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VASSALBORO – Just across the Kennebec River from Maine's capital, in the midst of a developed part of the state, hunter Julius Koenig and his neighbors love it when deer season rolls around.
In Vassalboro, where some of the state's highest turkey and deer populations exist, plenty of both are taken by hunters each year, and often make Vassalboro the No. 1 hunting town in Maine.
In fact, the biggest hunting towns in Maine are not up north in Aroostook County, nor in western Maine or even around Moosehead Lake. A vast percentage of all big-game animals hunted in Maine — white-tailed deer, moose, wild turkey and black bear — are taken in the southern quarter of the state.
A Maine Sunday Telegram analysis of 12 years of tagging station data found that Maine's biggest hunting towns are in the southern quarter of the state, where 65 percent of the population resides.
Close to half of all big-game animals killed by hunters since 2000 were registered with the state between York County, just an hour from Boston, and the midcoast, as far as Waldo County. As much as 45 percent of all big game were tagged in this southern quarter of the state, belying the notion that the hunting culture in Maine exists primarily up north.
Of the top 10 hunting towns in Maine, nine are in southern and central Maine. York, near the very southern tip of Maine, ranks No. 10.
The fact is, a robust hunting culture exists in the southern half of Maine, as proven by the number of big-game animals taken by hunters there.
Moreover, in that area a hunting ethic has evolved based around hunters asking permission and securing access to private land to assure hunting can continue in the most developed part of Maine.
In northern Maine, traditionally, large private landowners have allowed hunters to use their land without permission. But in the southern half of Maine, hunters have developed new habits to adjust to the landscape.
"Vassalboro is really tricky. It's heavily posted and there is not a lot of public access. It can be quite challenging to hunt in Vassalboro," said Koenig, 27, a hunter of 15 years. "I'm blessed because my mother has a farm that I've always been able to hunt on. But it would be very challenging to go into Vassalboro and find unposted land and not be confronted by a landowner.
"It's almost a yellow-brick road of posted signs."
Nonetheless, at the regional wildlife offices across Maine, state biologists say Maine's hunting culture not only exists in the southernmost part of Maine, but thrives.
"People think we're just a bunch of city people down here and it's all developments and shopping malls. And that represents a fair part of the region. But there is plenty of undeveloped land in southern Maine. There is plenty of hunting, and a very strong wildlife population. I see it in every town I go into," said regional biologist Scott Lindsay of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife's southern office in Gray.
That over the past decade, nine of the top 10 hunting towns registering big game were in the southern quarter of Maine is a fact state wildlife biologist Keel Kemper considers with pride.
"This is where it's happening," said Kemper, who is based in Sidney, between Augusta and Waterville.
Deer and turkey accounted for 85 percent of all big game taken by hunters in Maine in the past 12 years and largely populate this southern quarter, with more than 20 deer per square mile.
By contrast in northern Maine, where white-tailed deer are at the northern end of the species' range, deer exist in smaller numbers — as few as one to three per square mile, said Rich Hoppe, the state wildlife biologist in Ashland.
"It's gotten to the point, I could say in the deer yards in the big woods, we only had four or five areas that held wintering deer. In the past, way back 15 to 20 years ago, we probably had 30 or 40 areas," Hoppe said.
"I've been here since 1988. We used to have more hunters from Vermont come to northern Maine. But since 2007 and 2008, we've lost 50 to 70 percent of our deer. Hunters know that."
Wild turkey have migrated slowly north since the bird was reintroduced in York and Waldo counties by state biologists in 1977 and 1982, respectively, and since the first hunt was held in 1986, according to DIFW.
But the deer numbers, on the other hand, have just dwindled, said Hoppe, a 30-year veteran with DIFW.
In Dover-Foxcroft — just northwest of Bangor — Steve Boyd at Foxbrook Variety said fewer hunters stop in his shop during deer season than they did 20 years ago. He notices because fewer deer tagged means fewer sales.
"In 2007, there were 255 deer tagged. Last year there were 142, a loss of 113 customers. They don't all spend money in my store, but a good portion do. The whole reason to be a tagging station is to get people in the door. But if they're not having success hunting, they're not coming in my store," Boyd said.
And while an active hunting culture still thrives in Penobscot County, Vince Sawyer, owner of Toot's Delicatessen in Dexter, said the deer densities do not compare to when he grew up along the road to Moosehead Lake. Sawyer can recall tagging upwards of 500 deer at Toot's seven years ago. Last year he tagged just 231.
"I used to hunt, but the friends I hunted with moved away. I don't have time and my kids are not into it, so I gave it up," Sawyer said.
However, the abundance of deer and turkey in the southernmost corner of Maine is well known among hunters, and today a large number choose to hunt there.
The significant opportunity to hunt in southern Maine is why Fred Wiegleb, president of the Scarborough Fish and Game Association, moved to York County in 1982. Now the president of one of Maine's largest fish and game clubs, Wiegleb said the hunting culture is far from fading in southern Maine.
"It's one of the attractions to coming to Maine. Elsewhere when you get into the metropolitan areas, you're not allowed to hunt. Not so here," said Wiegleb, of Arundel.
And it's not just locals who know it.
Lindsay, the regional wildlife biologist in southern Maine, said last year he got a call from a half dozen retired state troopers in Connecticut interested in deer hunting in his region.
"They had gone up to northern Maine for a couple of decades. But they got to the point in their 60s and 70s, they wanted to explore other places. They asked about lodging, and blocks of land to hunt where there was a good success rate. They did a lot of research. That's more typical of what we're getting now," Lindsay said.
More and more, Lindsay and Kemper said, out-of-state hunters call their offices inquiring about a southern Maine hunt, joining a strong group of locals who already hunt there.
Lindsay added that there has been a greater effort among biologists to help facilitate hunting in the south.
"It's why our long-term strategy is working with landowners here and securing access," he said.
Maine boasts a unique hunting tradition where private landowners have long allowed others to traverse across their land "to fish or fowl" without asking permission. This is the way in northern Maine, where private landowners often own huge tracts of land.
But in southern Maine — as land has become more developed — Lindsay said hunters have needed to adopt the practice of knocking on doors, meeting with private landowners, and asking for permission to hunt their woods and fields. And they're doing it, so that come November, they're getting their deer.
Kemper said he definitely has seen more hunters seeking landowner permission.
"Asking for permission is becoming more and more a way of life. It's not something people here grew up with. When I first moved here from Georgia, that stunned me. Where I grew up, you asked permission if you wanted to get out alive," Kemper said. "If access was as bad as everyone says, that would be reflected in the numbers (of big game tagged)."
Will there be even more of a shift in hunting as more and more hunters discover the deer and turkey hunting in southern Maine?
"There are probably more hunters that hunt in southern Maine, I would agree with that," said Allen Starr, a regional wildlife biologist in Enfield, just north of Bangor. "If they had a choice of driving three to four hours to northern Maine where they will not see deer in a week of hunting, or maybe not traveling that far with gas prices, they maybe will choose to stay closer to home."
Gunnar Gunderson, president of the Lincoln County Rifle Club in Damariscotta, wonders if there is a seismic shift taking place in the way hunters hunt today.
He wonders if the era of the more "traditional" hunt that takes place far out in the woods has been replaced by a quicker alternative and, as with so much in our society today, something closer to home.
"I knew a guy from New Jersey, a hunter, he was afraid of going in the woods. He wouldn't go in the woods where he couldn't see the paved road. He hunted in New Jersey," said Gunderson, a 28-year hunting education instructor.
To be sure, biologists across the state who see the per-town tallies of deer, turkey, bear and moose taken by hunters each year observe a pattern evolving in the southernmost part of Maine. And it is a pattern that may eventually debunk the myth of the "two Maines," that long-held view of the state as a place encompassing a more rural outdoor sporting public to the north, and a more urban populace to the south.
"Hunting is alive and well in southern Maine," said Gunderson in Damariscotta. "I've taught close to 2,500 people hunter safety. When I first moved up here there were lots of slob hunters, but I think the behavior is way better. Besides hunter safety we now have a discussion about landowner ethics in our classes. And we push that hard."
Deirdre Fleming can be contacted at 791-6452 or at:
Twitter: Flemingpph
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The Camels are taking you to the Nintendo Switch with Neon Blue and Neon Red Joy‑Con (original packaging) B07VGRJDFY page at Amazon.
Click here if you are not redirected.
Thank you for using camelcamelcamel, a free Amazon price tracker. We continuously monitor Amazon prices to help you save money. View our Amazon price history charts to inform purchasing decisions. Set Amazon price drop alerts and be notified when prices drop at Amazon.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Noah Gragson won his first career Xfinity Series race when Saturday's opener was stopped on the final lap by a crash well behind the winning JR Motorsports Chevrolet.
It was the third consecutive win at Daytona for a car fielded by Dale Earnhardt Jr., his sister and Rick Hendrick in what they consider a family business.
"It never gets old, man," Earnhardt Jr. said. "I don't expect I will do it ever again as a driver, but if I get here as an owner and have success like this, it's a great feeling."
Gragson and Chase Briscoe swapped the lead in the closing three-lap sprint to the finish, but NASCAR threw the yellow-flag for a multi-car crash on the final lap.
Harrison Burton and Timmy Hill, who will make his Daytona 500 debut on Sunday, were second and third in Toyotas. Briscoe was fourth in a Ford for Stewart-Haas Racing.
Gragson celebrated old-school style, first by climbing the fence at Daytona International Speedway — a nod to both three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves and recent NASCAR Hall of Famer Tony Stewart. Then Gragson fueled the flames on the Daytona track surface created by his celebratory burnout.
He ran up and down the frontstretch pumping his fists in celebration, then slid across the hood of his JRM entry for the drive to victory lane.
"It's Daytona, you never know if you get this chance again, so do what you want to do," Dale Earnhardt Jr. said.
Gragson is the seventh different race winner for JRM.
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


text: A series of teachings that Jesus gave in the Sermon on the Mount that describe a refined and spiritual character (Matt. 5:3–12; Luke 6:20–23). The Beatitudes are arranged in such a way that each statement builds upon the one that precedes it. A more comprehensive and accurate record of the Beatitudes is found in 3 Ne. 12.


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Primary tabs
I have been at Columbia University for 35+ years, where I am a Doherty Senior Scholar at the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory of the Earth Institute and an adjunct Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. I also hold a joint appointment at the Center for Computational Learning Systems in the Fu School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). I am Principal Investigator of a team of 15 scientists and graduate students in Computer Sciences at Columbia who are jointly developing with Con Edison the next generation Machine Learning software for intelligent control of the smart electric grid of New York City. At Lamont, I founded the Borehole Research, Global Basins, 4D Seismic, Reservoir Simulation, Portfolio Management, and Energy Research Groups. I also teache Planet Earth, a science requirement course in the core curriculum at Columbia College. I co-founded the Alternative Energy program at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia, and have a visiting appointment at the Urban Utility Center of the Polytechnic Institute of New York University.
I received my Ph.D. from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California at San Diego. I am the inventor of 10 Patents, and have written 3 books, & more than 200 peer-reviewed scientific papers. In addition to my onsite presence at Con Edison for the last 6 years, I have had technical, business, computational, and working collaborations with many companies, including Baker Hughes, Boeing, BBN, BP, Chevron, IBM Research, KBR Halliburton, Lockheed Martin, Pennzoil, Schlumberger, Siemens, Shell, United Technologies, and Western GECO. I am co-founder of two energy companies: Bell Geospace, Inc. (http://www.bellgeo.com) and CALM Energy, Inc. (http://www.calmenergyinc.com), and I was Chairman of the Board for vPatch Technologies Inc. I also cofounded 4D Technology, Inc, a software company, the assets of which were acquired by Baker Hughes.
My specialties include the Smart Grid, Optimization of Control Center Operations of Energy Companies, Real Options and Portfolio Management, 4D Reservoir Management, and Alternative Energy Research. My new book, Computer-Aided Lean Management, from PennWell is available on Amazon.com. I have written scientific and opinion pieces for magazines such as CIO Insight, Discover, Economist, EnergyBiz, Forbes, National Geographic, Nature, New York Times, Oil and Gas Journal, Scientific American, Wall Street Journal, and Wired. I have also assisted in the design of the Wiess Energy Hall at the Houston Museum of Natural History, was technical consultant for the NBC News/Discovery Channel documentary "Anatomy of a Blackout," and have been a frequent contributor to business radio and TV.
Lamont Projects:
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Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde tells cops, 'Don't stop traffic for my convoy'
Eknath Shinde, the new Chief Minister of Maharashtra, rejected his special protocol for the convenience of the public. Shinde, on Friday, instructed the police that his convoy does not require a special protocol, therefore, not to hold up traffic when his convoy is moving on the roads.
Also read: Sadhna Gupta, Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav's wife, passes away
"Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde has directed that the CM's convoy does not require special protocol. This matter was also discussed with Director General of Police Rajnish Seth and Police Commissioner Vivek Phansalkar," the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) said.
Nagpur News
RMBRCN celebrates Charter Presentation & Installation, Rina Sinha becomes Charter President
The Rotary Means Business chapter of Rotary Club Of Nagpur (RMBRCN) celebrated their Charter Presentation and Installation of Board on September 17, 2023 in a crisp official ceremony at Hotel Centre Point, Nagpur.
Rotary Means Business encourages Rotarians to support the success of their fellow Rotarians by doing business with them and by referring others to them.
Charter President Past President Rtn Rina Sinha presided over the ceremony. Renowned entrepreneur and Rotarian Aspi Bapuna, Chairman of Bapuna Group, was the Chief Guest and Rtn Namita Sharma, President of RCN, was the Guest of Honour.
The Board of Directors of RMBRCN include Rtn Navneet Jain, Vice President, Rtn Mohammed Master, Honorary Secretary, Rtn Sanjay Aggarwal Treasurer, Rtn Rakhi Bhatia Director Chapter Service, Rtn Rahul Shrivastava, Director Vocational Service, Dr Ruchi Choudhry, Director Membership Development, Ranjana Duseja, Director Attendance.
Past Rotary District Governor (PDG) Shabbir Shakir, Past Presidents- Bharat Goenka , Khushnoor Chugh, Sanjiv Chugh, Akhtar Parvez, Tejinder Singh Rawal, Alok Goenka, Jerestine Watchmaker, Sandeep Dhodapkar, Sanjay Arora, President RMB Nagpur, and Behram Patel and Amitabh Sinha were present.
President Rina Sinha informed that within a short period of its formation already 48 members representing various businesses have joined the chapter and the numbers are increasing . The Chapter has already crossed 5 crores of business amongst their members and RMB will further strengthen Rotary in membership growth and retention .
Chief Guest Rtn Aspi Bapuna lauded the chapter's success and reiterated that its comfortable and safe to do business among fellow rotarians as all follow the Four Way Test of Rotary. Jerestine introduced President Rina. Aspi Bapuna presented the charter and installed President Rina Sinha . Rtn Namita congratulated the RMB chapter and informed that this is the new initiative at RCN.The Board was installed by Rina Sinha and all members were installed by the Past Presidents. An exclusive digital Monthly Magazine 'Growth Engine' was launched by Editor Niharika Chugh Vali.
Navneet Jain and Rahul Choudhry conducted the referral and thank you session where enthusiastic members informed about their successful business details. Nishchay Sinha launched the social media and MYRMB app which connects members to other chapters digitally, Treasurer Sanjay Agarwal gave treasurers report, Rtn Rakhi Bhatia managed the event. Rtn Parag Datey and Niharika were the Masters of Ceremony (MOCs). Secretary Mohammed Master proposed the formal Vote of Thanks .
Also read: Jayaswal Neco group celebrate BL Shaw's 90th Birthday, 50th Founder's Day in a huge gala event in Nagpur
Nagpur News
Nitin Gadkari inaugurates double-decker electric bus availed for senior citizens in Nagpur
Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari, on Saturday, inaugurated the double-decker electric bus designed for senior citizens in Nagpur. The initiative has been undertaken in association with Ashok Leyland's CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) Committee and Jyeshtha Nagarik Pratishthan.
Executive President of Jyeshtha Nagarik Pratishthan Datta Meghe, Vice Chairman of Ashok Leyland Limited Yash Sachar, CEO of Switch Mobility Mahesh Babu, and other dignitaries were present during the inauguration.
"I am very thankful to Ashok Leyland's electric vehicle arm 'Switch Mobility' for donating an electric bus for our senior citizens. The bus can hold a capacity of 65 people and will benefit a lot to disabled and senior citizens," Gadkari said.
"We already have a green Electra bus available to us for the past five to six years. Krishna Reddy has taken the responsibility of repairing and providing air-conditioning to the bus, moreover, he is providing us with one additional bus. A Tata Motor bus will be arriving this month as well, giving us a total of four buses to operate. This will solve the issue of waiting list due to the lack of buses for senior citizens in the city." he added.
With the help of these buses, senior citizens can avail the benefit of free trips to religious places like Ambhora, Adasa, Shegaon, Mahur, Dhapewada, and Kalamb.
Also read: NMC confiscates 117 PoP idols, collects Rs 10,000 fine from seller
Nagpur News
Nagpur: Married man accused of girlfriend's rape commits suicide on Facebook live
A 38-year-old married man named Manish alias Raj Yadav, on Sunday, committed suicide during a Facebook live-stream after allegedly being accused of rape by his girlfriend and her family in Nagpur.
During the live stream, Manish, who was married and a father to three children, stated that his 19-year-old girlfriend, Kajal, along with her family members demanded a sum of five lakh rupees and threatened to press charges of rape if he failed to do so.
On September 6, the situation became grave as the woman's family accused him of eloping after Kajal went missing from her residence.
The deceased refused the claims of having any sexual relationship with the woman and identified her, her family, and a photo studio operator responsible for his condition. He, then, jumped into the river.
After the live video surfaced online, Kalamna Police launched a search operation and recovered the deceased's body from the river. Four people have been detained in the case for questioning. Further investigation is underway.
Also read: NMC confiscates 117 PoP idols, collects Rs 10,000 fine from seller


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Omega Prestige Quartz 27.4mm 4184.108.40.206.05.001
Multiple Financing Options
Finance your new timepiece, we offer two online (available in the payment selection during check out) and one in-store/over the phone financing options. Read more»
Omega Prestige Quartz 27.4mm
The OMEGA De Ville Prestige collection has attracted a large and loyal following with its classic, elegant design. These timepieces are characterised by pure styling with luxury finishes, and exude a timeless design.
This model features a two-zone, white mother-of-pearl dial with Roman numeral hour indexes at the 3, 6, 9 and 12 o'clock positions. A scratch-resistant sapphire crystal covers this striking dial. The bezel is mounted on a 27.4 mm stainless steel case and is presented on a stainless steel bracelet. This wristwatch is powered by OMEGA's calibre 1376, a precision quartz movement.
Watch Features
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|5 Year
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text:
Annnnnnnnd I present to you a fanart of my first ever Japanese singer idol ~ ^o^
That was around 2004 or 2002...? when I first found out about her. That was around when the first Kingdom
Hearts game was released. Uhh... The first songs I heard from her were Simple and Clean/Hikari and First Love 8DDD
Second realistic digital drawing 8DDD
Did her for 4 hours DDDD;
also did a speedpainting ~
Le speedpaint
...sharez !
Here's my post~ Hope ya all like~


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NY Times resident crossword puzzle master Will Shortz on how to solve the NY Times crossword puzzle.
Mental flexibility is a great asset in solving crosswords. Let your mind wander. The clue "Present time" might suggest nowadays, but in a different sense it might lead to the answer yuletide. Similarly, "Life sentences" could be obit, "Inside shot" is x-ray and my all-time favorite clue, "It turns into a different story" (15 letters), results in the phrase SPIRAL STAIRCASE.


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Money, in and of itself, is nothing. It can be a shell, a metal coin, or a piece of paper with a historic image on it, but the value that people place on it has nothing to do with the physical value of the money. Money derives its value by being a medium of exchange, a unit of measurement and a storehouse for wealth. Money allows people to trade goods and services indirectly, understand the price of goods (prices written in dollar and cents correspond with an amount in your wallet), and gives us a way to save for larger purchases in the future.
Money is valuable merely because everyone knows everyone else will accept it as a form of payment—so let's take a look at where it has been, how it evolved and how it is used today.
Understanding the History of Money
A World Without Money
Money, in some form, has been part of human history for at least the last 3,000 years. Before that time, it is assumed that a system of bartering was likely used.
Bartering is a direct trade of goods and services—I'll give you a stone axe if you help me kill a mammoth, for instance—but such arrangements take time. You have to find someone who thinks an axe is a fair trade for having to face the 12-foot tusks on a beast that doesn't take kindly to being hunted. If that didn't work, you would have to alter the deal until someone agreed to the terms. One of the great achievements of money was increasing the speed at which business, whether mammoth slaying or monument building, could be done.
Slowly, a type of prehistoric currency involving easily traded goods like animal skins, salt and weapons developed over the centuries. These traded goods served as the medium of exchange even though the unit values were still negotiable. This system of barter and trade spread across the world, and it still survives today in some parts of the globe.
Asian Cutlery
Sometime around 770 B.C., the Chinese moved from using actual tools and weapons as a medium of exchange to using miniature replicas of the same tools cast in bronze. Nobody wants to reach into their pocket and impale their hand on a sharp arrow so, over time, these tiny daggers, spades, and hoes were abandoned for the less prickly shape of a circle, which became some of the first coins. Although China was the first country to use recognizable coins, the first minted coins were created not too far away in Lydia (now western Turkey).
Coins and Currency
In 600 B.C., Lydia's King Alyattes minted the first official currency. The coins were made from electrum, a mixture of silver and gold that occurs naturally, and stamped with pictures that acted as denominations. In the streets of Sardis, circa 600 B.C., a clay jar might cost you two owls and a snake. Lydia's currency helped the country increase both its internal and external trade, making it one of the richest empires in Asia Minor. It is interesting that when someone says, "as rich as Croesus", they are referring to the last Lydian king who minted the first gold coin. Unfortunately, minting the first coins and developing a strong trading economy couldn't protect Lydia from the swords of the Persian army.
Not Just a Piece of Paper
Just when it looked like Lydia was taking the lead in currency developments, around 700 B.C., the Chinese moved from coins to paper money. By the time Marco Polo visited in 1271 A.D., the emperor had a good handle on both money supply and various denominations. In the place where the American bills say, "In God We Trust," the Chinese inscription warned, "Those who are counterfeiting will be decapitated."
Europeans were still using coins all the way up to the 16th century, helped along by acquisitions of precious metals from colonies to keep minting more and more cash. Eventually, the banks started using bank notes for depositors and borrowers to carry around instead of coins. These notes could be taken to the bank at any time and exchanged for their face values in silver or gold coins. This paper money could be used to buy goods and operated much like currency today, but it was issued by banks and private institutions, not the government, which is now responsible for issuing currency in most countries.
The first paper currency issued by European governments was actually issued by colonial governments in North America. Because shipments between Europe and the colonies took so long, the colonists often ran out of cash as operations expanded. Instead of going back to a barter system, the colonial governments used IOUs that traded as a currency. The first instance was in Canada, then a French colony. In 1685, soldiers were issued playing cards denominated and signed by the governor to use as cash instead of coins from France.
Money Travels
The shift to paper money in Europe increased the amount of international trade that could occur. Banks and the ruling classes started buying currencies from other nations and created the first currency market. The stability of a particular monarchy or government affected the value of the country's currency and the ability for that country to trade on an increasingly international market. The competition between countries often led to currency wars, where competing countries would try to affect the value of the competitor's currency by driving it up and making the enemy's goods too expensive, by driving it down and reducing the enemy's buying power (and ability to pay for a war), or by eliminating the currency completely.
Mobile Payments
The 21st century gave rise to two disruptive forms of currency: Mobile payments and virtual currency. Mobile payments are money rendered for a product or service through a portable electronic device such as a cell phone, smartphone or tablet. Mobile payment technology can also be used to send money to friends or family members. Increasingly, services like Apple Pay and Samsung Pay are vying for retailers to accept their platforms for point-of-sale payments.
Virtual Currency
Bitcoin, released in 2009 by the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto, became the gold standard—so to speak—for virtual currencies. Virtual currencies have no physical coinage. The appeal of virtual currency is it offers the promise of lower transaction fees than traditional online payment mechanisms and is operated by a decentralized authority, unlike government-issued currencies.
The Bottom Line
Despite many advances, money still has a very real and permanent effect on how we do business today.


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Linux AIO Ubuntu 15.10
We are pleased to announce the updated version of Linux AIO Ubuntu 15.10 release in our Primary branch.
It contains 32bit, 64bit and mix version of ISOs, with official, untouched Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Ubuntu GNOME, Ubuntu MATE, Xubuntu and Lubuntu 15.10 releases.
Due to limitations on SourceForge servers (max 5GB file can be uploaded) we needed to split ISO files. This is done by archiving ISO with .7z archiver in two parts. You need to download both parts and then to extract them. For extracting these files all you need is to have .7z archiver installed on your computer.
Download links are in Download section of website.
Always check downloaded file with MD5.
Official Release Announces of Ubuntu and flavours:


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Image from Pinterest
Lately, I have been strangely drawn to wallpaper, which is crazy because I know from personal experience just how difficult it is to remove.
Image from Apartment Therapy
I am the same person who adamantly hated wallpaper and swore I would never do that to our beautiful plaster walls. Well, never say never…
I am considering indulging my wallpaper lust, but starting small by hanging it in our tiny powder room.
Our power room is in the midst of getting a few updates. We recently purchased an Ann sink from IKEA. It is about the only sink that I could find that fit our requirements of being affordable and small enough to work in the space. We also tiled behind the sink to prevent problems with water splashing onto the walls.
And I am considering the Mme. Jeanne wallpaper from Grow House Grow. The pattern is loosely based on mollusk scallop shells. I like how it mimics the round shape of the sink.
Hmmmmm…will I regret this? It isn't as easy as painting over the walls if I change my mind.


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Delay in Afghan Pact Roils War Plan, Defense Budget
The bilateral security agreement between the United States and Afghanistan has still not been signed, sealed and delivered, creating budget uncertainty and potentially significant logistical problems, according to military and congressional leaders.
Without a bilateral accord, which is currently stalled by Afghan President Hamid Karzai (who negotiated the agreement in the first place), planning in Congress and at the Pentagon has become increasingly complex, affecting the overall defense budget and jeopardizing the ultimate success of the Afghan government.
Lawmakers have been asking pointed questions about Afghanistan planning in recent hearings whose sparse attendance reflects the diminishing attention being paid to the war effort.
"This is a serious hole in your budget here," said Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-N.J., chairman of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. "It's difficult for us to put a bill together with that issue open."
Frelinghuysen's comments followed revelations last week that the Pentagon does not plan on providing a specific request for war-related operations until it is clear whether U.S. forces will remain in Afghanistan after 2014.
Pentagon Comptroller Robert F. Hale explained it would be difficult to finalize the budget details until a bilateral agreement with Afghanistan is finalized.
"When we get an enduring presence decision, as soon as we can after that, we will get a formal budget amendment to you for" the Overseas Contingency Operations fund, which is used to support the war and the wider war on terrorism, Hale said. "If that doesn't work with the timing issue, then we're gonna have to look at other options. And we are thinking of them now, as to how we proceed if we don't get an enduring presence decision."
Hale's comments were the clearest indication that the Pentagon is not planning to make a specific OCO request until at least April, after the election of a new Afghan president.
U.S. military commanders hope to station between 8,000 and 12,000 U.S. troops, plus thousands of allied forces, in Afghanistan after 2014 if a security deal is finalized.
If the security pact is not signed, all U.S. and allied forces would depart Afghanistan by the end of the year.
This complicates congressional plans for Defense appropriations and authorization bills. Frelinghuysen said his panel needs to bring its bill up for a House vote this summer. This is particularly important in an election year, when lawmakers' attention increasingly turn to their states and districts.
So far, the Pentagon has only provided a placeholder request of about $79 billion, which would be on top of the $495.6 billion base budget request sent to Congress earlier this month. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told the panel that it would be difficult to provide more details for the war budget without knowing how long U.S. forces would be asked to remain in Afghanistan.
"We believe we have a role and ought to have a role, a continued role in Afghanistan, train, assist, advise, counterterrorism, but that has to be done in coordination, first with the people of Afghanistan inviting us and agreeing," Hagel said.
The Obama administration is expecting that the next president of Afghanistan will sign the bilateral agreement.
The war funding has been important to appropriators not only because it provides for U.S. operations overseas, but because it also has allowed appropriators to fund priorities that don't fit into the spending caps that Congress placed on the base budget.
The OCO fund is exempt from those spending limits, which has allowed appropriators to shift as much as $8 billion of critical operations and maintenance funding to the fund in recent years.
With the likelihood that lawmakers will need to make further reductions to the president's budget request — because it includes billions in reductions to personnel benefits and other changes Congress likely won't support — the OCO fund is an important pressure relief valve.
Rep. Peter J. Visclosky of Indiana, ranking Democrat on the House Defense Appropriations panel, echoed Frelinghuysen's concern. "As discussions take place with the president they have to understand there is some urgency here in terms of the appropriations process," he said.
The absence of a bilateral agreement may also trigger a serious logistical problem for the U.S. military, which said its ability to extricate people and equipment from Afghanistan becomes far more challenging the longer it takes for a security deal to be finalized.
Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., said he supports the president's decision to begin planning to pull out of Afghanistan entirely.
"I continue to believe that it is in our interest to continue supporting Afghanistan's security forces beyond 2014 to secure the hard-won and impressive gains of the past decade," Levin said.
When Levin asked U.S. Central Command chief Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III last week how long the United States can wait for an agreement, Austin said, "By mid-summer, we will experience moderate risk. As we go beyond that time frame, the risk increases substantially."
Austin said that if the deal is not signed, "we will move rapidly to consider alternatives for continuing a security cooperation relationship with Afghanistan. Unfortunately, in the wake of such a precipitous departure, the Afghan government's long term viability is likely to be at high risk and the odds of an upsurge in terrorists' capability increases without continued substantial international economic and security assistance."
Austin warned that a failure to complete the security pact could cause a breakdown in Afghanistan, as well as the entire region.
"Without our mentorship, we would immediately see a much less effective" Afghan force, Austin said. Later, Afghan forces would likely fracture.
"Regionally, we would see hedging as each country in that region moves to protect their interests. It would be somewhat destabilizing on the whole," he added.


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Sonia Perez D. And Mark Stevenson
June 8, 2018
SAN MIGUEL LOS LOTES, Guatemala – Rescuers suspended search and recovery efforts Thursday at villages devastated by the eruption of Guatemala's Volcano of Fire, leaving people with missing loved ones distraught and prompting some to do the risky work themselves with rudimentary tools.
Conred, the national disaster agency, said climatic conditions and still-hot volcanic material were making it dangerous for rescuers, and it was also taking into account the fact that 72 hours had passed since Sunday's eruption.
That's the window beyond which officials earlier said it would be extremely unlikely to find any survivors amid the ash, mud and other debris that buried homes up to their rooftops.
"It rained very hard yesterday. … The soil is unstable," said Pablo Castillo, a spokesman for national police.
Guatemalan prosecutors ordered an investigation into whether emergency protocols were followed properly, as many residents were caught with little or no time to evacuate.
Troublesome downpours and more volcanic activity had been hindering searches, but when teams have been able to work in the hardest hit areas, the death toll has continued to tick upward. The official number of confirmed dead was raised by 10 to 109 in the early evening, with about 200 more believed to be missing.
Oscar Chavez trekked over a mountain with his father and younger brother to search for his brother Edgar, sister-in-law Sandra and 4-year-old nephew Josue in the hamlet of San Miguel Los Lotes, which was almost entirely wiped out by the volcanic flows. They have not been heard from since the eruption.
"We looked for them in shelters, hospitals, everywhere, but we did not find them," said Chavez, 34, wiping a tear from his eye as the others used sticks and bits of broken boards to dig at the collapsed, ash-filled home. "So, better for us to come here."
A group of police officers saw what the family was doing and came to lend shovels and help with the digging.
A dozen other families also arrived to search the homes. Before Thursday they had been unable to access the area while rescuers were working.
© Provided by thecanadianpress.com
Chavez's younger brother was angry that there were no longer any disaster workers at the scene while a little way downhill heavy machinery was being used to clear a road blocked by ash. And he directed his ire at President Jimmy Morales.
"They are cleaning the highway — the president has commitments to businesspeople. … But here, since the people have nothing to offer him, he leaves this part as a burial ground," said William Chavez, a 29-year-old accounting student.
At a shelter set up in a school in the nearby city of Escuintla, workers fastened colorful ID bracelets on the wrists of people who are among several thousand displaced by the eruption.
Nohemi Ascon, 41, is the aunt of six children between the ages of 1 and 8 who died in Los Lotes. A photograph taken shortly after the disaster showed their bodies huddled together on a bed in the corner of a room, covered in white ash and blood.
Ascon said other family members were still unaccounted for.
"My father, my mother, my sisters are there," she said, upset over rescuers' decision to suspend their search. "It is their job. It is not right that they leave them there. They should get them out so we can take them to the cemetery."
The United States announced it was sending emergency aid, including financial resources, to help meet food, water and sanitation needs.
Washington also dispatched aircraft to help transport burn victims to Florida and Texas. Late Wednesday a U.S. Air Force C-17 carried six Guatemalan children who were badly burned for treatment at the Shriner's Hospital in Galveston, Texas.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders offered "deepest condolences" to victims and said the aid was being provided at the request of the government of Guatemala.
At a cemetery in Escuintla, relatives of Sandra Orizabal, 37, buried her in a white coffin next to the grave of her husband, who was interred the previous day.
All told, 18 members of the family died or disappeared in the disaster. Orizabal was just the fifth to be found and laid to rest.
"I am burying my daughter with great pain," said Pedro Orizabal, her father. "May God bless all the family that is still standing."
Sandra Orizabal was buried hurriedly and without the usual wake on the order of health authorities.
Workers have already dug a row of additional graves at the lush green cemetery, ready and waiting for whoever comes next.


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NEW YORK (AP) – Just two months after recovering the last of its losses from the financial crisis, the Dow Jones industrial average charged higher Tuesday, closing above 15,000 for the first time.
It was another milestone in the market's epic ascent of 2013. Good economic reports, strong corporate earnings and fresh support from central banks have eased investors' concerns about another economic slowdown. Many had been on the lookout for signs that a spring swoon would derail the rally, as happened in each of the past three years.
Instead, Wall Street has climbed almost 15 percent since Jan. 1.
"The thing that's been driving stocks is rising confidence," said James Paulsen, chief investment strategist at Wells Capital Management. "Economic growth, job creation and the housing market have been better than expected."
News of stronger hiring over the past three months briefly propelled the Dow over 15,000 on Friday, but it ended the week below that mark.
Wall Street followed Japanese and European markets higher after they responded to good news about central bank stimulus and the German economy. In the U.S., the market got a lift from higher quarterly profits at satellite TV company DirecTV and watchmaker Fossil.
The Dow closed at 15,056.20, up 87.31 points, or 0.6 percent. The Standard & Poor's 500 index added 8.46 points to 1,625.96, a gain of 0.5 percent. Both indexes reached all-time highs earlier this year, then kept climbing, largely driven by optimism that the U.S. economy will continue gaining strength.
"We don't think people are giving enough credit to the strength of the economy," said Ryan Detrick, a senior technical strategist at Schaeffer's Investment Research. "We still like the market."
The gains piled up with the growing realization among investors that the traditional threats to a rising market – higher interest rates, falling profits, a possible recession – are unlikely to appear anytime soon. What's more, with interest rates near record lows, they see few other places to put their money.
In a round of interviews on Monday, investor Warren Buffett said the stock market looked "reasonably priced" even after its surge. But, Buffett added, people pay too much attention to markets reaching new highs. They ought to pay attention when markets hit new lows.
"That's when stocks are getting cheaper," Buffett said. "That's when stocks are going on sale. But people do get more excited when they see new highs."
Record-high profits have also encouraged investors who fretted that slumping sales would lead to shrinking earnings. More than 400 of the S&P 500 companies have turned in first-quarter results, and more than seven out of 10 have beaten Wall Street's earnings expectations, according to S&P Capital IQ. Those analysts estimate that earnings increased 5 percent in the first quarter and will pick up their pace through the rest of the year.
Fossil, a maker of watches and handbags, was among the companies reporting earnings Tuesday. Its stock leapt $8.92, or 9 percent, to $107.88 after the company said higher sales lifted its earnings.
DirecTV, the country's largest provider of satellite TV services, surged $3.99, or 7 percent, to $61.95 after its earnings beat analysts' expectations. The company reported more subscribers in the U.S. and Latin America.
For the Dow, it was the 17th straight Tuesday of increases. The only day of the week with a longer series of consecutive gains is Wednesday, which logged a streak of 24, Detrick said.
In other trading, the Nasdaq composite rose 3.66 points to 3,396.63, up 0.1 percent.
Japanese stocks surged, pushing the Nikkei above 14,000 for the first time in nearly five years. The Nikkei has jumped 36 percent this year after the Bank of Japan announced a new aggressive monetary policy to get the country out of its two-decade stagnation.
In Europe, Germany's main DAX index touched a record of 8,195, bouyed by surprisingly strong industrial orders.
Detrick said he was particularly encouraged by the resurgence in smaller stocks, which suggested a broad recovery beyond larger companies. The Russell 2000 index of small companies has gained 14 percent this year.
In the market for U.S government bonds, the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note edged up to 1.78 percent from 1.76 percent in late Monday trading. Optimism over the U.S. economy has yanked the yield up over the past week, as traders shift money out of the safety of the Treasury market. The yield sank to its low for the year, 1.63 percent, last Thursday.


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Steve & Annette Economides are NY Times Best Selling Authors,
TV Personalities and Frugal Living Experts.
As America's Cheapest Family we've always been MoneySmart.
Now we're MoneySmartFamily and love Making Frugal FUN!
Steve & Annette Have Been
Featured on the Following Media Outlets
Who are Steve & Annette Economides,
America's Cheapest Family, and Money Smart Family?
We've been called "Money Smart Family," "America's Cheapest Family," "The Frugals," "Cheapskates," "Tightwads," "Thrift-a-holics," or one of many other nicknames. Even calling us by our own real last name, Economides, tips people off to our money-saving ways. Economides is Greek and means "Son of the Steward."
Our Goals and Accomplishments
True, we don't like to spend a lot of money, but we don't economize just for the sake of skimping. As Money Smart Family, we have big dreams that we're working toward together. We are living proof that even in tough economic times, on a lower than average income, it's possible to:
- Raise financially independent children
- Purchase a home and pay it off in 9 years
- Pay cash for all our cars
- Take fabulous debt-free vacations
- Feed a growing family with a $350 monthly grocery budget
- Have fun family recreation or date nights for pennies
- And still have money in our savings account
We Weren't Born this Way!
Neither of us grew up in homes where our parents taught us about household finances, let alone anything about household budgeting. We aren't financial planners or investors. We don't have degrees in finance, accounting or economics.
Our parents were thrifty/ frugal, so we guess that's where the seeds were first planted for this amazing journey we've taken to joyful frugal living.
During the first twelve years of our marriage, we had 5 kids and lived on an average income of $35,000. During that same time, we were able to pay off our first home (above) and buy several cars for cash.
Sharing our Message
Fast forward to 2003 when we started sharing our message of frugal and fun living on our website. Within 1 year we were invited to appear on Good Morning America where Charlie
Gibson gave us the nickname, "America's Cheapest Family." We had no idea that we would be appearing on almost every national TV news show out there, including The Today Show, Dr. Phil, Fox News, Fox and Friends, Inside Edition, Nightline, 20/20, and The Talk.
Add to this list magazines such as People, Real Simple, All You, Good Housekeeping, Women's World, National Enquirer, Consumer Reports, and hundreds of newspapers, plus many international TV, radio, newspaper, and magazine outlets in Germany, England, Australia, New Zealand, and the Middle East have also shared our story. Our message and family have reached across the nation and around the world.
At first, we cringed a little at this new title, but we decided that if being dubbed, "America's Cheapest Family" gave us a platform to speak to the world about the value of frugal living in a positive way, then we would embrace it.
As you can see, we have now transitioned to Money Smart Family because that's the end game of frugal living . . . it makes people Money Smart.
Making Money Go Further for All Ages
As we've shared our message on our website, in our books, through media and speaking appearances, and on Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter, families of every age have responded that they're finding the same freedom and joy that we have.
Whether you're in your 20's or 30's, or you're middle-aged with teens or living as empty nesters, our website has something for you. Even if you're a Senior Citizen and living alone on a fixed income we have tips and tricks to help you stretch your dollars further than you ever thought possible.
Financial Freedom No Matter Where you Live!
It doesn't matter where you live: in rural settings, suburbs, or in a big city, we can say with confidence that frugal living and MoneySmartFamily.com will help you find bargains, live better, spend less and become financially free.
Frugal living and household budgeting will benefit you in everything you do and every place that you go!


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Renuar 1542 Cigarette Leg Ankle Pant-Chocolate
$ 64.95
$ 79.00
The Renuar Cigarette Leg Pant blends luxury and value to achieve a look of relaxed elegance for the woman on the go. The Renuar 1542 pull-on ankle pant has a slimming fit with a chic and stylish look. Made with faux front and back pockets and a small slit on the outside of each ankle. They are stretchy with a wide waist band to form to your unique figure. This pant is perfect for the workplace or travel. Our customers love this pant dressed up with heels or wedges for the office or dressed down with their favorite tee and flats.
- 74% Rayon
- 22% Nylon
- 4% Spandex
- 27" Inseam
- Machine Wash Cold, Gentle Cycle, Hang Dry, Low Iron.


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Primary Colours 3
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Product description
Primary Colours is an activity-packed, six-level course for young learners aged six to twelve years.
Using a cognitive approach, the Pupil's Book uses language to help young learners achieve goals in the classroom Lots of motivating craft activities and project work give tangible evidence of their accomplishments, and engaging characters - along with adventurous stories, lively songs, puzzles and games - help maintain their enthusiasm
Key features
- Stories, songs, puzzles and games make Primary Colours fun, dynamic and involving.
- Lively characters help children understand and have fun with English.
- The Teacher's Book offers step-by-step guidance and contains a bank of extra materials and support, including an A-Z of teaching young learners.
- The Activity Books are in full-colour, and at Starter and Level 1 have sticker activities.
- The course is easy to use and supported by a grammatical syllabus with clear lesson aims.
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Cambridge Primary Path is an English language and literacy course that will help young learners become articulate writers and speakers of English, empowering them to make the most of life's opportunities.Author: Sarah Dilger
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HS0820 – Ban Por
Discover tranquility and luxury nestled within a serene hilltop community in Ban Por, situated in the picturesque North West of Koh Samui. Completed in 2021, this exquisite 4-bedroom, 5-bathroom sea
|东北 查汶
Price per day USD 450 – 700++, depending on the season.
The villa is a supremely stylish luxury hillside villa that makes the most of its dramatic location overlooking Samui's famous Chaweng beach. The villa's contemporary tropical architecture blurs the distinction between in and outdoor living, with fold-open living spaces and bedrooms, wrap around covered terraces and an expansive pool deck offering guests a constant connection to the incredible island views.
Generous, bright living areas and top quality finishing at Baan Fan Noi are complemented by sophisticated, comfortable furnishings, leading edge entertainment systems and top-of-the-line facilities throughout, making for an extravagant private holiday experience surrounded by breathtaking natural beauty, yet within easy reach of the island's best restaurants, nightlife and shopping options.
With a team of attentive staff on hand to cater to individual needs and the bustling tourist town of Chaweng but a 5-minute drive down the hill, Baan Fan Noi is the perfect choice for those in search of private, upscale accommodation in a quiet yet convenient location, framed by tropical flora.
The Villa:
The villa is built over three floors, each connected by limestone stairwells on a beautifully landscaped, ocean-facing hillside with jaw-dropping views from every level of the house. The upper floor features three, well appointed air-conditioned double bedrooms subtly decorated with attractive Asian influenced art and artefacts. The master suite is the largest room, but all three bedrooms slide open onto wide seaview balconies creating an appealing sense of space and drawing in the cooling sea breezes. Each bedroom is also connected to its own walled, outdoor bathroom with rainshower, two of which also feature standing terrazzo bathtubs for the ultimate private soak.
The airy middle floor comprises an expansive living room, beautifully lit at night with concealed lighting and literally folding open from the floor to the ceiling onto the stunning seascape views. The room is furnished with plush sofas and also boasts state-of-the-art audio visual systems, as well as a concealed bar, making it ideal for sophisticated social gatherings. The attached dining area seats up to eight and is also bathed in arresting island views, while cross a small courtyard with cushioned outdoor seating there's a separate, fully equipped modern kitchen with breakfast bar.
The lower level at Baan Fan Noi offers guests an ideal spot for daytime relaxation and sun worship, with a generous limestone terrace furnished with sun beds surrounding the villa's tempting 18 metre pool — the latter reaching out towards the ocean and blue horizon beyond. A covered outdoor lounge space provides further cushioned, shaded comfort, plus a second dining table for alfresco meals, and there's also a sunken Jacuzzi and open-air shower. The villa's fourth en-suite double guest bedroom sits directly behind the pool terrace and features a unique circular bed and built-in wardrobes.
The smart, contemporary design scheme at Baan Fan Noi not only suits the location but also combines three distinctive, spacious living spaces in one. Days drift by in complete comfort on the lower level pool deck, as you switch effortlessly between your sun-bed, the cooling pool and shaded lounge, never leaving blissful holiday mode. As the sky turns crimson it's equally easy to move upstairs to the lounge area and toast the fabulous sunset before sitting down to an evening feast prepared to order by the in-house staff. The food is made all the more delicious by the fresh ocean breezes and canopy of stars overhead. After watching a DVD on the wall mounted plasma screen, a few more stairs take you to a soothing private soak or cleansing rainshower, followed by peaceful slumber, all the time surrounded by gentle nature. The incredible coastal views also offer an inspiring sight to wake up to in the morning.
Location :
The located on a lush hillside around 5 minutes' drive from the main Samui Ring Road at Chaweng, making the villa a perfect base. Another 5 minute drive takes you to the island's most popular bustling beachside strip, while the airport is only 15 minutes north, as are the boutique bars and bistros of Bophut Fisherman's Village. The villa's location allows guests to easily combine more boisterous holiday fun with untroubled down time in their own relaxing luxury retreat.
Rates :
Discover tranquility and luxury nestled within a serene hilltop community in Ban Por, situated in the picturesque North West of Koh Samui. Completed in 2021, this exquisite 4-bedroom, 5-bathroom sea
Introducing a contemporary masterpiece – a 2-bedroom, 3-bathroom sea view villa that epitomizes luxury living with style and functionality. Nestled in a prime location, this villa is a perfect blend
Welcome to the breathtaking island of Koh Samui, where an exceptional opportunity awaits you with our exclusive land offerings. Nestled in Maenam along the North coast, our property features both


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When the sealing surface of the 1505 RiB housing is recessed below the finished grade, preventing proper sealing of the fixture, an Extension Ring(s) must be used to complete the installation. Constructed of die-cast, copper-free aluminum with a black powder-coat finish. A continuous silicone gasket insures a weather-tight seal. Includes four (4) 8-32 stainless steel screws.
Test Project 1


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Captain Greg Davis is an outstanding fishing guide. I went out with him early one morning off the coast of Savannah, GA and came back a few hours later with several fish like the one in the picture. Most other guides came back that morning with nothing.
What makes Greg such a remarkable guide? If you were hiring guides, could you predict he would be a star?
Those of us who run businesses, departments, or teams are faced with this question all the time. How can we distinguish the stars from the merely competent? Of all the candidates whose resumés we receive, how do we place our bet on the one who will stand out from the rest?
On January 15th, 2009, Captain C.B. Sullenberger made an emergency landing of his 50-ton passenger aircraft, softly gliding it onto the Hudson River in New York City, saving the lives of all 155 people on board. Miraculous? Or predictable?
What do we know about Captain Sullenberger? If you were looking for a new pilot, could you have predicted he would have the skill, the presence, the leadership to become the star he is today?
Earlier in my career I spent four years working in a management consulting company creating models to use in hiring people. Our clients, mostly large public companies, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on research we performed in their companies to predict who would be a star performer.
Here was our process: we interviewed both star and average performers in a client company and identified the characteristics that distinguished the stars from the rest. Then we helped the company interview people and hire the ones who fit the model.
Sounds reasonable. But it's not. It's tremendously expensive and time-consuming. It requires intensive interviews that demand a great deal of skill; it's only as effective as the person doing the interviewing and hiring. And even if you have the money, time, and skill, you end up hiring past stars, not future ones.
Some would argue, as Malcolm Gladwell does in his excellent New Yorker article, Most Likely to Succeed, that the only thing that predicts success in a job is actual success in that job,. That's why financial services firms hire close to ten times the number of analysts they need and then, a year or two later, keep the ones who succeed and let the others go. Of course, that's even more expensive and time-consuming than our modeling process.
There is a much cheaper, easier way to raise the odds of finding your Captain Sullenberger, and it's rarely factored into the selection process. After you have narrowed the pool of applicants down to those with the skills, experience, and knowledge to do the job, ask each candidate one question:
What do you do in your spare time?
In Captain Sullenberger's case, the first clue that he would become Captain Sullenberger the hero is that, in his teens, when most of his friends were getting their driver's licenses, he got his pilot's license. What did he do for fun? He flew glider planes. Which is basically what he did when he landed in the Hudson River with no engines. Extracurricular activities? He was an Accident Investigator for the Air Line Pilots Association and worked with federal aviation officials to improve training and methods for evacuating aircraft in emergencies.
As a boy, he built model aircraft carriers with tiny planes on them, careful to paint every last piece. Perhaps that attention to detail explains why he walked through the cabin twice, making sure no one was left behind before he escaped the sinking plane himself.
But here's the thing: given his personality, it is unlikely you would have discovered any of this without asking directly about it. When Michael Balboni, New York State's deputy secretary for public safety, thanked him for a job done brilliantly, he responded in the most unaffected, humble way, "That's what we're trained to do."
Even if you had learned about all of Captain Sullenberger's activities, you might have considered his obsession dysfunctional. Wouldn't you rather hire someone well rounded? Someone who has interests beyond the particular? Someone who might be a better communicator?
But people are often successful not despite their dysfunctions but because of them. Obsessions are one of the greatest telltale signs of success. Understand a person's obsessions and you will understand her natural motivation. The thing for which she would walk to the end of the earth.
Not all jobs are as clear-cut as being a pilot. What if you were hiring a receptionist? What spare-time activities would suggest to you that a candidate might be a star?
Well, what do star receptionists do? Don't think of all the million things they might do. Just think of the one or two most important things. Perhaps the best ones are super friendly and well organized. Well, if a candidate likes to spend his spare time alone reading a book, he probably won't be your star. But if he throws a dinner party once a week, you'll know you've got a winner.
Greg Davis, my friend the fishing guide, is on the water fishing with clients six days a week. Can you guess what he does on his one day off?
Peter Bregman is CEO of Bregman Partners, Inc., a global leadership development and change management firm. He advises leaders in many of the world's premier organizations throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, Asia, and Australia. He is the author of Point B: A Short Guide To Leading a Big Change.


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Experts warn of sharp rise in health insurance frauds
Nine out of ten frauds in country's insurance sector occur in the mediclaim policy segment and there is a need to adopt measures to reduce the trust deficit between insured and insurer, experts have said.
"In insurance industry, number of grievances received or number of frauds committed is an indicator of growth trend of particular segment. In entire insurance sector, 90 per cent of frauds and grievances come from health policies," said Niraj Kumar, General Manager, Oriental Insurance Company.
He was addressing a seminar on health insurance at Amity University. Kumar said if one has to draw two curves for health insurance segment, one indicating growth and second learning curve, it can be observed that the growth curve is ahead of learning curve.
This, he added, implies that industry's main aim is only to sell and market health policies, but there are important takeaways in such shortcomings so that the level of mistrust between insured and insurer can be minimised.
Richard Kipp, Managing Director, consulting firm Milliman said, health insurance in India has increased tremendously] over few years but India needs to be cautious in its growth vis-Ã -vis the US where growth has now become stagnant.
Neeraj Basur, Chief Financial Officer, Max Bupa Insurance
Company said that there is lack of trust level among hospitals, third party administrators, insurance companies and customers.
The trust level has to improve and all stakeholders have to understand that it is the customer whose interest is the binding factor, he added.
R R Grover, Advisor, Amity School of Insurance, Banking & Actuarial Sciences, said there is an urgent need to address health insurance requirements of the urban poor.


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China's Xiaomi has entered the laptop market with new, lightweight notebooks that run Microsoft's Windows 10.
The company, which has been getting into new markets including air purifiers and drones, introduced on Wednesday its Mi Notebook Air, at prices ranging from RMB 3499, or around $524, for the 12.5-inch model with the larger, flagship model at RMB 4,999, or about $749.
Xiaomi is entering the Chinese laptop market at a time when the market for consumer laptops is shrinking. The Chinese market for consumer notebooks is expected to contract by 10.4 percent this year, according to Bryan Ma, IDC's vice president for devices research.
The announcement of the laptops came at an event where Xiaomi also rolled out a new smartphone, the Redmi Pro, a dual rear-camera OLED phone. Xiaomi badly needs a new flagship phone as it has seen market share decline from 14.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2015 to 9 percent in the first quarter of this year, according to data from IDC.
The new notebooks alone aren't meant to offset phone sales, but are more of complementary products to fill out the company's broader portfolio of electronics around the home, Ma said.
Xiaomi has diversified into a number of products under a new "Mi Ecosystem" sub-brand, in tandem with local manufacturers. The notebook is meant to be part of the Mi Ecosystem and will likely be targeted at the same young professional Xiaomi fans in China that they also target with their rice cooker, TVs and other products, Ma said.
The key features of the 13.3-inch Mi Notebook Air are a Nvidia GeForce 940MX dedicated graphics card, Intel Core i5 processor, 256GB PCIe SSD with expandable SATA SSD slot, 8GB DDR4 RAM and 802.11ac Wi-Fi. It is said to last 9.5 hours on a single charge, charges 50 percent in 30 minutes, and weighs 1.28 kilogram and measures 309.6 x 210.9 x 14.8 millimeters. It features Type-C USB for charging, and two USB 3.0 ports and a single HDMI interface.
The 12.5-inch version weighs 1.07 kilograms and has battery life of 11.5 hours on a single charge. It runs the Intel Core m3 processor with integrated graphics and has 4GB of RAM and 128GB expandable SSD. The devices come in gold and silver colors.
The products go on sale in China next week, with no plans to sell it outside the country for now, according to a spokeswoman.
The company has had its sights on the U.S. market for some time, but is apparently wary of patent infringement lawsuits, a standard strategy for established players to keep rivals out of the lucrative U.S. market.
Microsoft recently agreed to transfer patents to Xiaomi. The cross-licensing and patent transfer deal also involved the bundling of Microsoft Office and Skype on Xiaomi's Android smartphones and tablets.
The notebooks are China-focused for now, given how the Mi Ecosystem has so far been largely contained in the country, according to Ma. "Besides, they'd likely take a lot of heat from overseas users for making the product seem so Apple-like, especially given the many accusations thrown their way already about their phones," he added.


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Logitech announced on Monday a glowing, Bluetooth keyboard that can connect to as many as three devices simultaneously and switch among them at the press of a button.
You could, for example, use the Logitech Bluetooth Illuminated Keyboard K810 to switch among your Windows 8-powered Ultrabook, Android smartphone, and an iPad. The new keyboard is compatible with Windows 7, Windows 8 (or Windows RT), iOS 4.0 or later, and Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) or later.
The keyboard layout is designed specifically for Windows 8; it includes the standard Windows key and an app-switching function key to let you scroll through open apps. The K810 also features an ambient sensor to properly adjust keyboard illumination as well as proximity detection that activates the keyboard lights when your hands approach the keys.
The K810 is USB-rechargeable and Logitech claims up to ten days of battery life on a full charge. You can, of course, continue to work while the keyboard is charging through a PC USB port. The device also has an on/off switch and a battery life indicator to help you conserve and manage device power.
Logitech's concept with K810 is an interesting idea, but it also sounds a little gimmicky. Granted, one-button push connectivity could be helpful in several scenarios. You could, for example, be working on a text document on a Windows 8 device, have Twitter, Facebook, or maybe even e-mail running on your tablet, and then switch to your smartphone to respond to a text message. Sounds like a nice set-up, but we'll have to see how practical this is in the real world. It's not clear whether, say, the keyboard can remember all three connections when powered off, or if you must pair at least two of the devices at the start of every work session.
UPDATE: Logitech has confirmed that the K810 will remember all three device pairings between sessions, even if the device is powered off.
Logitech does not list the K810 as compatible with OS X or Linux, so it's not clear how well this device's switching feature would work with a Mac or a non-Windows PC.
The K810 illuminated keyboard features a brushed aluminum body and is scheduled to ship in October at a suggested retail price of $100 and is available for pre-order from Logitech.
This is the second announcement for Logitech in the lead-up to the Windows 8 debut on October 26. The peripheral maker last Wednesday announced three new touch-friendly mice designed for Windows 8.


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Updated: August 2019
This post has been inspired by conversations I've had with women about their experiences of induction. Induction of labour is increasingly common, yet women often seem to be very mis-informed about what it involves, or what was done to them during induction and why. For example, one woman was told by her obstetrician that induction would involve him using a pessary to 'gently nudge her into labour.' Women need to be given adequate information in order to make birth choices; and practitioners need to give adequate information in order to meet legal requirements. I have written about the risks of induction in a previous post so will not repeat myself here. Instead, this post aims to provide some basic information about the process of induction – what is done and why. I would really appreciate input from readers about their experiences of induction – what was done, how it felt etc. I am hoping this post will be a resource for women who are considering induction, or are unsure about what happened during their induction.
In my old 1997 version of the 'Midwives' Dictionary' induction is 'causing [labour] to occur' ie. someone causes a labour to occur rather than allowing the baby/body to initiate labour. The dictionary goes on to say 'this may be carried out when the life or health of the mother or fetus is in danger if the pregnancy continues.' Of course this statement is open to interpretation and most inductions are carried out because of a variation to pregnancy (eg. postdates) rather than a complication (eg. pre-eclampsia). Regardless of the reason for induction, the process is fairly standard.
Making the decision
The decision to undergo an induction of labour is the woman's – you can read more about roles and responsibilities in the mother-midwife (or other care provider) relationship in this post.
The National Institute of Health Care Excellence (UK) provide guidance for health professionals about what information they should share with women when offering induction:
- The reasons for induction being offered
- Where, when and how induction could be carried out
- The arrangements for support and pain relief (recognising that women are likely to find induced labour more painful than spontaneous labour)
- The alternative options if the woman chooses not to have induction of labour
- The risks and bene fits of induction of labour in specific circumstances and the risks and bene fits of the proposed induction methods
- That induction may not be successful and what the woman's options would be.
There are a few things you need to be clear about before choosing to be induced:
- That the risks involved continuing the pregnancy are greater than the risks involved in induction (risk is a very personal concept – see a quick word about risk).
- You are committed to getting this baby out. Once you start you cannot back out, and a c-section is recommended for a 'failed induction'.
- You are not having a physiological birth. You have intervened and this intervention creates risks that require further monitoring and intervention. There is no 'natural' induced birth – vaginal birth maybe, empowering perhaps, but not physiological.
The Induction Process
There are 3 steps to the induction process. You may skip some of the steps along the way, but you should be prepared to buy into the whole package when you embark on induction.
In a physiological birth the baby and placenta signal to the mother's body that baby is mature and ready to be born – this starts the complex cascade of physical changes that results in the labour process.
Note: If your waters have broken naturally the term 'augmentation' rather than induction is used to describe getting labour started. This is because it is assumed that your body has started the labour process itself. You can read more about this situation here.
Step 1: Preparing the Cervix
During pregnancy the cervix is closed, firm and tucked into the back of your vagina. This means that you can have contractions without the cervix opening. In order for the cervix to respond to contractions it needs to make a number of complex physiological changes. Relaxin and oestrogen initiate these structural changes, and prostaglandin, leucocytes, macrophages, hyaluronic acid and glycoaminoglycans are all involved in softening the cervix ready for labour. You don't need to remember all of this scientific stuff – all you need to know is that it is a complex process, and prostaglandins are only one piece of the puzzle. However, prostaglandins alone are the focus of the induction process. All of the interventions aimed at preparing the cervix for labour (ripening) either stimulate the body to produce prostaglandins, or introduce synthetic prostaglandins. Prostaglandins are part of the body's inflammatory response.
Some practitioners offer a membrane sweep during pregnancy to avoid a 'post-dates' pregnancy. The procedure involves a vaginal examination where the practitioner places a finger into the opening of the cervix and 'sweeps' it around the inside of the lower part of the uterus. The aim is to separate the membranes of the amniotic sac from the lower uterus – this releases prostaglandins. A Cochrane Review into membrane sweeping concluded that: "Routine use of sweeping of membranes from 38 weeks of pregnancy onwards does not seem to produce clinically important benefits. When used as a means for induction of labour, the reduction in the use of more formal methods of induction needs to be balanced against women's discomfort and other adverse effects."
When you are being induced your cervix will be assessed by vaginal examination. If your cervix has already changed and is soft and open enough to get an amnihook in you can skip straight to step 2. If your cervix is still firm and closed, attempts will be made to change it so that step 2 is possible. This is usually done by putting artificial prostaglandins (prostin E2 or cervidil) on the cervix in the form of a gel, pessary or sticky tape. Artificial prostaglandins can cause hyperstimulation of the uterus resulting in fetal distress, therefore your baby's heart rate will be monitored by a CTG after the prostaglandin is administered. You may also experience 'prostin pains' which are sharp strong pains sometimes accompanied by contractions. If there are concerns about giving you prostaglandin (eg. previous c-section) your obstetrician may suggest ways of trying to get your own cervix to release natural prostaglandin by 'irritating it' (this is the theory behind membrane sweeps). This is done by inserting a balloon catheter into the cervix and filling it with water ie. you basically have a water balloon sitting in your cervix.
Successfully completing step 1 may take a few attempts with re-insertion of prostaglandins. This can take hours or days because you must wait hours before re-assessment and re-insertion. You may respond to the prostaglandin by going into labour therefore skipping the following steps. However, you are still having an induced labour and will usually be treated as 'high risk'.
Step 2: Breaking the Waters
I realise that this step is not always part of US inductions but I have never experienced this approach, so will stick to what I know… Once your cervix has softened and is open enough to get an amnihook in, your waters will be broken. This allows induced contractions to be more effective; the baby's head to press harder on the cervix; and may trigger contractions avoiding step 3. I was also taught that it reduces the risk of an amniotic embolism (amniotic fluid getting into the blood system) which is a rare risk associated with induction. There are risks associated with artificially breaking the waters. Once your waters have been broken you can wait a few hours to see if labour starts, or go straight to step 3.
Step 3: Making Contractions
You now have a cervix ready to respond to contractions and no amniotic water in the way – next you need contractions. In a natural physiological labour oxytocin is released from the brain and enters the blood stream – it has two main functions:
- It works on the uterus to regulate contractions
- It works in the brain to contribute to the altered state of consciousness associated with labour and promotes bonding feelings and behaviour
In an induced labour, artificial oxytocin (pitocin/syntocinon) is given via a cannula directly into the blood stream. It is unable to cross the blood brain barrier therefore only works on the uterus to regulate contractions. I have written about the risks associated with artificial oxytocin here along with references. Basically, it can be pretty nasty stuff which is why your baby will be monitored closely using a CTG. Women usually describe artificially stimulated contractions as being different and more painful than natural contractions. Having supported women during inductions I am also convinced there is more pain associated with induced contractions. During an induced labour contraction pattern and intensity increases quickly compared to most natural labours. Women are not able to slowly build up their natural endorphins and oxytocin to reduce their perception of pain. In addition the circumstances and environment that often surrounds induction (intervention, equipment, etc.) can result in anxiety, increasing the perception of pain.
Once your baby is born you will need to continue using artificial oxytocin to birth the placenta. A physiological placental birth is not safe because you are not producing your own natural oxytocin at the level required to contract the uterus strongly and prevent bleeding. Basically medicine has taken over and must finish the job.
In Summary
Inducing labour involves making your body/baby do something it is not yet ready to do. Before agreeing to be induced, be prepared for the entire package ie. all the steps. You may be lucky enough to skip one step, but once you start the induction process you are committed to doing whatever it takes to get the baby out… because by agreeing to induce you are saying that you or your baby are in danger if the pregnancy continues. An induced labour is not a physiological labour and you and your baby will be treated as 'high risk' – because you are.
You can read more about induction in my book Why Induction Matters


text: Magician hands over six ribbons, 2 each of Red, Yellow and Green to a. spectator. He states that he has placed three silks in a box (or bag), which will exactly match the spectator's choice. Now the performer asks the spectator to select any three ribbons from the six. The magician removes the three silks from the box, which exactly match the spectator's selection, and the box is shown completely empty. We supply the 3 special prediction "silks" about 10.5" square, the 6 ribbons, and full working instructions.