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iOS 7 Email Attachment Vulnerability Real but Limited
Security researcher Andreas Kurtz has identified a vulnerability that leaves email attachments downloaded by iOS 7's Mail app unprotected by Apple's Data Protection technologies. In short, data protection enhances the built-in hardware encryption by protecting the hardware encryption keys with your passcode. Apple specifically notes that this "provides an additional layer of protection for your email messages attachments, and third-party applications."
Apple has confirmed the vulnerability officially for us, and says it will fix it in a future update, but such a fix didn't make it into the recent iOS 7.1.1 update.
How Data Protection Works — Data Protection ensures that even if a bad guy gains physical control of your device, he can't access protected files without knowing your passcode, even if he can break the rest of the iOS device's security. This is especially useful to thwart attackers (or law enforcement) who connect to a device and extract a copy of the entire file system, after which they attempt to decrypt it offline. If you don't enable Data Protection by configuring a passcode, your iOS file system is encrypted in a way that is easy to circumvent by tethering your device to a computer.
Adding a passcode engages both additional hardware security to protect your device from unapproved physical connections, and it encrypts application data storage (including email) using both your passcode and a hardware key that's both unique to your device and nearly impossible to extract or copy. Even if someone has a complete copy of your file system they must brute force both of these codes together to see your files, which is nearly impossible to do off the device.
The alternative is to try to brute force your passcode on the device (through a tethered connection to a computer), but the encryption chips are designed to slow down this kind of attack to make it far less effective. In fact, it's nearly impossible if you have a passcode longer than 6 to 8 characters. Data Protection is extremely effective, although older iOS devices (before the iPhone 4S and iPad 2) lack some of the special hardware and are thus more vulnerable.
Limitations to the Attack — Although Kurtz says that he was able to access the filesystem using "well-known techniques," these techniques require technical know-how and some of the tools are compatible only with the iPhone 4 and earlier, as mentioned. Plus, we're already in the territory of the attacker needing full physical access to the device, so this isn't the sort of thing that could be used broadly via malware or a network connection.
An attacker either needs your passcode (in which case they have everything anyway), or he needs a jailbreak that works without a passcode, allowing him access to the file system. That's how Kurtz was able to attack an iPhone 4. It's unclear how he was able to reproduce on an iPhone 5s and iPad 2 running iOS 7.0.4, since more recent devices running iOS 7 aren't susceptible to a jailbreak without the passcode. It's possible that Kurtz had already jailbroken his iPhone 5s and iPad 2, so they weren't as protected as a normal device would be. The bug means that email attachments still aren't encrypted on those devices, but there isn't a way to get to them.
Regardless, the practical upshot is that unless you receive highly sensitive information in email attachments and are at risk for being targeted in person by those interested in your data, there's little to worry about here. Enterprise admins will want to alert users still relying on the iPhone 4, since email attachment data on those could be exposed if an attacker were to gain physical access.


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'Timely findings': Canola oil offers blood sugar management potential for diabetics
Results from a parallel design, randomized trial indicated that hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), a marker of long-term presence of excess glucose in the blood, was significantly lower following the three months of the low glycemic-load diet with a canola oil–enriched bread supplement, compared with a whole-grain diet with a whole-wheat bread supplement, according to findings published in Diabetes Care.
"This study shows the advantage of using canola oil in type 2 diabetes to improve both blood cholesterol and blood glucose control by reducing the glycemic load (GI multiplied by the amount of carbohydrate in the diet), especially in those at highest risk of diabetes complications," said lead researcher Professor David Jenkins from the University of Toronto.
"These findings are timely since diabetes is expected to double in the next 20 years and means of preventing it and its complications are major concerns of governments and the general public."
The study's findings were welcomed by the Canola Council of Canada, which sponsored the study along with the Government of Canada. "The ability of canola oil to help control blood glucose in people with type-2 diabetes adds to existing evidence of several health benefits, including CVD risk reduction," said Shaunda Durance-Tod, MSc, R.D., CanolaInfo manager, Canola Council of Canada.
"Further studies are now warranted on the effect of canola oil in a Mediterranean-type diet on glycemic control, blood fats and weight loss in type-2 diabetes."
Study details
The Canadian scientists recruited 141 type-2 diabetics being treated with oral anti-hyperglycemic agents. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups: a low Glycemic load diet with canola oil–enriched bread supplement (31 g canola oil per 2,000 kcal) or a whole-grain diet with a whole-wheat bread supplement.
Results showed that, for the 119 participants who completed the three month trial, HbA1c units decreased by an average of 0.47% in the canola group, compared with 0.31% in the whole grain diet. The difference between the groups was statistically significant, said the researchers. Participants at increased risk for adverse effects from type-2 diabetes, such as those with high blood pressure, derived the greatest benefits, they added.
Cardiovascular disease risk, as measured by the Framingham risk score for CVD, was reduced in both groups, with greater reductions in the canola oil group.
"The reduction of glycemic load by increasing the intake of MUFA and ALA (e.g. canola oil) to displace dietary carbohydrates and reduce the glycemic load improved glycemic control, particularly in participants at high risk for diabetes complications, and reduced LDL-cholesterol, a feature not seen with similar low-GI diets," wrote the researchers.
"By contrast, whole-grain cereals appear to improve vascular reactivity, possibly helping to explain their benefit in CVD risk reduction."
Source: Diabetes Care
Published online ahead of print, doi: 10.2337/dc13-2990
"Effect of Lowering the Glycemic Load with Canola Oil on Glycemic Control and Cardiovascular Risk Factors: A Randomized Controlled Trial"
Authors: DJ.A. Jenkins, C.W.C. Kendall, V. Vuksan, et al.

subset: commoncrawl


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Power BI July 2024 Feature Summary
Welcome to the July 2024 update. Here are a few, select highlights of the many we have for Power BI. Customize your reference layers in Azure Maps visual, DAX query view is available in live connect and an update to Power BI enhanced report format (PBIR). There is much more to explore, please continue to read on!
Les mer


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BITING REVIEW: I just watched Those Sandusky Boys, the finest piece of investigative journalism there's ever been since the Watergate scandal revealed Richard M. Nixon routinely trafficked little boys into the White House.
[Editor's note: This was the biggest little boy scandal until Penn. State's Coach Sandusky proved it could be more easily done with free tickets and promises to meet certain heroes in the shower room]
Stan Marivan, main character of the Hollywood blockbuster Those Sandusky Boys, which grossed $40 million on its opening weekend, plays himself: an Internet millionaire working for chronicle.su who donates half of his earnings to right-wing conservative hackers in the form of bitcoins. Marivan said the film incorporates fictional elements to make it more interesting, such as bitcoins being worth something.
"I've experimented with men before," said Marival. "But I have a girlfriend. I am very interested in the things I can do to her, sexually."
Marival is like M. Night Shamalayanayea except he's talented and the only twist he needs is a titty twist as he's getting his rocks off so he can bust a nut up inside his girlfriend and Those Sandusky Boys.
Attorneys are awash with litigation pertaining to the film's sensitive subject and refusal to change the names of neither the perpetrator nor his victims. "But all in all," Marival said, "It's just a bunch of whatever, we're making money. Shit." Marival threw up his hands and squatted so hard he tore the ass out of his khaki slacks, and shat liquid projectile feces directly into his own rare human-face carpeting in the Whollywood Whills.
Marival yelled to a woman named Henrietta, attaching profanities in Spanish, and pointed to the brown stains in his living room. The woman exhaled a whimpering cry, and wallowed in it.


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How to Start Trading the Forex Market?
What Is FOREX or FOREX MARKET?
The Foreign Exchange market (also referred to as the Forex or FX market) is the largest financial market in the world, with over $1.5 trillion changing hands every day.
That is larger than all US equity and Treasury markets combined!
Unlike other financial markets that operate at a centralized location (i.e. stock exchange), the worldwide Forex market has no central location. It is a global electronic network of banks, financial institutions and individual traders, all involved in the buying and selling of national currencies.
Another major feature of the Forex market is that it operates 24 hours a day, corresponding to the opening and closing of financial centers in countries all across the world, starting each day in Sydney, then Tokyo, London, and New York. At any time, in any location, there are buyers and sellers, making the Forex market the most liquid market in the world.
Traditionally, access to the Forex market has been made available only to banks and other large financial institutions. With advances in technology over the years, however, the Forex market is now available to everybody, from banks to money managers to individual traders trading retail accounts. The time to get involved in this exciting, the global market has never been better than now. Open an account and become an active player in the largest market on the planet.
The Forex Market is very different than trading currencies on the futures market, and a lot easier, than trading stocks or commodities.
Your Role In The Forex Trading Market
Whether you are aware of it or not, you already play a role in the Forex market. The simple fact that you have money in your pocket makes you an investor in currency, particularly in the US Dollar. By holding US Dollars, you have elected not to hold the currencies of other nations.
Your purchases of stocks, bonds or other investments, along with money deposited in your bank account, represent investments that rely heavily on the integrity of the value of their denominated currency ¨the US Dollar. D
Due to the changing value of the US Dollar and the resulting fluctuations in exchange rates, your investments may change in value, affecting your overall financial status. With this in mind, it should be no surprise that many investors have taken advantage of the fluctuation in Exchange Rates, using the volatility of the Foreign Exchange market as a way to increase their capital.
Example: suppose you had $1000 and bought Euros when the exchange rate was 1.50 Euros to the dollar. You would then have 1500 Euros. If the value of Euros against the US dollar increased then you would sell (exchange) your Euros for dollars and have more dollars than you started with.
You might see the following:
EUR/USD last trade 1.5000 means
One Euro is worth $1.50 US dollars.
The first currency (in this example, the EURO) is referred to as the base currency and the second (/USD) as the counter or quote currency.
The FOREX plays a vital role in the world economy and there will always be a tremendous need for the exchange of currencies. International trade increases as technology and communication increases. As long as there is international trade, there will be a FOREX market. The FX market has to exist so a country like Germany can sell products in the United States and be able to receive Euros in exchange for US Dollar.
Risks of currency trading
Margined currency trading is an extremely risky form of investment and is only suitable for individuals and institutions capable of handling the potential losses it entails. An account with a broker allows you to trade foreign currencies on a highly leveraged basis (up to about 400 times your account equity).
The funds in an account that is trading at maximum leverage may be completely lost if the position(s) held in the account experiences even one percent swing in value. Given the possibility of losing one's entire investment, speculation in the foreign exchange market should only be conducted with risk capital funds that, if lost, will not significantly affect the investor's financial well-being.
Trading the Forex Market Conclusion
Trading the forex market can be very profitable and risky at the same time, that being said if you are interested in trading the forex market and want to be profitable, you will need to learn how to trade the right way thus eliminating the risk factor.
If you are looking into trading the forex market or you are thinking of a career in the financial world and you want to learn more about currencies and investments, than you can and should check out some of the interactive online courses that are available to you.
Check It Out Below!


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Monday, November 2, 2009
The Damages of Soda Drinks
We have been looking for a great way to explain how bad soda drinks are for your body. The article below does it perfectly. It was written by Dr. Maoshing Ni Check it out and let us know what you think,
Soda, pop, cola, soft drink — whatever you call it, it is one of the worst beverages that you could be drinking for your health. As the debate for whether to put a tax on the sale of soft drinks continues, you should know how they affect your body so that you can make an informed choice on your own.
Soft drinks are hard on your health
Soft drinks contain little to no vitamins or other essential nutrients. However, it is what they do contain that is the problem: caffeine, carbonation, simple sugars — or worse, sugar substitutes — and often food additives such as artificial coloring, flavoring, and preservatives.
A lot of research has found that consumption of soft drinks in high quantity, especially by children, is responsible for many health problems that includetooth decay, nutritional depletion, obesity, type-2 diabetes, and heart disease.
Why the sugar in soft drinks isn't so sweet
Most soft drinks contain a high amount of simple sugars. The USDA recommendation of sugar consumption for a 2,000-calorie diet is a daily allotment of 10 teaspoons of added sugars. Many soft drinks contain more than this amount!
Just why is too much sugar so unhealthy? Well, to start, let's talk about what happens to you as sugar enters your body. When you drink sodas that are packed with simple sugars, the pancreas is called upon to produce and release insulin, a hormone that empties the sugar in your blood stream into all the tissues and cells for usage. The result of overindulging in simple sugar is raised insulin levels. Raised blood insulin levels beyond the norm can lead to depression of the immune system, which in turn weakens your ability to fight disease.
Something else to consider is that most of the excess sugar ends up being stored as fat in your body, which results in weight gain and elevates risk forheart disease and cancer. One study found that when subjects were given refined sugar, their white blood cell count decreased significantly for several hours afterwards. Another study discovered that rats fed a high-sugar diet had a substantially elevated rate ofbreast cancer when compared to rats on a regular diet.
The health effects of diet soda
You may come to the conclusion that diet or sugar-free soda is a better choice. However, one study discovered that drinking one or more soft drinks a day — and it didn't matter whether it was diet or regular — led to a 30% greater chance of weight gain around the belly.
Diet soda is filled with artificial sweeteners such as aspartame, sucralose, or saccharin. These artificial sweeteners pose a threat to your health. Saccharin, for instance, has been found to be carcinogenic, and studies have found that it produced bladder cancer in rats.
Aspartame, commonly known as nutrasweet, is a chemical that stimulates the brain to think the food is sweet. It breaks down into acpartic acid, phenylalanine, and methanol at a temperature of 86 degrees. (Remember, your stomach is somewhere around 98 degrees.) An article put out by the University of Texas found that aspartame has been linked to obesity. The process of stimulating the brain causes more cravings for sweets and leads to carbohydrate loading.
Carbonation depletes calcium
Beverages with bubbles contain phosphoric acid, which can severely deplete the blood calcium levels; calcium is a key component of the bone matrix. With less concentration of calcium over a long time, it can lower deposition rates so that bone mass and density suffer. This means that drinking sodas and carbonated water increases your risk of osteoporosis.
Add in the caffeine usually present in soft drinks, and you are in for even more trouble. Caffeine can deplete the body's calcium, in addition to stimulating your central nervous system and contributing to stress, a racing mind, and insomnia.
Skip the soda and go for:
• Fresh water
Water is a vital beverage for good health. Each and every cell needs water to perform its essential functions. Since studies show that tap water is filled with contaminants, antibiotics, and a number of other unhealthy substances, consider investing in a quality carbon-based filter for your tap water. To find out more about a high-performance filtration system, click here.
On the go? Try using a stainless steel thermos or glass bottle, filled with filtered water. Enhance the flavor of your water with a refreshing infusion of basil, mint leaves, and a drop of honey.
• Fruit Juice
If you are a juice drinker, try watering down your juice to cut back on the sugar content. Buy a jar of organic 100% juice, especially cranberry, acai, pomegranate, and then dilute three parts filtered water to one part juice. You will get a subtle sweet taste and the benefit of antioxidants. After a couple of weeks, you will no longer miss the sweetness of sugary concentrated juices.
• Tea
Tea gently lifts your energy and has numerous health benefits. Black, green, white, and oolong teas all contain antioxidant polyphenols. In fact, tea ranks as high or higher than many fruits and vegetables on the ORAC scale, the score that measures antioxidant potential of plant-based foods.
Herbal tea does not have the same antioxidant properties, though it is still a great beverage choice with other health benefits, such as inducing calming and relaxing effects.
Stay Healthy,
What not to Eat
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By: Jamiatul Ulama Gauteng
Source: Jamiatul Ulama Gauteng
There were two houses standing next to each other. In one of them resided a very unhappy family. The spouses yelled at each other, they fought and quarreled all the time. The other was a place of happiness and calm.
During one of the fights a wife asked her husband:
"Did you ever hear them quarrel or yell over at that house? No!
So, go there and see what they do to avoid it!"
The husband stood at the window of his neighbors and watched. There they were busy doing their own thing. The wife was in the kitchen cooking, and the man sat at the table writing. The phone rang, and the man jumped up and headed to the hallway to get it.
On his way, he bumped into a vase, it fell and broke. He got down to his knees and started picking up the pieces. The wife ran into the room from the kitchen. She also kneeled down and started helping her husband to pick them up.
The man said to his wife:
"I am so sorry. I rushed to get the phone and bumped into the vase. It fell and got broken."
The wife replied:
"No, honey, it is my fault. I put it there on the way. That's why you bumped into it."
They made up, and that was over. Both got back to what they were doing.
The man who watched them returned to his wife. She wanted to know what the secret of their happiness was.
What he said was fantastic:
"I know it now. In their family, they both are guilty and in our family both of us are always right!"
That's the secret of family happiness!
There are times you need to forfeit your right to win your peace: depends on which you cherish most.
This recipe is applicable, not only in the home, but also at work and in all relationships.


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"Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post. The opinions I share are my own."
When I saw the initial trailer for the first season of Blindspot, I was definitely intrigued. A woman, covered in tattoos, with amnesia, who is found in the duffel bag in the middle of Times Square is a premise I have never heard of before. Over the course of the season, the woman – known only as Jane Doe – slowly begins to reveal her secrets with the aide of a crack FBI team who uses her tats as a way to unravel the mystery of who she is and why she ended up the way she did.
As the action and suspense escalated toward the season finale, we were left with favorite characters taken from us and new mysteries presented. At long last season two appeared and the shot of adrenaline that kept us going the previous season is back; only this time, it's even more intense.
Chases, fight sequences, and shootouts are in full force in Blindspot's second season. As questions lead to more questions as to who Jane Doe truly is and where she came from, the answers revealed only fuel the fire that has kept us glued to our screens since the initial moments of the pilot.
With each episode, Blindspot gives us a little more, then a little more, and then a little more before we're suddenly gut-punched. Our sense of narrative security taken away as new revelations come to the fore and new foes and dangers emerge from the ether. Will Jane Doe's true identity finally emerge, or will it continue to evade us? There's only one way to know for sure: watch Blindspot: The Complete Second Season!
The Season Two Blu-ray is loaded with special features that include:
• The Writer's Conspiracy Featurettes:
· Breaking Season 2
· Premiere Revelations
• Conspiracies and Cover-Ups Featurettes
• Zero Division
• Sandstorm
• Deleted Scenes
• My Crazy Comic-Con Experience with Ashley Johnson (Agent Patterson)
• 2016 Comic-Con Panel
• Bound and Gag Reel
So, continue the journey you began with Jane from the beginning and check out Blindspot: The Complete Second Season. I highly recommend it!
Blindspot: The Complete Second Season is available NOW on DVD and Blu-ray!
What do you think will happen in Season Three? Leave a comment and let us know!


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You're live! Nice. We've put together a little post to introduce you to the Ghost editor and get you started. You can manage your content by signing in to the admin area at <your blog URL>/ghost/
. When you arrive, you can select this post from a list on the left and see a preview of it on the right. Click the little pencil icon at the top of the preview to edit this post and read the next section!
Getting Started
Ghost uses something called Markdown for writing. Essentially, it's a shorthand way to manage your post formatting as you write!
Writing in Markdown is really easy. In the left hand panel of Ghost, you simply write as you normally would. Where appropriate, you can use shortcuts to style your content. For example, a list:
- Item number one
- Item number two
- A nested item
- A final item
or with numbers!
- Remember to buy some milk
- Drink the milk
- Tweet that I remembered to buy the milk, and drank it
Want to link to a source? No problem. If you paste in a URL, like http://ghost.org - it'll automatically be linked up. But if you want to customise your anchor text, you can do that too! Here's a link to the Ghost website. Neat.
What about Images?
Images work too! Already know the URL of the image you want to include in your article? Simply paste it in like this to make it show up:
Not sure which image you want to use yet? That's ok too. Leave yourself a descriptive placeholder and keep writing. Come back later and drag and drop the image in to upload:
Sometimes a link isn't enough, you want to quote someone on what they've said. Perhaps you've started using a new blogging platform and feel the sudden urge to share their slogan? A quote might be just the way to do it!
Ghost - Just a blogging platform
Working with Code
Got a streak of geek? We've got you covered there, too. You can write inline <code>
blocks really easily with back ticks. Want to show off something more comprehensive? 4 spaces of indentation gets you there.
.awesome-thing {
display: block;
width: 100%;
Ready for a Break?
Throw 3 or more dashes down on any new line and you've got yourself a fancy new divider. Aw yeah.
Advanced Usage
There's one fantastic secret about Markdown. If you want, you can write plain old HTML and it'll still work! Very flexible.
That should be enough to get you started. Have fun - and let us know what you think :)


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Seraphina took the literary world by storm with 8 starred reviews and numerous "Best of" lists. At last, her eagerly awaited sequel has arrived—and with it comes an epic battle between humans and dragons.
The kingdom of Goredd: a world where humans and dragons share life with an uneasy balance, and those few who are both human and dragon must hide the truth. Seraphina is one of these, part girl, part dragon, who is reluctantly drawn into the politics of her world. When war breaks out between the dragons and humans, she must travel the lands to find those like herself—for she has an inexplicable connection to all of them, and together they will be able to fight the dragons in powerful, magical ways.
As Seraphina gathers this motley crew, she is pursued by humans who want to stop her. But the most terrifying is another half dragon, who can creep into people's minds and take them over. Until now, Seraphina has kept her mind safe from intruders, but that also means she's held back her own gift. It is time to make a choice: Cling to the safety of her old life, or embrace a powerful new destiny?


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Wholesale 10mm Satin Ribbon - Double Sided 25Mtr Roll - Hunter Green
Hunter Green is best described as a rich Christmas Green and is great for wrapping Xmas presents and gift boxes etc.
Luxurious, soft & silky with a tight weave for less fraying - our premium 100% polyester satin ribbon matches this big ribbon companies in terms of quality but is much more affordably priced.
When it needs to be said with quality and luxury - genuine Paperglitz 10mm Double Faced Satin Ribbon is the perfect choice! Our double sided satin means the colour and sheen is the same on both sides - unlike cheaper single side ribbons that are different on the reverse side.
Since their introduction on 2009, they have proven to be extremely popular for wedding invitations, cakes, candles, florists, corporate packaging, ribbon printers, gift wrapping and more. They are now the ribbon of choice for many hundreds of businesses around the country! With high quality, low prices and with over 1,000,000 metres of satin ribbon in stock in Sydney, we have the proper stock levels required to consistently & reliably supply your business.
For larger corporate events, talk to us about importing your ribbon for you. With as little as 200 rolls (or 5000mtrs), we can bring in almost any colour you like at a substantial price saving and without any headaches around the quality!
This colour is also available in 3mm, 6mm, 15mm, & 25mm widths.
If you need to glue this ribbon to paper, card or other fabrics, we recommend Helmar Fabric Glue. If you need to permanently seal cut ends against fraying, we recommend Helmar Fray Stoppa (both sold separately).
Don't be fooled by cheap nylon ribbons and/or single sided ribbons that feel like plastic and fray badly when cut. We have the quality of the big ribbon companies but at up to half the price - it is no wonder our ribbons are so popular.
Buy with confidence and specify only "Genuine Paperglitz 10mm Double Sided Satin Ribbons" for your next project.


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7 Ways to Make Your Business Card Your Best Marketing Tool If you haven't put much thought into your business card, you're missing out on a great marketing opportunity. Here are seven ways your business card design and delivery can get you noticed.
Every day we hand out a tiny brochure about our businesses without even realizing it. Look at the stacks on your desk, the deck in your drawer or the stash in your wallet. Business cards, in all sizes, shapes and colors, are everywhere. And yet, while we all understand that a business card is a necessity, we often fail to see it as a marketing opportunity.
It's time to start seeing that little slip of paper for what it is: the best opportunity you have to market yourself or your business to a targeted and captive audience. After all, you chose to hand it to that person for a reason.
Here are seven ways to spiff up your business card so that it collects sales, rather than dust:
1. Give your card a purpose. And we're not just talking communication. Cards that multi-task will be seen far more frequently than your average business card. Turn it into a bookmark, an event ticket, a note card, scratch card or sticker. Make it a conversation piece and your business will automatically become a part of the conversation.
2. Track it. Include a QR code or SKU on your business card, and whenever you hand it out, give the recipient an incentive like discounts or coupons for checking out your site. This way, you'll be able to track the rate at which your card compels people to action. If the current design and incentive doesn't work, you can always try another.
Related: How to Design a Business Card That Gets Noticed
3. Challenge people. Surprise people with a fun fact or figure on your business card. Think about a Trivial-Pursuit-style question or piece of trivia that applies to your business. For example, adding a simple fact -- "You're more likely to survive a plane crash than click on a banner ad" -- could spur a conversation about new marketing channels and strategies, with business owners frustrated by their existing marketing efforts. Engage and amuse people when they read your card and your business will stand out.
4. Add credibility with testimonials. Customers relate to other customers. Because of that, testimonials speak volumes. Consider adding a brief quote or link to a quote on the back of your business card. It's a great way to use valuable space that otherwise goes to waste.
5. Support a cause. Social impact and business go hand-in-hand these days. Let people know about causes that drive you. Use your card as a vehicle to make a difference, and recipients will gain a better understanding of what drives you as a person and a professional. For example, you can include: "Proud supporters of Feeding America."
6. Put a face to the name. Consider putting your photo on your card so that people can continue to put a face to your name long after they've met you. A photo not only adds to the familiarity of your company's brand and increases your likeability factor, but paints a picture of you as a person. It also makes you easily recognizable from your competition.
7. Make the handoff memorable. The physical act of exchanging your card can be more valuable than the card itself. Use it as a conversation starter to better understand where the person's needs, interests or hobbies lie. As you hand out your card, mention when you will follow up and also reinforce a message about the value of your business.
What are your business card tips?
Related: Lessons From Fair Trade on How to Make Your Brand Message More Powerful


text: This was one of my all-time favorite album projects: two brilliant John Barry scores. One was a landmark Richard Lester film from 1968, the other a little-seen musical version of Lewis Carroll's children's classic released in 1972. Luckily both were Warner Bros. LPs and so they could be combined into a single 79-minute CD. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland boasts an incredible British cast including Peter Sellers, Michael Crawford, Dudley Moore, Ralph Richardson and a young Fiona Fullerton as Alice. The film got terrible reviews but the songs by Barry and Don Black are delightful (especially "Curiouser and Curiouser," "I've Never Been This Far Before" and "The Me I Never Knew," all of which Barry later turned into a symphonic suite). Petulia starred Julie Christie and George C. Scott and seems today to be a sharply observed look at Flower Power-era San Francisco with one of the composer's most haunting themes. Any excuse to call John Barry for fresh insights into his work was welcome, and I did so again here.


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Click on arrow to hear the song performed by Derek B. Scott, Professor of Critical Musicology, University of Leeds, to his own piano accompaniment c. 1980. Professor Scott comments that The English-Jewish singer pianist Russell influenced the direction and style of American and English commercial popular song in the late 1830s and the 1840s. This song was composed on an American tour, to a poem by Morris, which had been first published in the New York Mirror Magazine in 1830.
Scott, Derek B. The Singing Bourgeois: Songs of the Victorian Drawing Room and Parlour. 2nd ed. Aldershot, Hampshire; Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2001.
Last modified 7 September 2007


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As one of the sunniest countries on the planet, Australia is ideally placed to include large-scale solar power as a major part of its energy mix. Large-scale solar uses the same technology as rooftop solar panels – specially fabricated semiconductor crystals that convert light from the sun into electricity.
With solar prices falling dramatically (from $135/MWh in 2015 to between $44.50 and $61.50 per MWh in 2020*), large-scale solar is already one of the most attractive options for new generation.
The large-scale solar sector's momentum slowed in 2020, but it still added 893 MW of new capacity across 22 projects. This brought the sector's total capacity to 3.9 GW and increased its contribution to Australia's renewable generation from 9.3 per cent in 2019 to 10.9 per cent in 2020.
Queensland was Australia's leading large-scale solar state in 2020, generating 3.3 GWh of solar power throughout the year. It was followed by New South Wales with 2.4 GWh and Victoria with just over 1 GWh.
The large-scale solar sector is expected to perform strongly in the next couple of years, with 52 large-scale solar farms under construction at the end of 2020.
Among these are the 400 MW Western Downs Green Power Hub in Queensland and the 400 MW New England Solar Farm in New South Wales, both of which are expected to be completed in 2022. In what is becoming increasingly common, both projects will include a utility-scale battery to provide extra electricity into the grid outside of peak solar hours.
Also on the horizon is the Sun Cable project in the Northern Territory, which at 10 GW will be the world's largest solar farm and will feature a battery 150 times larger that South Australia's Hornsdale Power Reserve. Although the mega project isn't expected to generate electricity until 2026, its ongoing development is a strong signal of the large-scale solar industry's importance to Australia's, and the world's, transition to a renewable energy future.
Projects commissioned in 2020
22Projects under construction or financially committed at the end of 2020
52The largest commissioned solar farm in 2020 was the 110 MW second stage of the Bungala Solar Farm in South Australia. When combined with the first stage of the project, which was completed in 2018, the solar farm injects 220 MW of solar power into the South Australian electricity grid. Other notable projects to come online in 2020 included the 105 MW Nevertire Solar Farm in New South Wales, the 100 MW Bomen Solar Farm in New South Wales, Western Australia's 100 MW Merredin Solar Farm and the 100 MW Yarranlea Solar Farm in Queensland.
You can view more detail on the projects that have been completed and are being constructed around the country on our project tracker page.
Homes and businesses are playing an increasingly important role in Australia's energy mix as they install solar.
Learn moreA technology that uses lenses and reflectors to concentrate sunlight, heat fluid and produce steam to drive a turbine.
Learn more* Source: ARENA


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Over the last 12 months, we've started to see some significant shifts in the agency model and client-agency relationship. Having been involved in working with and running a number of agencies since 2003, I thought I'd share the direction I see things heading.
In some way this is a series of mini-posts, so you might want to grab a cup of tea first! But it should go to show the challenges agencies face in order to keep evolving and stay on top of their game.
What does the perfect digital strategy look like?
Rather than starting by looking at agency models, I always find it more useful to look at the bigger picture of what brands are doing and what they need.
Try asking yourself "if budget and restrictions/internal bottlenecks were no object, what would the perfect digital marketing strategy look like?". Presumably this is likely to include the integration of owned, earned and paid media:
And then you can work backwards:
- What are the main goals you are looking to achieve?
- What marketing channels can help you to achieve your goals?
- How can the channels work/integrate together?
- What type of people do you need to get involved?
- What can you manage internally vs. using external expertise?
Ultimately it's taking a budget and spending it where it works best, with short, medium and long-term goals in mind.
It's not about SEO, PR or content marketing, it's simply being able to share your brand's story to your target audience and converting them into customers.
Once you've figured this out, you can then define everything else afterwards. It's important to know the budget you have to work with early on, so that you can set targets and control realistic expectations from the outset.
Otherwise you're unlikely to ever win if those expectations aren't clearly aligned.
If you flip the question of "what should an agency offer in 2013?", to ask "what does a client need in 2013?", you can start to build the right approach to match those key requirements. Otherwise, you run the risk of offering services that aren't as useful or valued.
Integrated or specialist agency?
To succeed in 2013, brands really need a multichannel approach. This means they have two choices:
- Work with an integrated team (either in-house or externally – usually a mixture of both) who can bring everything together under one roof.
- Work with a number of specialists in each area.
Of course, there are pros and cons to each. You might lack the in-depth quality a specialist can give you in a particular area.
But, in that approach you may lose the bigger picture and miss out on many efficiencies of being able to work together more closely as an integrated team. There's no right or wrong answer, but it's important that you make the most of the interaction between channels such as SEO, PPC and social media:
We're finding we're more often talking to brands who are looking for digital marketing partners to work alongside their team, as opposed to managing individual channels with separate agencies. This means supporting them with:
- Skills they don't have internally – perhaps it's content production, blogger outreach, social media marketing campaigns, SEO expertise, PPC management.
- Training internal teams – for example, making sure the content team is aware of SEO/PR/social media marketing best practises.
- Strategic consulting – to reinforce ideas or get internal buy-in with advice from a neutral party.
- Assistance to build their own team – working alongside brands in interim management positions to identify where they need new skills/job roles and help them recruit key personnel to strengthen their teams.
It always varies based on the client – larger brands often prefer to work with a number of agencies with different expertise and specialisms. Even then, each team still needs to be fully aware of other activity outside of their own campaigns that can make an impact and be used.
I've always found holding agency days to be incredibly valuable too, as that helps you to understand other areas that are being worked upon in more detail, one I attended showed some great demographic profiling information from a CRM agency which I was previously unaware of, and then able to put to use within content and search campaigns.
Plus, getting to know everyone involved allows you to build a relationship outside of the client – which can be very useful if you need to get things done quicker by communicating directly with different agencies/suppliers, without the need for client to be involved in every step.
Surround yourself with talent
Online marketing has become so integrated that clients will often need a digital partner to support and challenge their internal team and goals. That means as an agency you face a situation where you can a) look to bring in new talent, or b) you have to accept that there's a range of services that you just can't offer.
I've never been a fan of starting as a full-service agency, I'd rather be great at one thing than average at 10. But if you can find ways to build up and bring in key skills/people into your team which can complement your client campaigns, that has to be an option worth pursuing.
Scaling with quality is always the biggest agency challenge, and in this game everything is about people – so good recruitment and team building is vital.
I'm not the best person in my agency at everything we do (or arguably anything!), and neither do I want to do be. No one wants to be a big fish in a small pond, that way you'll end up making it all up yourself and have little choice but to learn from your mistakes.
Alternatively, if you're surrounded by great PPC specialists, bloggers, designers, SEOs, PRs etc you can all learn from each other and create a solid strategy where the whole is much greater than the sum of all parts.
We've done this recently, by acquiring a paid search agency to compliment and combine our service offering into an integrated approach. I expect to see more agencies doing the same before the end of the year – and of course, like any agency, we're always looking for talented people to join us and add to the team.
Ditch the silos
Everyone has known for years that there are efficiencies in combining paid and organic search strategies into a single team. That is true – but it doesn't really happen until you really start to break down the silos. It's even more important now, with so many overlaps in search, content, social and PR.
Team building and improving efficiencies is one of the biggest learning curves I've faced, but it's undoubtedly my proudest achievement too by being able to build great teams and individually see people grow and succeed. We've made a huge effort in our team to get everyone working together, this means internally the SEO strategists are working in combination with outreach, social media and paid search specialists and supporting each other.
Sometimes, it's as simple as getting them to sit next to each other – other times you need to bring them into internal/client meetings, brainstorming and projects.
By ensuring that we act as a team, share knowledge and have a set of individual skills it means clients benefit from this multichannel approach, but you're all working towards executing a single strategy, just from different angles using a mix of tactics.
Having that single and clear strategy, operating across multiple channels using different tactics, means you're less likely to hit bottlenecks further down the line – because you're all on the same team and working together.
In my opinion culture can often be looked at the wrong way. But to me this is what culture is all about, it's getting everyone enjoying their work, learning every day, contributing as part of a team with the support of others and working on clients they love/sectors they are passionate about and willing to put the extra work in when it's required.
Then you can add in all the free fruit and coffee afterwards, but on it's own that's not the important bit.
Team integration also helps to get around the issue where quite often an agency is hired, only to end up dealing with one person at that company.
That means it's almost a freelance arrangement, and not quite the service that means you get access to a range of different specialists and have the security in a backup of people who know and understand your brand and what you're trying to achieve – especially in the case that a key contact is unavailable, on holiday or leaves the company.
Make content central to your brand
In 2013, there's no longer an argument on if content is important, everyone can now see the market growth is clearly there, although surprisingly that wasn't the case even 12 months ago.
Not many people would disagree now that brands are becoming publishers and that whether you're involved in PR, social media or SEO – content is crucial towards marketing your brand. That's why brands like Netflix, Red Bull and Virgin Mobile are now taking content marketing so seriously.
As a result of this growth, the job roles that agencies are now hiring are much more content-based. This means writers/bloggers/authors, social influencers, graphic designers, videographers and creative PRs are much more highly valued than they probably were this time last year.
In order to succeed, brands are investing in content and building a brand to integrate with all of their marketing channels – this a much longer-term vision to grow their audience and sustainably increase market share.
No one understands your brand better than you
Our job as agencies is to understand the clients we are working with as much as we can, in order to execute a marketing strategy and get the best results possible.
That said, no one is going to understand your brand better than you. Which is why the move towards working as an integrated digital partner makes a lot more sense. That way you're not just telling an agency to manage everything, instead they are there to support and work with you.
This is where the best results come from, the days are long gone where clients just sign 12-month contracts and you have free reign, with the client only asking to hear from you 11 months down the line to arrange a review meeting. And yes, I have seen that happen!
Now the task is to support and work together with in-house teams, planning and executing a strategy to combine the skills and resource of both to hit targets.
Brands have huge power in data, knowledge, information & relationships
As agencies – we need to use the full strength of a brand. And for content marketing, for example, there's a huge amount of value in the data, information and knowledge that brands have available to them. Most of the time they don't even realise this can be used for marketing purposes, so we need to work on digging this out and turning their data into content, stories, news, PR.
We all can be guilty of being too stubborn to admit we could benefit from a clients help, or their PR agency's (and vice versa).
But brands have a huge amount of power in the relationships they have – if you want to create a social media or outreach campaign to leverage influencers, it makes sense to start with those contacts you've build strong relationships with already – so leverage what you've got!
The time to be innovative & forward thinking is now
You can debate as long as you like about the impact of Google+, but some agencies (and brands for that matter) can be very reactive and sit back on what has been tried and tested to work for years.
That's all very well if it works, but if it has diminishing results, it doesn't matter how good it was in the past, it's time to move on. Plus there's lots of opportunities and slow-moving brands that you can take advantage of by moving quickly and being ahead of the curve.
Sometimes it just needs a leap of faith on something that you believe is going to become increasing important – so that you are being innovative and investing in the future – without taking your eye off the ball today.
This is one of the most forward thinking SEO articles I've read in a long time and if you can get a head-start on things like responsive design, schema and semantic optimisation then you're likely to be in a very strong position versus your competitors – you can leave them chasing the algorithm while you build for long-term success.
Of course, you won't always get it right, but if you're going to be spending time on Google+ for example, don't hang around waiting until the audience is there – the time to do it is now. Then when the audience is there, you can be one of the authorities and thought leaders within your industry.
Really your business strategy and marketing strategy should be as closely aligned as possible – which is why so many people are encouraging CEOs to become thought leaders to promote their companies via blogging, speaking etc.
They are the ones responsible for setting the company vision and are likely to have the strongest relationships and know more about the industry/market than anyone else, so they should be best placed to bring it all together when it comes to being innovative and predicting where their industry is going next.
Being agile and quick is vital
Which leads on to being agile. In 2013 there are so many newsworthy and topical trends that are great marketing opportunities. Here's 26 just to name a few!
Econsultancy CEO, Ashley Friedlein wrote an excellent post recently on the importance of having a 70:20:10 approach. That 10% is hugely important – as by being agile and quick to move, you're likely to be taking advantage of opportunities where perhaps your competitors are slower to move.
In this case, for once it's not always about quality either, it's about being quick! I really like the concept that you have something fast, quality or cheap, but you can't have all three, pick two! In this case, fast is the vital ingredient and then you decide if you prefer quality, or if cheap will do the job.
The ability to be agile shouldn't be underestimated, we're in a situation now where we're telling clients that we're going to create them x pieces of content, but we have no idea what it's going to be about. That's a big shift in mind-set and even a year ago, people would have laughed at that!
But now, because it's so important to be topical, we have to be quick to react and provide the content that people are tweeting about and searching for in almost real-time – otherwise you're too late.
You only need to see the results that Oreo got by being agile during the Superbowl to see that agile can yield huge results and brand visibility.
It's important to have a consistent model, so balance is key. Allow yourself enough time to be agile, but have that clear plan and strategy that it can work alongside a planned digital roadmap to get the best results.
Otherwise, you'll end up just chasing the latest fad, you should be using agile to compliment the parts that already work – not replace it.
End of Day Rates?
Pricing models in digital are hard to get right, it's all about providing value at a fair market rate.
In every situation, you have to make it win-win. If the client doesn't get results they're not going to be happy, and if the agency doesn't make a profit, equally that's unlikely to be a good relationship long-term.
Traditionally, the way to do this has been day rates. You know how much time you've spent, the margin you make after considering overheads and from an agency perspective you know where you are.
But it doesn't reflect value. Just because an audit took 10 days to complete, it doesn't mean it's any good!
If anything a day-rate often incentivises the task to take longer! Hopefully not, of course – but you always have to be aware of the dodgy car mechanic. This is especially true with tasks like blogger outreach – the expected results from time spent is vague at best – it's results that matter.
I can't speak for other agencies, but I would be interested to hear – personally, other than consultancy time or training, we haven't charged anything as a standard day-rate for at least a year.
I would expect this is a common trend as more productised and performance-based agreements are much clearer to set expectations and charge clients/reward agencies much more fairly.
It also means the pressure is on the agency to deliver as the client knows exactly what to expect in terms of key deliverables over the course of a project, with a much higher emphasis on client re-education towards quality over quantity. Focusing on the long-term gain, not the quick wins.
But, it also means that if you are a client with higher than realistic target/deliverable expectations at the outset, that you might get more agencies refusing to work with you now than has happened in the past too.
We want to build our clients into great case studies and success stories – but if a potential client doesn't share that same drive and determination to get things done, it probably makes sense to pass early, rather that drag out what is likely to be a forgone conclusion.
In a lot of ways the agency task hasn't changed at all, it's about supporting clients goals in the best way possible to achieve results.
It's also about having a proven model that works and you can stick to, no-ones wants to constantly change, but at the same time you need to evolve in order to cater for what the market needs and learn what strategies and team environments yield the most success.
What has changed, is the fact that the lines are becoming so blurred between marketing channels, which means operating in silos is no longer effective.
That doesn't mean that you can't be a small specialised agency – but it does present a new challenge, for those agencies such as ourselves, who are looking to bridge the gap between small specialist consultancies and the big media agencies.
I believe the way to go is almost to do both – build an integrated team of specialist skills in each key area, then you can bring them in and out as you see fit to support the growing needs of clients across multi-channels.
It's simply the process of supporting them in that task and taking a marketing budget and spending it where it works best!
I'd be very interested in hearing from other agency owners on their challenges and how they've adapted strategies and their positioning based upon the changing market – let us know in the comments.
This piece was written by Kevin Gibbons. He is the UK Managing Director at digital marketing agency BlueGlass and is also known as an SEO speaker. This piece was first published at Econsultancy.com. Kevin can be found on Twitter and Google+.


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