can help him sort through his next step in life and career."
Tom and I met at Starbucks.
It was busy and noisy, but we found one of those two-person tables wedged among lots of other two-person tables. To our left was a lady talking to someone across from her. To our right was a guy wearing headphones who was typing on his computer.
I asked Tom lots of questions about his early life and business and his life now. I got him talking...a lot. As I was about to ask the next question, he stopped me and said, "I was really curious about your story."
When he asked this, I knew I needed to tell my "whole" story. Not only my career but also my family, my success, my alcoholism, and my search for the God who saved me from this dreaded disease.
It all came out.
And it all flowed quite naturally. Tom, who is Jewish, listened intently and respectfully, just as I had to him.
We walked away from that one-hour meeting closer to each other. He shared his life, and I shared mine. He, a man in his early thirties, and me, a man in my mid-sixties. But we connected because we told each other our whole stories.
This series was originally a talk. To listen click here.
Charlie Paparelli is president of High Tech Ministries, angel investor and blogger. Twice each week email subscribers to his blog receive his thoughts on being a successful entrepreneur and Christian leader.


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A few days after it was first announced on June 21, AT&T's officially launched its WatchTV streaming service.
For just $15/month with no annual contract, WatchTV gives you access to 31 live channels and 15,000+ shows and movies you can watch on-demand. Big names like Animal Planet, Cartoon Network, and TBS are on WatchTV from day one, and coming soon, the service will add Comedy Central, VH1, BET, and more.
At launch, WatchTV has official apps for Android, iOS, Chromecast, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Amazon Fire TV Stick. For the time being, there are no Roku or Android TV apps.
Anyone can sign up for WatchTV starting today, and if you're an AT&T Unlimited & More subscriber, you can link your account to get WatchTV for free.


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Talkcharge – Get 100% Cashback on Rs 25 Recharge (New Users). Talkcharge is now offering another amazing offer in which they are giving flat 100% cashback on Recharge / Bill Payment of Rs 25 for their New Users. You will get maximum Rs 25 cashback. This offer can be availed only from Talkcharge App. So hurry up and signup on Talkcharge !!
How to Get 100% Cashback on Rs 25 Recharge?
1) First, Download Talkcharge App through here
2) Now Register for a Talkcharge Account.
3) Do a Recharge / Bill payment of Rs 25 or higher
4) Use the Promo Code – FREE25
5) Proceed to Payment page after applying Promo Code.
6) Make a Payment only from Debit Card / Credit Card or Netbanking.
7) That's it, You will get Rs 25 Cashback within 24 hours of Successful Recharge / Bill Payment.
Advice – Don't try to avail this offer from the same Phone again by creating multiple accounts else you won't get any Cashback
Offer Terms and Conditions:-
– Valid on successful Recharges/Bill Payments
– Valid on Minimum Recharge of Rs 25.
– Max Cashback of total Rs 25.
– Valid only ONCE per user/ Credit/ Debit Card/ Netbanking.
– Cashback will be credited within 24 hours in TalkCharge Wallet.
– Not valid on transactions done via TalkCharge Wallet & Add Cash
– Offer not valid on Airtel Transactions


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The Comforter Heavy Duty Lift Chair Series: The Comforter Extra Wide
The classic Comforter Heavy Duty Lift Chair Series is built with wider seating areas and greater lifting capacities. Once again Golden Technologies recognizes that "One size does not fit all". Most lift/recliners in this series use 2 heavy-duty motors for strength and support, while keeping the plush style that you have grown accustomed to.
Let Golden Technologies take all the worry out of purchasing a lift/recliner. Our expert craftsmen blend the finest components with superior designs to provide you with the utmost quality, comfort and style. We confidently stand behind all our products and provide you with the best warranties in the industry, choose Golden!
Golden Bariatric Heavy Duty Lift Chair Product Details
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Product Colors
Featuring SoftTouch™


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flower crowns & anniversaries | Dallas
Loved shooting this anniversary session with these sweet clients : )
It was also a great way to make up for the fact that the crazy snow-pacolypse happened on their wedding weekend. They couldn't get married outside. Vendors told them they weren't coming. But you better believe I got there!! I drove on all the Dallas freeways in the snow & ice to get there, while pregnant. Ha maybe not the safest option but so worth it.
I love these green beautiful images. No snow in sight!


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Ever wondered what an Air Bnb wedding looks like? Wonder no more. Reem & Hugh didn't have much time to plan their wedding before jetting off to live in Bejing, so they did things their way, and their way was epic!
After officiating things in Belfast City Hall with their immediate family, they made their way down south to Longford where their guests awaited them. With backgrounds in architecture they knew this air bnb was the ticket to a good party with their loved ones. A blank canvas combined with good vision and help from their mates, they transformed this beautiful place into a perfect wedding venue. With indoor sleeping space limited, the great outdoors was called upon, tents were pitched and voila, everyone had somewhere to spend the night!
We don't need to say much more, feast your eyes on this....
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Prince William Shows Conservation Still Has A Problem With 'White Saviours'/
By Hannah Mumby, Research Fellow, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge ; originally published on The Conversation Africa
Prince William recently spoke at one of the largest illegal wildlife summits ever held in London. He said, "Poaching is an economic crime against ordinary people and their futures."
The quote could have been better. Poachers, after all, are merely the corner boys of the global illegal wildlife trade, the ones who benefit least financially and risk most, usually their lives. They're ordinary people too, and vilifying them is not getting to the heart of the issue.
William had travelled to Tanzania, Kenya and Namibia in September and October this year, to learn about conservation, and a video of his trip to Tanzania was presented to the attendees. It did not go down well with various NGOs and campaigners who accused the video of promoting a "white saviour" image, given that only one African, a student, spoke to the camera, while the rest of the interviewees were international participants.
Certainly, the team making the video could have better selected the participants and had a wider range of people speak. But that would be putting a sticking plaster over a very serious wound. There are fundamental issues at the heart of conservation, which as a movement was built on inequality and can also perpetuate that same inequality.
In the Guardian's reporting of the Prince William incident, Dr Mordecai Ogada, director of Conservation Solutions Afrika, said:
Conservation even now, nearly 55 years after Kenya got independence, is still the one arena where Prince William can waltz in to Kenya and tell us he wants us to do this, that or the other … He couldn't do that in education, banking or other fields, but conservation still has that romantic, Out of Africa feel about it.
This is the bigger issue we should be having a conversation about. Why, decades after the independence of many countries in the Global South, does conservation still have this (neo-)colonial undertone?
Colonial history cannot be ignored
In conservation, history is always present. Across the Global South, researchers like me often work in post-colonial landscapes, areas marked by evictions, forced settlement of herders, the fencing of large swathes of land for private use, or other access restrictions. This, understandably, can foster resentment, disenfranchisement and anger in people living in those regions.
I've looked at elephants in South Africa's Kruger National Park, for instance, where the very name "Kruger" is divisive given he was an Afrikaner leader with a dubious relationship to conservation. There, the government has settled land claims of people who were dispossessed from the park land – for example, in 2016, six communities received 84m rand (£4.5m). Rates of visiting the park are still recovering from the fact that generations of South Africans who were classified as "non-white" were denied access to large sections of national parks under apartheid.
I recently attended a session on human and wildlife "conflict" and coexistence in southern India. I realised this wasn't a simple north-south issue. A lot of my Indian colleagues had also been trained under our current ideas about anthropogenic activities threatening biodiversity. This concept can risk bleeding into a perception of humans themselves being the threat. For example, an article in Nature on future threats to biodiversity and paths to prevent them takes on the distinctly misanthropic and negative "humans are killing the planet and all its inhabitants" when reported in the New York Post.
At the same meeting, I heard sentiments way too close for comfort to the "noble savage" trope about communities, in this case local ethnic minorities, who live alongside wildlife. I was disappointed that we seemed to reduce people to bad guys, victims, or romanticise them even though conservation paradigms have supposedly shifted to centring, or at least considering people. As we talked about low-paid immigrant workers on tea plantations, I noticed there weren't any representatives present. This risks them being "othered" and the psychological distance creating a space for us to accept them facing risks, like being killed by an elephant as they walked to work.
I talked to a journalist colleague in Johannesburg and she shared a similar sentiment, the world wants wildlife stories about a collectively imagined "wild Africa", not human stories. Because the human stories are complex, less palatable, and potentially threatening to biodiversity. And it's a shame because Johannesburg is such a vibrant hub of entrepreneurship and creativity. We should be leaping onto that for conservation and collaborating, not seeing it as the opposition.
I am not naïve enough to think that the global distributions of funding and biodiversity map onto each other. In fact, it's no coincidence that richer countries have lost most of their large mammals in favour of agricultural, industrial and urban development. But how can we manage the funding and conservation efforts without perpetuating the "white saviour" issue?
The answer to me is clear. Conservation can't be the preserve of people who can afford international travel and to take unpaid internships. We can make choices about communication, participation, training, educating, hiring, salaries, promotion and project leadership (let's not trap people in assistant positions) and focus on diversity in those. The opening to every conservation text book reads like the fall from the garden of Eden and we have to turn that around; people (and not just white people) are the opportunity.
Skills in spatial analysis, human behaviour, modelling data are vital to a vibrant and technology-driven approach to conservation and these are marketable skills. We need to capture this exceptional human talent, make sure a wide range of people have access to funding and ensure people feel heard in conservation so they choose to make it their career. There are already some incredible leaders and people sharing platforms, and hopefully Prince William will do that in his next speech.
Hannah Mumby receives funding from the Drapers' Company through Pembroke College, Cambridge and the Branco-Weiss Society in Science Fellowship administered by the ETH, Zurich. She is a Research Fellow in the Conservation Science Group at the Department of Zoology at the University of Cambridge and Honorary Fellow at the Centre for African Ecology at the University of Witwatersrand. She has had fellowships and/or grants from the Cambridge Africa fund, NERC, the DST and NRF, the Fulbright Commission and the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin. She's worked with the non-profit Elephants Alive but these opinions are entirely her own.


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Feb 21, 2017
MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Tuesday's baseball game with Washington and Lee has been postponed due to the weather.
Huntingdon was originally scheduled to host the Generals today at 6 p.m.
Weather permitting, the game will be made up on Wednesday at noon at Posey Field.
Should further changes occur, updates will be posted on HuntingdonHawks.com as well as social media.


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What's that? You don't want to sleep? Or nap? Or rest? You just want to dance and kick constantly?
You've decided that forcing yourself up under my ribs to get leverage to push downward into my bladder is fun, have you? And you think that pushing your bum out as faaaar as possible until I'm worried that you're going to come through my skin is a good idea?
I know you feel me pushing you back down because you push even harder, sometimes leveraging yourself against something else in there.
That's fine.. I'll get you back some day.
What exactly are you doing when you randomly vibrate for a second? Are you flipping over? Rapidly moving your arms and legs? Is it a dance or a nervous twitch?
What are you thinking when you get the hiccups? You start kicking a counter-beat to them.. do they bother you or wake you up or just make you want to move?
And what exactly is the squirminess that you're doing below my belly button? Are you paddling with your arms? It kinda tickles, so you really shouldn't do that any more.
Why do you sometimes decide to be all on one side of my body? My belly feels completely empty on the left side, and my right side is so full of baby that it's hard to sit upright and sometimes hard to just breathe.
And why wouldn't you let the ultrasound technician get a good look at your face? Are you shy or just ornery? What exactly was covering your face, arms or legs?
What exactly is your schedule now? I know that you decide to be the most active whenever I lie down, whether to relax or try to sleep, and you get great leverage to bounce all over the place in there.
Actually, it seems like you don't ever want to sit still anymore. Are you as ready as I am?
Its been an interesting week or so. I've learned quite a bit, and am still in the throes of learning how to trust and how to listen.
Before the baby shower I was pestering Crystal about who was coming, and why wasn't anything coming off the registry, and what would happen if I didn't get stuff that I needed for the baby and she simply said, "just have faith, Lisa, God's going to provide." I listened, calmed down, then later began to panic again.
Well after the baby shower when I took stock I realized we hadn't gotten many of the essentials that we were going to need – we did get some gift cards and a little bit of money, but we hadn't gotten a single 'big ticket' item, or much in the way of clothing or diapers or anything, and I started to panic again. (Not to say I didn't appreciate what we did get, I hate that I sound ungrateful like this, but I was worried about how we could afford so many big things. We did get some cute clothes, lots of really cute and nice books, some baby care essentials, etc.)
This time it was my sister who told me, "have faith" and again I calmed myself and waited for some sort of miracle to happen.
And, as I should have known, it did. First my mom called and said she was buying us the car seat and stroller, then Crystal said we were getting the baby monitor, and somewhere in there JCPenny had a big sale on baby clothing and I was able to use up a bunch of reward points to get a bunch of baby clothes for around $8. And then one day Dana asked if we wanted her baby stuff. Including things like a swing and bumbo and clothes and stuff like that. I was floored because I was already perusing Craigs List trying to figure out what stuff we really needed. Crystal and Kristy were so right, God provided through my loving family and friends. We're going to be fine, God will make sure our baby has what she needs and we're going to be alright. Not to mention the baby furniture set that Eric's parents helped us get several months ago. Why did I ever doubt?
So while I'm learning to trust, I'm apparently also losing my brain. We received four checks at the baby shower and Eric kept telling me to deposit them, and I was waiting until I wrote the thank you notes because.. well because it seemed like a good idea. If you didn't see this coming, here it is: I lost them. One day they disappeared. It was somewhere right before I went on the trip west for the sales meeting, so I wasn't entirely sure if they were lost in the house or somewhere else. I tore up the house and looked in any place I could think of when I came home each night, but alas, I had lost them. Then Eric called me at work earlier this week and said, "tell me why my grandmother is asking why she got your baby shower check back in the mail, from the grocery store?"
The grocery store mailed the checks back to the writer of the checks (because their address is on them and mine is not)! I humbled myself and called the other ladies who had given me checks and told them what had happened, and fortunately they were understanding and sympathetic and said they'd mail it to me when they got it. How nice is that!? So I called the grocery store to tell them thank you.
So we were starting to look good again; stuff for the baby was starting to accumulate, money from the shower that had been lost was found, and the fear of the upcoming labor was now starting to be a thing I was looking forward to instead of fearing (see Rock Climbing).
Then yesterday my phone jumped out of my back pocket as I was preparing to use the restroom. It dove into the toilet with a clank, and I reciprocated with an "Oh no!" and reached in after it.
Eric came running in there worried about me, then semi-cracked up and was semi-upset at the same time. He dried it off, shook out as much water as possible, set it up to dry and told me to leave it alone until it had had time to dry out completely.
I didn't listen. I wish I had, things would probably be much better if I had just listened to the sole remaining member of our household who has a properly functioning and responsible brain, but no, I didn't listen. When it stopped flipping through screens and making random noises and had finally settled down and managed to turn itself off, I picked it up and started pushing buttons. And it worked! I think anyway. I didn't take much time to peruse and see if it was truly functioning as it should because my thoughts turned to, "I'm holding a phone that was swimming in toilet water." (Now to be completely honest, there was nothing in the water. It was dog-drinking-water ready, but knowing what typically goes in there was enough to upset me). But I will say that the touch screen worked.
I decided to clean it off, and put some Lysol Anywhere cleaner onto a paper towel and wiped it down. And then the touch screen stopped working. It didn't respond to anything. The buttons on the side worked, but the screen didn't.
After cleaning I decided to research whether that was a good idea or not and read you should never use cleaning products on it because you could wipe away the sensors.
So I effectively destroyed my phone. Nearly 9 months pregnant and no phone. I'm so smart.
All I could think of last night was, why didn't I just listen to Eric? If I had left it alone then it would probably work just fine. I wouldn't have had the opportunity to try to clean it, and Eric would have managed to fix it for me.
So while I blame pregnancy brain for my clumsiness, I blame my stubbornness for the events that have troubled me. If I could just listen to Eric the first time, because I keep finding that he actually does know what he's talking about. It's completely backwards from what society says is usually found in a relationship, where the wife is always right and the husband is the oaf… instead Eric is a very logical, rational person and I'm either impulsive or a procrastinator (ironic).
Fortunately he's forgiving. Though I don't think he trusts me a whole lot right now.
No, I didn't go rock climbing recently, while almost 9 months pregnant.
No, what I wanted to write about was something that occurred to me while talking to my best buddy Dana. She said something like, it's scary and you don't know if you can do it but then you do.. (sorry if I'm misquoting you, but that's basically what I took away :D)
Anyway, it made me think of how I went rock wall climbing last September. It was a three story tower out in a field with the fake rock nubbins up the side, and although you're harnessed in, it's still terrifying if you don't do so well with heights.
I had to learn trust my body. I had to reach way up, further than I thought I could stretch, and grab ahold of the next rock, then cling for dear life, pant and not look down, then push with my legs as hard as I could so that I could reach the next stable point without slipping or losing balance and falling back down. And then I would cling for dear life, still panting, and wait until I had the courage to reach up for the next rock.
I was totally and completely sure I wasn't going to be able to do it. There was no way that I was going to be able to reach that next rock, it was simply too far away. And once I had reached up and found my next handhold, there was simply no way my feet were going to be able to reach up far enough to find a foothold to push me up again. It was too hard and too scary.
And it took about an hour, I think, (or at least felt like it) but at some point I reached the edge of the top and reached up, dizzy from fright and fatigue, as the person at the top pulled me up.
I did it. I had climbed the tower. And then the best part was clipping onto the zip-line and zooming down.
I think that's a pretty good analogy if I do say so myself. So I've changed my mental outlook – this is an adventure, not an ordeal. It's going to be scary, but looking up at that super tall rock wall was scary but I knew I at least wanted to try. And once on it, I really didn't want to fall or fail, so kept going even though I was completely terrified and my muscles were cramping up. And I was so proud of my body once it was over (even with the violent trembling) that it had done what it was supposed to do despite my brain screaming at it "WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!? TURN BACK!! TURN BACK!!"
So bring it! I'm ready! … kinda… 😉
As mentioned in other posts, clothes are either too constricting or too irritating to be worn for an entire day so once I get home they usually just kindof fall off. Well I don't really want to be sauntering around in just my undies with the windows open so I asked Eric for "a very large t-shirt".
He disappeared upstairs and returned with a 2XL t-shirt for the Oakland Zoo, which is the Pitt student t-shirts that they all wear to basketball games. Not sure why he had a 2XL.. he usually wears a Large, but well.. it fit kinda nice. Like a big nightgown except it didn't hang that far down because it went more outwards than downwards.
So I was wearing that around the house this weekend when I didn't have to be dressed (aka somewhere else), and Eric commented on the picture of the basketball on the front of the shirt and said it did look like I was carrying around a basketball under there. I must say I agreed.
Oh, and on another note, my new nickname is Waddles. While not a name I'd like to live up to, or at least not for much longer… it is kinda cute and endearing.
Sooooooo we went to the hospital this weekend and spent pretty much our entire Saturday being tortured about what's to come. I must say, I was scared before, just knowing bits and pieces, but now I can honestly say I'm terrified. So much so that I'm not really sure I want to do this anymore.
So much to look forward to. An entire day of pain and exhaustive work. After becoming as lazy as I am now (mostly because it's just so hard to move much and everything hurts), thinking about hard work for hours and hours upon end sounds like a total blast.
But it's all in the perceptions. So instead of thinking about the scary I'm going to focus on the happy. I'll get to spend an entire day bonding with my husband, working together to bring a new member of our family into our lives, relying on one another to accomplish a really big task, and trusting one another. I hear it brings you closer together, and I can't wait for that. Not that we're not already close, but to have a deep bond of "we did this together" would be kinda awesome. And I can also just trust that God has a plan and He knows what he's doing, so just follow His lead.
And a baby! Wow sometimes I stop and think to myself.. "oh my goodness… I'm going to have a little person depending on me soon.."
I think the scariest part of it all is both what I hear about it being the most pain ever experienced, as well as the scary spine prickling epidural. Everyone says, "Get the epidural!" very emphatically and dramatically, but I keep thinking about a super huge needle grazing my spine and then stuff sticking out of me all over the place to monitor me… soooo many needles and tubes and stuff. Not cool.
But if it means I can focus on breathing and pushing and sharing a moment with Eric instead of just trying to survive a fog of pain, then maybe I should go that route.
I have to say one thing.. while I'm nervous about the "big day", I really can't wait to get my body back. Ah to be able to eat, and sleep, and wear clothes, and not pee every 2.45 minutes would be blissful. How I realize how I took my old body for granted. And I do realize that I won't get it back for a long while.. apparently there's a lot that follows birth that people don't much talk about which is also very unpleasant..
But the strangest thing of all….. I can't even begin to fathom how this thought popped into my mind… but as I was folding and putting away my maternity clothes from the dryer I was thinking… after this is over.. we should do it again.
So a couple things on my mind that are concerning:
- I had my OBG appointment yesterday morning and everything was great, as always… until she measured my belly. For some reason it bothered her that my belly measured bigger than she wanted or expected. All my other stats were great but she decided to prescribe me an ultrasound anyway. That kinda bothered me… I asked if there was anything scary and she said no, but that she just wanted to be safe and get a look in there. And the part that really bothered me was that she decided I should have it done at the hospital where I'll be delivering, instead of going back to the place down the street where I had the other ultrasounds done. Mom says I'm going to have a big baby… *sigh*
- Eric thinks I'm silly because I'm ticklish on pretty much every part of my body. In fact, I can't even scratch the bottom of my foot because it tickles, and he argues that it's impossible to tickle yourself (I disagree). Well apparently I'm ticklish on the inside too… sometimes the baby will move across my sides and while not the same kind of tickle as the outside, it definitely makes me squirm. Is this normal or am I weird? … I can't wait to get her back!
And now for long awaited pictures of the ginormous belly. Hooray!
Wow… looks even bigger in pics than it does from looking down at it. Now I get why people say I look like I'm gonna pop. From up here it doesn't look so… protrusive (I kinda like that word). I mean, I knew I couldn't see my toes without leaning over some, but jeez that sticks out further than I realized. I've been told I went from a basketball to a beach ball 🙂


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For more than a thousand years, the Jews of Cairo would preserve every piece of writing that contained Bible verses or references to God. The rationale was that Yahweh's name is too sacred to be tossed out. These worn-out writings had been faithfully deposited in a genizah, or a synagogue storage chamber. Alongside the expected copies of the Bible, prayer books and works of Jewish law, the casual collection grew with the most mundane documents, such as personal letters, legal and business papers and shopping lists, which offer an intimate portrait of a vibrant Jewish community in the center of an Islamic empire.
When the Cairo Genizah, located in the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Old Cairo (medieval al-Fusṭāṭ), was thoroughly explored by Solomon Schechter of the University of Cambridge in 1896/7, it revealed itself to be the world's largest and most important collection of medieval Jewish manuscripts, including the handwritings of Maimonides and other famous rabbis. Schechter then acquired more than 140,000 of these unwanted writings (mere snippets, at times) and shipped them back to Cambridge.
Spanning a millennium between the ninth and 19th centuries, some of these treasured scraps are on display in the exhibit Discarded History: The Genizah of Medieval Cairo at the Cambridge University Library that runs until October 28, 2017. Included is a copy of the original Hebrew version of the Book of Ben Sira (also called the Book of Sirach and the Book of Ecclesiasticus), which was thought lost until this 10th-century fragment surfaced in Cairo.
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As the 50s started with a fascination for science fiction, Ray Harryhausen soon got his first chance to prove his talents in a solo effort when he was hired to do the special effects for Eugène Lourié's new film, "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms". This sci-fi epic about a resurrected dinosaur fitted Harryhausen's animation like a glove and gave him the opportunity to show his amazing skills. After this now-legendary motion picture, the sky itself became the only limit for the animator's career. It would be very easy to dismiss "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms" because of its nowadays clichéd plot (in fact, it's idea would be improved the following year with Ishirô Honda's very superior "Gojira"), however, one has to remember that this was among the first (if not the very first) films to tell this kind of story.
"The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms" begins with a group of American scientists lead by Professor Tom Nesbitt (Paul Hubschmid), as they carry a series of nuclear experiments in the North Pole. After a particularly strong explosion, a mysterious prehistoric beast trapped on the arctic ice is resurrected and begins to make his way to the South. Unfortunately, Nesbitt is the only witness of the beast's appearance and so nobody thinks he is being serious about it. However, the disappearance of several boats near Canada makes Nesbitt to realize that the beast he saw was real, so he decides to consult experienced paleontologists Prof. Thurgood Elson (Cecil Kellaway) and Lee Hunter (Paula Raymond), in order to unveil the truth.
The scientists get alarmed when they discover that the beast Nesbitt saw is in fact the extinct Rhedosaurus, a gigantic carnivore that used to dwell in New York's coast. And it is going back home. Written by Eugène Lourié himself and a team of writers, the basic story is probably a cliché nowadays but this film is in fact the very first movie about a giant creature awakened by Nuclear energy. This subtle yet paranoid awareness of the dangers of Nuclear Energy would become the standard of many films across the 50s, making "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms" a very influential film in aspects beyond its revolutionary special effects.
Another element that makes this better than most of its imitations, is the way the characters are developed through the film and it's really interesting to see the characters' relationships with their respective professions and the consequences of their actions. The film has a very fast pace that never gets boring or tiresome, and Lourié balances very well the drama scenes and the special effects action. While Lourié really makes a good job, the real star is Ray Harryhausen's amazing work in the special effects department, as it is his monster what gives the movie its heart. There was probably no better film than this for Harryhausen to start, as he makes sure to pay homage to his master Willis O'Brien's two most famous works ("King Kong" and "The Lost World") while at the same time creating iconic images of great beauty.
Paul Hubschmid as Tom Nesbitt does a very effective job carrying the film, and really manages to avoid being overshadowed by the special effects. While far from perfect, he makes a competent lead character and a nice counterpart to the beautiful Paula Raymond, who also delivers a very good performance as Prof. Elson's young and bright assistant. Actor Cecil Kellaway adds his experience to the cast and delivers a terrific job as the charming Prof. Elson, stealing every scene he is with his lovable wit and his effective touch for comedy.
Finally, Kenneth Tobey completes the cast as he appears in a supporting role that at times reminds viewers of his role in "The Thing from Another World". OK, the whole production looks really old by today's technology, but it has a heart and magic that make the effects seem alive and real. It's really unfair to say this film is a joke, as it was conceived as an intelligent sci-fi thriller about mankind facing the consequences of their acts. This without a doubt a classic film of the 50s that still carries a frightening and far from outdated message beneath Mr Harryhausen's wonderful effects. It is really gripping, and it was only the beginning… 🙂


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The BEST Episodes of When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions
Every episode ever - ranked by fan votes!
NASA unlocks their vaults and lends their footage to the Discovery Channel to form this fascinating HD series. Narrated by Gary Sinise, this collection of training videos, home movies and more detail some of the first missions to the moon.
#1 - Home In Space
Season 1 - Episode 6
One of the most complex instruments ever built, the Hubble Space Telescope is expected to transform our understanding of the Universe. But once it is in orbit NASA discovers a serious problem, a defective main mirror. NASA sends a team of astronauts to fix the problem in its greatest and highest profile mission since the Apollo era. It gives NASA the confidence to begin construction on the International Space Station.
#2 - Friends and Rivals
Season 1 - Episode 2
Nine new astronauts arrive at NASA - their mission, to test all the procedures required to land men on the moon and bring them safely back to earth. Each Gemini mission launches two men into space, leading to some of NASA's greatest moments - Ed White's spacewalk, the first orbital rendezvous of Gemini 6 and 7, and Neil Armstrong's first space docking.
#3 - Ordinary Supermen
Season 1 - Episode 1
NASA selects seven men to become the first astronauts. They're all test pilots, prepared to risk their lives. No one has ever survived a vertical launch on top of a rocket, but it's the only way they know to put an astronaut into earth orbit. NASA and America's first astronauts, the Mercury Seven, are on a journey into the unknown. Six of the men ride into space, each launch taking NASA further forward in their quest to conquer space.
#4 - Landing the Eagle
Season 1 - Episode 3
The Apollo program is set to achieve the ultimate prize of the Space Race, landing men on the moon. But a fire breaks out in the pressurized capsule of Apollo 1, resulting in the deaths of three beloved astronauts. However, NASA rebounds, launching men into deep space and landing Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon.
#5 - The Shuttle
Season 1 - Episode 5
For its first 20 years, NASA launches capsules carrying a maximum of three people. But new requirements for a bigger cargo bay prompt a breakthrough in spacecraft design. The development of the re-usable shuttle leads to a revolutionary approach to space travel. Meanwhile, the pioneers of NASA's manned programs are leading the way into the modern era of the space-age.
#6 - The Explorers
Season 1 - Episode 4
Apollo 13 puts the astronauts to the ultimate test, returning a damaged spacecraft back safely to earth. Apollo 17 sends man for the longest mission yet to the surface of the moon, but it's the last lunar mission for generations. Now, it's time for a new phase in the program. Converting an unused Saturn V rocket, NASA launches Skylab, America's first space-station.


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DIY Knit Wrap For Spring
If youre on the hunt for a stylish wrap that will keep you warm on those chilly spring and summer nights, look no further. Today we are sharing an incredibly easy tutorial for a super chic wrap made from light sweater knit material and buttons. So lets get started.
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hybiscus tree
I have black spots that cover all of the buds on my tree. I cant see any movement so I don't know if they are bugs. I have sprayed with a soap solution and rubbing alcohol and haven't seen a change. Are they bugs and should I throw away my plant?
Certified GKH Gardening Expert
To me, it seems as if you are looking at either a bacterial, or fungal infection. I have a method I use to correct this that will also give your plants a little boost.
My recipe is as follows: First, you will want to prime the soil with dolomitic lime, then spread wettable sulfur to Kill off any infection in the soil. I Also like to spray the plant itself. Mix a few drops of one or more of these ingredients into warm water with a spoonful of coconut oil: Rosemary oil, lavender oil, neem oil, garlic oil, cinnamon extract/oil and for really bad cases, also add clove oil.
Here is a link for more information: https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/plant-problems/disease/bacterial-leaf-spot.htm
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04 - 29 - 2014
Bomb Threat: evacuation of the entire structure or not?
Evacuation for a "bomb threat" is not how to handle a evacuation for a fire, where we are in the presence of a certain tranquility. The evacuation for "bomb threat" has serious implications, risks and real costs. But then, how we manage this problem?
"Bomb threats" are not an extraordinary event as you could think. Every week and month are recorded several "bomb alarm", which then fortunately prove to be forgeries. Unfortunately, these alarms aren't always taken seriously, as it should be done, and such behavior is due to the lack of information available to the Security Manager.
Unlike a fire, some accidents that involve the "security" don't have an evident danger and, therefore, a equally evident response. The Security Manager who choose to evacuate each time where is present an "alarm bomb", adopts the philosophy of "prevention is better than cure", but we must be aware that each evacuation always has serious implications, risks, costs and production losses.
During a mass evacuation, there is nothing safe to manage hundreds or thousands of people that move under psychological pressure, so that they reach a safe and secure place. Some facilities may have various floor, and evacuation of some people with mobility problems may need to use elevators, in order to make the evacuation faster. In this manner we expose them to additional risks.
People during evacuation are exposed to risks, because this process normally creates congestion at exit points. Another problem is, that people must be protected from the weather, traffic and other dangers that are created due to the high concentration of people in a short time. The release of hundreds or thousands of people in the urban landscape in a very short time creates a domino effects, that can be multiplied if other buildings must be evacuated. To really understand the problem you can think of a suspicious package that requires mandatory evacuation of 50 m. for both "inside" and "outsite" staff.
Not all evacuation plans provide routes or areas of collection alternatives, and people must be prepared to decide the right route or area to use for proper evacuation. For example, for a "bomb threat" some "SAFE ZONEs" may be compromised compared to other, thus exposing staff and people to a greater risk. Inside the structure may be present HAZMAT substances (chemical, biological, radiological, explosive and toxic) or "sensitive" or "confidential" information; therefore during evacuation we have to put in safety and security this material, because this alarm may have been done to be able to access undisturbed to such substances or information.
In addition to all these issues, we must considered as financial costs, which are not to be neglected. Evacuate a structure for a "bomb threat" will require the closure of the site. The research and the defusing a bomb (if there is), likely, it will may take several hours or days (the research depends on the extent and type of activity). In these cases, the Continuity of Operation Plans -COOP- must provide the various possible options, for example in some cases it may be cheaper for the propriety considers the total closure of the production and proceed with the research in total safety and security. An unexpected or anticipated closure of the activity, caused by a "bomb threat", could have repercussions on traffic and also on public transport. So, this situation should be coordinated with the local authorities.
When a Security Manager receives a "bomb threat", he has to decide or continue productive activity, waiting the police, or begin the evacuation. The choice can be crucial, both for the business and for the lives. The choice should be made based on personal knowledge. If the company or the structure adopts the ATMS - AntiTerrorism Management System, the Security Manager is able to assess the threat and the various solution to choose. If the property doesn't a management system, the information in possession of the Security Manager can be very scarce, and the options to be taken are equally scarce.
In a company with a AntiTerrorism Management System - ATMS - the question about "the threat is real or not", becomes "is it possible for an outsider to have done this or not, and if it is yes in which area?". As you can see, the two claims involve different options with different operating costs. A solution to the first question may be the evacuation of the entire structure, while a solution to the second question can be the evacuation of only one part of the structure.
The solution to these question is done by several factors:
- excellent knowledge of the place;
- awareness of productive activities;
- full control of public areas, risk areas and internal areas of activity;
- access systems reliable;
- credentials of staff;
- opportunity to review suspicious behavior on video-surveillance system (CCTV);
- research in high-risk areas.
These system produce the informations that Security Manager can use to resolve the question about the "bomb threat". In this way, the ATMS transforms the question "the threat is real or not" in "is it possible to do this or not?"
In these years it has been observed that there are two types of Security Manager: one, who adopt the philosophy "prevention is better than cure" and then evacuate always, and second who did not evacuate ever considering apripri that this type of threat is false. The first choice has a huge cost for companies, in terms of production losses, while the second choice accepted an incalculable risk and that it may go against all international standards.
During this period, governed by the economic crisis and cost control, an appropriate management system (in this case ATMS) is able to help the Security Manager to choose the right option for the right threat, minimizing costs and production losses, and while ensuring adequate security in same way. Therefore, correct and accurate informations provide to Security Manager a valuable help, and they can reduce the costs associated with these "threats".
by - Antiterrorism Consulting ®