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- December 9, 2015
Mobility is the New Interaction Model – Engage With Customers, Employees, and Partners in Creative WaysShare this:
Mobility is not about a mobile device. It's really not even about technology. Mobility is about a new interaction model—a change in the way people of the new millennium interact with other people of their generation.
Interact through engagement
Mobility is the new interaction model, and CIOs must plan for these new systems of engagement.
Mobility, and being connected, is simply a way of life for anyone born in the new millennium. As these people enter our workforce and become tomorrow's consumers, we must begin to create new ways to engage them as our customers, employees, and business partners.
Perhaps the most relevant question is: As consumers, why are we so powerful when it comes to our mobile applications (apps)? And yet, as employees, why are apps so lacking?
The availability of mobile apps for consumers to interact with their peers and perform tasks in their daily lives has set a high expectation that organizations need to aspire to.
Enterprise CIOs must begin planning for new systems of engagement—that take advantage of mobile technology—to create a new user experience that is more personalized and targeted to individual users' needs. When properly understood, mobility focuses on helping real people do real jobs in the real world.
Fundamentally though, it's a business, not technology, challenge. As we move toward planning for these new systems, business executives sometimes struggle to justify mobility from a business perspective. Yet all too often, tech-centric arguments prevail: Is mobility about devices or applications? Should development be HTML5 or native? Is containerization the right path?
A more helpful view takes a logical approach that focuses clearly on tangible business outcomes. In fact, mobility can and does enable organizations to address very specific challenges—from growing market share and opening new revenue streams; to leveraging context-aware experiences that increase profits and accelerate efficiencies and speed-to-market; and fostering more intimate customer relationships. Yet, to tackle these problems and realize opportunities, it may help to first understand more clearly the true value of enterprise mobility.
In truth, mobility is not appropriate for every transaction, and there is little value to a mobile app that is not used. For example, a mobile app for completing a U.S. 1040 tax form would find few takers. And rightly so. Each and every potential mobile app should be assessed based on its business value, mobile readiness, complexity, and ability to connect organizations, brands, and people. A mobility strategy should be judged by its adoption curve.
To fully realize the potential for users in the workplace, mobilizing applications is not really the issue. The real challenge is how to bring access to data or mobilize transactions to solve tangible business problems. This journey often requires transforming enterprise IT, where previous-generation data management, security, and other systems are not flexible or efficient enough to handle this change.
Read on to examine why and how organizations can harness mobility to engage the world in new and more effective ways.
Mobility and social media enable a digital transformation where organizations of all kinds now have an opportunity to change how they engage the world—from consumers and customers to employees, partners, and others across their value chain.
Have one-to-one interactions
Mobility enables a digital transformation that can radically alter industries by improving the way they interact with customers, employees, and partners.
When an enterprise leverages effective mobility, it moves away from the traditional "one-to- many" engagement relationship, toward more personal and contextual one-to-one interactions. This means delivering the same level of digital experience that is available in today's exciting new generation of consumer applications.
To reach that objective, however, enterprises must establish mobile initiatives correctly and examine their enterprises from the outside in. An outside-in architectural perspective flips the traditional evolution of IT, and begins the process of understanding and connecting consumers—customers, employees, and partners. This model orchestrates across this larger range of constituencies, and is focused on the consumer instead of a single architecture.
This starts a transition toward the New Style of IT, and focuses on explicit sets of interactions and how they evolve. To support this model, organizations need mobility systems capable of delivering applications, content, and services that are reliable, scalable, and secure.
Most of all, effective enterprise mobility should focus on supporting a convenient, personalized, and satisfying user experience. It bears repeating—the user experience should be the focal point of any enterprise mobility initiative. In the business setting, the user experience consists of aesthetics coupled with context, enabled by a process transformation, performance improvements, and availability.
Satisfying those users is no simple feat, especially considering that consumer apps have set the bar very high and users have little patience for mobile apps that don't measure up. Delivering a highly satisfying, context-aware mobile user experience requires thinking beyond the mobile device.
Think social, mobile, cloud, Big Data, security
Organizations must think beyond the device to a New Style of IT and the convergence of social, mobile, cloud, Big Data, with security.
To become an industry-leading, digitally enabled enterprise, you must think beyond the mobile device—to the New Style of IT—and the convergence of social media platforms, mobile platforms, cloud-enabled services, and actionable insight from Big Data analytics.
The digital enterprise can radically reshape an entire industry, creating a long-lasting competitive advantage through transformation to new business models. Just think about the music industry's transformation—forever changed by digital media, mobile connectivity, and its complete digital transformation.
We must think holistically about it in order to create personalized mobile user experiences, with real-time data insights and cloud services based on context awareness of location, profile, preference, sentiment, and history, for example.
Think the New Style of IT—Enabling enterprise mobility creates many IT challenges when dealing with device diversity: cost containment, speed to market, security, and performance.
Enable enterprise mobility
Enabling enterprise mobility creates many IT challenges when dealing with device diversity: cost containment, speed to market, security, and performance.
Enterprise mobility is a road paved in complexity. There are significant IT challenges associated with the very diverse range of devices, operating systems, browsers, and technologies. Getting good advice and consulting, before you start this journey, is recommended.
IT Challenges: Device diversity, cost containment, speed to market, performance, security
We are coming from a world dominated by Windows and Internet Explorer, to a BYOD (bring your own device) world with smartphones, tablets, and wearables, running Apple, Android, Windows 8, and BlackBerry; and Safari, Chrome, Silk, and Firefox.
So the big question becomes: "How do you contain costs in a BYOD world?"
Balancing user demands and business needs—for speed to market of new mobile apps—with IT's need for quality, performance, and security across a diverse range of mobile devices raises the issue of cost containment. How do we contain the cost to design, develop, and test mobile apps that run on so many different form factors and operating systems?
Begin with a plan—Think about the bigger picture and implications of these important market trends; you cannot think about mobility in isolation. Designing the right strategy for your business needs and creating the roadmap you will use to implement your strategy are critical. And it will save time, reduce risks, and help you achieve the value of enterprise mobility far quicker.
Design considerations
- How much more time must be allocated to designing a great user experience?
- What is the mobile use case, and how will the information be used?
- What form factors will use the app, and will your design be responsive or adaptive to multiple form factors?
- Will your apps need to dynamically respond to different form factors?
- What future devices should be considered? Wearable devices?
Development considerations
- Should native mobile apps be developed to create the highest quality native experience?
- How will you contain costs if you have to build native apps for multiple different devices?
- Should your organization adopt a write-once, deploy-many approach?
- Should you develop mobile web apps with a "near-native" experience?
- How will mobile device features, such as GPS, camera, and accelerometer, be leveraged?
- Should you invest in a cross-platform mobile app development solution?
Testing considerations
- How can you maintain quality when testing must be done on so many different devices?
- Which devices should testing be done on?
- Should you test on emulators or real devices?
- How can your organization maintain the cost of testing in a BYOD world?
- Should you be concerned about testing performance?
- Do you need to validate mobile apps for security vulnerabilities?
Deployment considerations
- How will users access the apps?
- What happens with the data associated with the apps?
- Do you need a unified app store for multiple, different types of apps?
- How will users be authenticated?
- How will apps be secured on the device?
- Do you need a separate container for business and personal apps?
Identify your mobile opportunities
New systems of engagement begin by identifying mobile opportunities across the business.
This mobile world opens up endless opportunities. Businesses can grow market share, create new revenue streams, build customer intimacy, and increase profit margins by delivering secure, seamless, context-aware experiences in a connected world. Capitalizing on these new opportunities means knowing what information to provide to your customers, employees, and partners through mobile devices. It means understanding your existing applications or processes, and uncovering new ideas to maximize your benefits in the new mobile world.
As CIOs plan for new systems of engagement, they must begin by identifying where the mobile opportunities exist across the business. They must engage with line of business leaders to identify which processes and applications will deliver the most value to the business if mobilized.
- Identify business value.
- Assess mobile readiness.
- Understand complexity.
Establishing a prioritized list of mobile opportunities enables the enterprise to move beyond "random acts of mobility" with a mobile strategy and roadmap that aligns the mobile enterprise architecture to business needs.
Create innovative mobile user experiences
Mobile ideation converts opportunities and concepts into innovative mobile user experiences.
Once mobile opportunities have been identified, it's essential to create innovative mobile user experiences that engage customers and make employees more productive. The use of mobile ideation and design thinking workshops enables you to convert identified opportunities and concepts into clickable prototypes that demonstrate business value to key stakeholders.
Simple and intuitive mobile apps are the result of understanding your users and using the science of design to build engaging applications that are designed to fit the form factors of mobile devices. It's essential to adopt a user-centric design approach based on a deep understanding of the user persona and user experience—the context in which they operate. This method means design is built on cognitive psychology principles, evidence from users, and usability best practices, bringing meaningful business value to you and the users who make you successful.
What is user experience?
Innovative mobile user experiences can convert customer interactions into revenue opportunities.
User experience is the interaction between a product and a user—not "what it does" or "how it looks." A successful user experience balances form and function within the context of what the user is trying to accomplish; a superior user experience provides access to the right information, when users want it, and how they want it.
The goals should be to increase user adoption by designing engaging, responsive mobile user experiences, and reduce application rework and defects through higher levels of user understanding and involvement.
Convert customer interactions into revenue opportunities
The mobile device has emerged as a key channel for customer interactions in many industries. They want a seamless, superior user experience through all available channels including mobile.
And those that deliver innovative omnichannel experiences can create growth by converting customer interactions into revenue opportunities. Forward-looking enterprises are also learning how to use actionable data—including social media, Big Data, sentiment analysis, business intelligence, and other capabilities—to foster more personalized and satisfying engagements.
Creating superior, seamless, context-aware mobile user experiences goes way beyond simply personalizing an offer with a customer name. Steps must be taken to understand the profile and preferences of individual customers and the context in which they are operating.
For example, a frequent flyer and preferred business customer has booked a flight, hotel accommodation, and rental car. In order to enhance brand loyalty with the customer, the customer is upgraded on the selected rental vehicle to a brand new two-door sports car. But, when the customer arrives to pick up the vehicle, the customer has a spouse and four children for a family vacation. Unfortunately, the context under which the business customer was traveling was misunderstood.
Being context-aware is critical to our customer interactions. By understanding information on our customer location, profile, preference, sentiment, history, and other factors, we are able to create a more personalized user experience in our mobile applications, and in doing so, increase the number of interactions that lead to revenue opportunities.
NASCAR Fan and Media Engagement Center
Actionable consumer insight and engagement
As one of the world's leading racing associations found, mobility can be combined with social media, analytics, and Big Data to realize major gains. Working with HPE, NASCAR leveraged data and analytics to give its fans, sponsors, and the media real-time interactions through digital, social, and traditional print and broadcast media. Advanced monitoring and measurement technologies enabled the association to analyze fan sentiment, identify emerging issues, and provide faster and more effective communications.
Drive employee productivity with mobile apps
Effective mobile solutions create and deliver employee productivity apps to their preferred mobile devices.
While customer engagement apps are creating revenue growth opportunities, employee collaboration and productivity apps are delivering cost savings through greater efficiencies in business operations. Mobility strategies also go a long way toward improving user satisfaction.
A key part of executing a new BYOD interaction model is enabling owners of unmanaged devices to have ready access to enterprise applications. This not only ensures they have the tools they need, it greatly reduces the likelihood they'll download or install outside apps to fill a specific purpose.
The key here is easy-but-secure access. By using cloud-based technologies, you can create a single source for multiple types of applications and enable authentication for each user via a single set of credentials—ideally, the same domain credentials they use to access the corporate network.
- Unified app store—This single user interface—used to access and download all of corporate resources—should include access to native, web, SaaS, and virtualized applications from any supported mobile device. Storefront apps, chosen by the user, are then instantly available for use.
- Container for native apps—Separate management of business apps and data, and personal apps and data, can best be accomplished by wrapping the business apps so they reside in a secure container on the device. Access to "containerized" apps requires authentication, using the same credentials the user entered at the unified app store.
This lets your employees use their devices for personal and business activities. They can send private and corporate email, and store and access personal and company information. It enables secure file management to address file storage, synchronization, and sharing. You may need to mix on-premises storage with secure cloud storage for compliance, geographic proximity, or data sovereignty reasons.
And what about accessing intranet systems that don't require a mobile app? An integrated approach uses the cloud to combine services with a single administration interface rather than separate solutions running on a separate infrastructure with independent access and control interfaces.
- Secure intranet access—Managing access to intranet resources from mobile devices can be a security issue for most IT departments. One solution is to manage access through a secure browser that creates a micro-virtual private network (VPN) connection to your corporate intranet.
If the device is compromised, your IT team can selectively wipe the applications and data in the business container, leaving personal applications and data in place on the device. Plus, a full-service, enterprise mobility management program encompasses device and application management, including configuration, security, inventory, applications, and infrastructure.
- Two-factor authentication—This enhanced security and access control uses a software token for generating one-time passcodes that add an additional layer of security to credential-based authentication. Untethering employees from the desk and giving them anywhere, anytime, secure access to enterprise systems and data enables the enterprise to improve employee productivity. Furthermore, effective mobile solutions create and deliver employee productivity apps to their preferred mobile devices in a BYOD world.
Task-oriented mobile apps and secure intranet access enable employees to efficiently access and share data, collaborate with other employees, execute tasks, and capture results from remote locations.
City of Anaheim
Employee collaboration and situational awareness
The City of Anaheim sought to improve the efficiency and performance of police and fire services by deploying a mobile application to extend its emergency operations center capabilities. A modular and scalable mobile app lets police and fire, utility, inspection, and management personnel log on to the system directly from their smartphones. By providing fast and reliable access to a situational-aware view of crucial citywide emergency activities, alerts, and advisories, this mobile application supports faster and better emergency decisions.
Use cross-platform mobile apps in a BYOD world
The right mobile application platform reduces the total economic impact of the mobile solution.
Enterprises that support a BYOD policy for employees, and are looking to engage with customers on their preferred devices, should consider adopting a write-once, deploy-many approach to developing mobile applications.
And while mobile web apps using HTML5/CSS3 standards can achieve the desired cross-platform result with a "near native" quality user experience, it's essential to also consider using a commercial grade, cross-platform solution that delivers a hybrid native quality experience.
In either case, the goal is to improve the time to market of mobile applications by developing and maintaining a single code set that will run on any device that a customer or employee chooses to use. The right mobile application platform reduces the total economic impact of the mobile solution, enabling the IT department to contain development and maintenance costs across a range of mobile device platforms.
Developing cross-platform mobile applications, using an iterative and collaborative lifecycle approach, enables speed to market and quality across a range of mobile devices.
Mobile apps tend to be smaller, more task-oriented, single-focus applications. As such, mobile apps lend themselves very naturally to shorter development cycles and agile development methods.
Agile development methods deliver timely increments of mobile application functionality to users, with constant user involvement and feedback. With this approach, you can adapt to changing business priorities, ensure stakeholder satisfaction, and ultimately increase the adoption rate.
Agile development methods deliver timely increments of mobile application functionality to users.
Contain the cost of testing mobile apps
One of the biggest challenges facing the IT department is the diversity of mobile devices that a mobile application is often required to run on. Users have high expectations for mobile apps when it comes to:
- Quality
- Usability
- Performance
- Security
But, how do you contain testing costs in a BYOD world?
A unified testing solution helps contain the cost to deliver secure, high-quality mobile apps to a diverse range of devices. Adopting a script once, test many automation approach enables you to test mobile apps on real mobile devices—release after release after release. Applying test automation, to test mobile apps compatibility on real devices, enables you to contain testing costs by cycling automated test cases across each device to ensure the application renders correctly and functions appropriately on each device.
A unified testing solution helps contain the cost to deliver secure, high-quality mobile apps to a diverse range of devices.
A unified testing solution enables you to test the end-to-end mobility system including the functional quality of the mobile application on the device, and any services that the mobile app may be connecting to. You can virtualize the service in order to simulate a response back from the service to test complete transactions and workflows.
Applications remain the most vulnerable layer of the technology stack when it comes to enterprise security and risk. Putting applications on mobile devices that are easily lost or stolen only elevates the risk and makes security the number one challenge to enabling enterprise mobility.
There are several steps that can be taken across the mobile application development lifecycle to identify and remediate the security risks in the mobile application layer. First, you should conduct a comprehensive application threat analysis during the architecture and design phases of a mobile app project. Understand the data you are dealing with in any mobile app transaction, its sensitivity, and any encryption requirements—at rest and in transit.
Next, scan all code developed in order to identify security vulnerabilities that exist at the code level and take actions to remediate the code and close the security holes. Then, when testing the mobile app, penetration tests should be created that are specifically designed to try to exploit the mobile application.
Finally, as the application is deployed to production, continuously monitor the threats that occur on a daily basis.
Secure mobile deployment and management
Provide your employees with an easy-to-use service for anytime, anywhere access to applications and data from any mobile device, including BYOD scenarios. At the same time, ensure IT can manage the right security policies and access controls to protect sensitive enterprise data and applications. You need the important mobile management capabilities for managing devices and their access, and you also need an enterprise application storefront to enable you to better manage application access and file management to bring sync and store capabilities to any device.
Drive business outcomes with enterprise mobility
The bar for mobile applications quality has been set high, based on today's consumer apps. Users have neither the time nor patience to deal with poorly designed, poorly performing mobile apps.
Deliver the desired business outcome—high-quality mobile solutions that enhance employee productivity and customer engagement.
Those that create the right, high-quality mobile user experiences—in their customer engagement and productivity apps—stand to create a sustainable competitive advantage that redefines their industry.
- Increase revenue—Convert a high percentage of customer interactions into sales and revenue opportunities with personalized, context-aware mobile applications.
- Improve efficiency—Redesign your business processes and workflows to take advantage of mobile and collaboration capabilities.
- Reduce cost—Untether your workers from their desktop and make their daily tasks and activities more efficient.
- Improve business performance—Increase revenues and reduce costs as you become a digital enterprise.
- Increase user satisfaction—Offer users the choices they want and the freedom to access the information they need to be productive anytime, anywhere.
About the author
Paul Ashwood
Paul Ashwood is the worldwide product marketing leader for HPE Mobile Applications Services. He started his career with HPE (formerly EDS) in Australia in 1985 in the Systems Engineering Development Program, and has been involved in applications development, testing, and integration throughout his 30-year career. Ashwood has helped deliver large, complex shop floor systems and enterprise business systems for some of HPE's largest clients in Australia and the United States. He holds a bachelor's degree in computing from Monash University in Australia.


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Unit 4 Lesson 5 People
|• To practise picking out words for parts of the body & to listen out for the sound ou, children listen to and join in with the song Savez-vous Planter les Choux? ('Do You Know How to Plant Cabbages?') Children make a planting action to show the part of the body in each verse.
|Savez vous planter les choux
|Choose one boy and one girl to come to the front. Using colourful wigs, teach Il/Elle a les cheveux bleus (He/She has blue hair), for example. Describe another feature in the same way.
Ask the children to compare and discuss the use of Il/Elle a … Continue describing the children in this way.
|Revise body/face parts quickly usig peinturefle
|Ask the children to complete sentences started by you, eg Elle a … (the children select one feature to complete the sentence).
SOUNDFILES from BABELZONE
|Select two boys and two girls to come to the front. Describe the hair and eye colour of a child with brown or black hair, using Il/Elle a …
• Then describe a child who has blonde hair. How did the class work out which child was being described? Elicit recognition of the unfamiliar cognate blonds.
|LLS: Cognates - words that look or sound similar in English
|Play Guess Who? by inviting six to eight children to the front of the class and describing one of them. Using gesture, bring in some additional language such as Il/Elle est grand(e)/petit(e). The children guess the identity of the child being described.
|Model this a few times and then ask confident children to lead the game. Allow some children to use labelled prompt cards for support.
|Use pictures/portraits of famous French people or Francophiles past and present to reinforce describing physical features.

subset: commoncrawl


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Third in a series
As with the previous post in this series, this came up in a Facebook post that devolved into a discussion of the anthropogenic global warming (AGW) controversy. I will begin by pasting pertinent parts of the dialogue so far:
Jim Medding shared History's post.
When ever I hear the term "settled science" I think of Galileo
On #ThisDayInHistory 1633, Italian philosopher and astronomer Galileo Galilei arrives in Rome to face charges of heresy after he advocated the Copernican theory, which holds that the Earth revolves around the Sun.
Galileo in Rome for Inquisition – Feb 13, 1633 – HISTORY.com
On this day in History, Galileo in Rome for Inquisition on Feb 13, 1633. Learn more about what happened today on History.
Luis De La Cruz a la "climate change" and the settled science
John Blanton "Settled science" is a term that gets thrown around, but in the final analysis it's not what counts. What counts is what can be demonstrated. Right now what is being demonstrated is the case for AGW. I have some facts plus a bit of comedy for your reading enjoyment. Comments are welcome. I have more facts.
Jim Medding You, John, prove my point.
John Blanton Jim, I'm glad I prove your point. How? Please explain.
Jim Medding You couldn't resist the temptation to jump all over this post. Shouldn't there be some room for skepticism? You're skeptical about the existence of God without having to prove your skepticism, which is OK. But if anyone says "I don't know" about AGW, oh my let's set 'em straight. Put your ego aside and coexist. You're not going to convince anyone.
John Blanton Jim, thanks for responding on this. On a side note: The moment after I responded that I was glad to prove your point, I asked myself what was your point? You did not actually say. This would be a good time to state your position.
It was interesting that you brought up the existence of God, because I had no idea on how you stood on the matter. From the conversation you and I had with Don Hay 30 years ago I assumed you shared my rejection of Don's views on creationism, the age of the Earth, and religion in general. If you have particular views on God, put them forward for discussion. My own position is that the God of Abraham (to distinguish from the number of other popular gods) is a made up story with no basis in fact. I say that in case there may be some confusion on the point.
You mention my ego, as though I had some emotional attachment to the science behind AGW. Putting that matter to rest, I have no such attachment. I do have a great fondness for the truth, and I do enjoy chiding people who sorely abuse the truth.
I am heading into a trip out of town, and I will be able to address your points in detail when I get back. In the mean time it will be helpful if you will state your position on the matters under discussion (God, AGW, creationism maybe). That way I will not have to bore you with some lengthy discussion when all the while we are in agreement on a point.
And that's the extent of the conversation up to the present writing. I had hoped that after 48 hours I would have seen an additional response from Jim, but I will post this today rather than wait. If Jim responds later I will update this post. Here is a diagnosis of the exchange.
Jim posted a link to the History Channel concerning Galileo's hearing before The Inquisition on 13 February 1633. Galileo had published that, contrary to prevailing doctrine, the Earth revolves around the sun. Jim's comment was that use of the term "settled science" always reminded him of Galileo. Galileo was going against what had been "settled" by higher authority.
Of course, Galileo was not going against settled science, because the Ptolemaic conjecture, which was supported by the Church, did not involve any actual science. Ptolemy, and others, had observed that the sun appeared to go around and around the Earth on a daily basis. No scientific study had ever been invoked to refute the conjecture. It just became accepted and incorporated into church doctrine. But I was OK with Jim's remark. Galileo did challenge a concept supported by authority and not by science.
Then Luis De La Cruz added a comment linking the science behind AGW to "settled science" supported only by authority. Since I know this to be incorrect, I added my comment to that effect and included a link to my previous post on the matter. Please note, my comment was not in response to Jim's post, It was in response to Luis de la Cruz's comment.
Jim commented that I had proved his point.
Without thorough preparation, I responded to Jim, telling him I was glad to be of assistance. Then I inquired as to how I had helped him prove his point, and I asked for additional details.
Jim's response to this was more involved. To exhibit, I here repeat Jim's response:
You couldn't resist the temptation to jump all over this post. Shouldn't there be some room for skepticism? You're skeptical about the existence of God without having to prove your skepticism, which is OK. But if anyone says "I don't know" about AGW, oh my let's set 'em straight. Put your ego aside and coexist. You're not going to convince anyone.
Jim's comment that I could not resist is correct, but he may have missed the point that I was not responding to his post, but to the comment by Luis. Regardless, Jim inquired whether there should not be room for skepticism. That is a serious consideration and requires serious treatment. Since, by now, the subject matter had become too deep for Facebook, I am reverting to a blog post with more detail. First, the issue of room for skepticism.
Yes, there should be room for skepticism. Whenever anybody puts up a scientific conjecture, hypothesis, even theory, there rightly should be skepticism. Science does not work well without ideas being challenged. In all this the Galileo connection has become lost. Galileo was skeptical of the church sanctioned explanation of orbital mechanics, but he was not merely suspicious. He proposed a better explanation, one that did away with a vast body of specious explanation required to make the Ptolemaic system work. He proposed an alternative, and along with that alternative he proposed a better explanation. This is scientific skepticism, not just idle doubt.
Next, Jim brought God into the matter. He mentioned I am skeptical of God. Moreover, I'm skeptical of God without having to prove my skepticism. To this I take exception. Not only am I skeptical of the existence of God, but I am prepared to present detailed arguments supporting that position. This is not idle doubt. More on that later.
Jim advises me to put my ego aside and coexist. As I mentioned in my follow-up to Jim's last comment, there is no amount of ego involved in my position. By this I mean, there is no emotional involvement on my part regarding the science behind AGW. What does catch my interest, however, is an abiding respect for the truth. Let's put this more directly. For example, somebody tells me he believes scientists are all wrong, and the Earth is flat. At the very least I am going to respond, "Excuse me?" I may go so far as to give a big belly laugh. In some cases I might go to the extreme to point out evidence that the Earth is, in fact, not flat. It more closely resembles a ball of matter about 8000 miles in diameter. Yes, I do get emotional when confronted with idle objections to what should be common knowledge.
To wit, the science that backs up the truth about AGW is comprehensive and well exposed for all to see. A 21st century citizen who dismisses all the evidence with a shrug and a comment expressing doubt is going to meet with a challenge from anybody knowing the background. And, the facts be known, that is a job I have given myself, and a task I have been involved with for nearly 30 years. Some history.
Thirty years ago I hooked up with the North Texas Skeptics, a Dallas-based group concerned with the promulgation of astrology, psychic powers, faith healing, creationism, and any number of other factually baseless concepts. It was about this time Jim and I had the conversation with Don Hay, mentioned in my Facebook comment.
Jim and I were working on a missile project for a defense contractor, and Don Hay was recruited from another company. Don was college-educated, a requirement for the job, so it was with surprise that Don advised us he believed in creationism. He announced that he was a devout Christian, and creationism was an integral part of his belief. Part of Don's belief was that the Earth and the universe were created in six days, as described in the Bible. I inquired of Don whether he had ever visited the Grand Canyon and seen for himself the multitude of exposed layers of the Earth's crust, giving evidence to an age of millions, if not billions, of years. Don was proud to claim he had never done so, and he never intended to do so. His faith told him all he needed to know, and the matter was settled. It was shortly after that I joined up with the North Texas Skeptics.
Anyhow, at the time, Jim seemed equally as embarrassed by Don's position as I was. I never then nor have I since heard anything directly from Jim expressing agreement with Don, including a belief in God. I was hoping that a follow-up comment from Jim would clear up that matter. I can discuss my objections to the concept of God better if I know what that concept is supposed to include. Anybody discussing this with me may want to stake out one or more of the following claims:
- There is an omnipotent being as described in the Bible (Jewish, Christian plus the Quran), said being to be hereafter called God. This God takes a particular interest in the human race.
- God created the universe as described in Genesis in the Bible.
- Man (the human race) was created in God's image.
- Jesus of Nazareth was the human embodiment of God.
- God contrived to have Jesus be persecuted and tortured to death in order to absolve the human race of all its past sins.
- After being killed, Jesus returned from the dead and lived for 40 days before ascending into the sky, never to be seen again.
- All that is necessary to be a true Christian is to accept that Jesus was the son of God and died for our sins. Those who believe will have everlasting life after death and will dwell in a special place called Heaven. All who do not accept Jesus will be tormented in Hell for eternity after death.
There could be much more, but this will do. Anybody wanting to discuss God at a serious level needs to sign up for one or more of these conjectures. On the other hand, it is not OK for me express my skepticism about God without stating at least some basis for my skepticism. I am willing and will now state my objections to the concept of God.
First allow me to state that I will be unable to prove conclusively that God does not exist. Hopefully I can convince readers that I do not need to prove conclusively that God does not exist. With some effort I can put forth good arguments against the existence of God.
First, regarding lack of conclusive proof that God does not exist. There are any number of untrue things I cannot disprove. Here is one:
Orbiting the sun along the same path as the Earth but on the other side of the sun, is a jade teapot. No, there is not, but I cannot prove there is not. I could prove its nonexistence in principle. I could convince the government to go investigate, and millions of tax dollars could be appropriated, and we could launch a mission to the far side of the sun to have a look-see. Nah, that's not going to fly. The guy who stands at the gate protecting the national treasure from foolish enterprises is going to say, "You have got to kidding. The United States government has spent money on foolish adventures before, but this one is way off the chart. Not only is there not likely to be a jade teapot on the other side of the sun, in which case this one expensive venture will gain nothing. Besides that, if there is a jade pot on the other side of the sun, we don't give a fat rat's ass. Get on out of here."
Let's take this a step further. Suppose I postulate there is something else on the other side of the sun besides a jade teapot. Suppose we need to investigate whether there is a compact source of energy that can be brought back to the United States and will supply the entire country's energy needs for the next hundred years. Now the treasury gate keeper will give a fat rat's ass. And the answer will still be no. The evidence there is a jade teapot or even a hundred years' supply of energy is still based on my conjecture and nothing more.
And therein is the tie between the jade teapot and God. The evidence for each is exactly the same—none. Somebody will tell me now that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Well taken. Then why not go after the 100 years' energy supply? Also, why not make any material investment in belief in God?
At a personal level there is almost no reason not to believe in God, absent any evidence. You can just shake your head and say that you believe in God and then go about your business. The problem comes when belief in God calls for something material. At the entry level this might be taking a day each week out of your life and going to a church to reassert your belief—plus paying to support the church. Beyond that can lie trouble.
What kind of trouble you ask. Here are some examples.
- William Miller in the 19th century convinced his followers, in excess of 50,000, that Jesus was about to return to Earth, and they should get rid of all their personal wealth and join him to journey into the afterlife with Jesus. This happened a couple of times, and of course Jesus never came, and the people lost all their worldly possessions. An offshoot of Millerism was the Seventh Day Adventist Church.
- Nineteen, otherwise intelligent, young men believed that killing people in the name of God would result in their obtaining glory in the afterlife. They killed approximately 3000 people, including themselves, in the United States on 11 September 2001.
- Marshall Applewhite convinced his followers (38) that Jesus was coming for them in a space ship that was following the Hale-Bopp comet. They all packed their bags for the journey and took poison.
- Vernon Howell took the name David Koresh and convinced his followers the end times were coming. At the conclusion of a standoff with police and federal authorities, his followers killed themselves and their children, a total of 80.
- It was much the same with Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple. This time over 900 died.
There are more. The Blanton family name originated in Normandy in France. They all had to leave on threat of death, because French Catholics were killing all the Protestants. The short story is that there can be bad consequences from believing untrue things. The lesson that should be taken away is when believing in something not well substantiated, invest small.
My previous statement that the evidence for God is nil needs to be backed up. Here is my case, in its briefest form:
The entire case for the existence of God resides in some ancient texts, written at an undetermined time by people not well verified. Nobody has ever seen God, nobody has held a conversation with God, God has never been on television, nor has God testified in court nor served in the armed services. God does not pay taxes. This is the perfect description for a person who does not exist.
Everything said to be attributable to God can be more reasonably explained by natural processes. A ship sinks. Thousands drown. Three survive. This has happened. Was this a miracle attributable to God. No. Each of the survivors told the story of his survival, and each of the stories explain the survivor's escape in natural terms.
Creationists point to the magnificent universe and the wonder of life. Surely God had a hand in this. People who support creationism claim all this wonder is the work of God. Specifically, it is the work of the God of Abraham. If I were to spot a creationist the point that a supernatural being created all these works, the creationist would still be left with the unsurmountable task of tying this to the God of Abraham and not some other God.
In addition to all of this, the only thing of substance relating to God, the Bible, is demonstrably incorrect at almost every point. The universe was not created in six days. There was no world-wide flood as described in the story of Noah. The story of Moses leading the Hebrews out of Egypt is false, since the Hebrews never were in Egypt. This and numerous other points the Bible gets wrong. And somebody is supposed to believe the unbelievable based on the word of the Bible?
I have run on at length (Jim was right on this point) in response to Jim's most recent comment. Hopefully this dispels the notion of my skepticism about God without the need to back up my skepticism. If doubt remains I am able to run on at ten times this length.
Regarding AGW and "You're not going to convince anyone," I am definitely not going to convince anybody who rejects the science out of hand and will not provide evidence for their position nor accept evidence of AGW. A substantive discussion will involve all parties involved providing evidence to support their position. I invite Jim, Luis, and all others willing to discuss the matter to join in. I offer my blog site as a medium for exchanging ideas. This post has a provision for appending lengthy comments. Please use that space and get the conversation going.
Best to all reading this.
It's been three days since I posted this, and Jim has not gotten back with additional responses. I will presume there are not going to be any. Continuations on this theme will resume with a new post.


text: "I was a young punk rock artist," Welby said. "I was a bratty, self-righteous teenager. I remember at 13 years old being like, 'I'm not contributing to that industry, gas is starting wars, blah blah.' I was so against car culture that I didn't get my license until I was 28."


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Highway safety is an important area of focus for state DOTs and the USDOT. There are few groups within the USDOT who are focused on improving highway safety. The first is the Office of Safety. The Office of Safety is comprised of two units. The Technologies Unit deals with safety-related highway design considerations and technologies which can be used to improve highway safety performance. The Programs Unit oversees federal and state safety programs. One of the key programs they administer is the Highway Safety Improvement Programs (HSIP). HSIP is a federal-aid program designed to provide funding to states for projects aimed at reducing fatalities and serious injuries on qualifying roadways. In 2016, the program provided about 2.2 billion dollars to the states for safety projects.
|Fiscal Year
|Estimated Funding*
Reference: FHWA Website accessed 12/31/2016
To qualify for HSIP funds, a state is required to develop and maintain a Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP). An SHSP is designed to guide the investment of funds to projects which have the greatest potential to reduce fatalities and serious injuries. To qualify for HSIP funds, states are also required to identify their priorities using a Data-Driven Safety Analysis (DDSA).
The second group within USDOT which is responsible for highway safety is the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). NHTSA is an administration within USDOT whose mission is to reduce crash fatalities and injuries. We'll take a close look at NHTSA later in this lesson.
State DOTs commonly collect and use crash data to identify areas of their roadway networks where there are unusually high crash rates. However, looking at crash data alone can be misleading and result in a less than optimal use of available state and federal dollars. To address this problem, AASHTO, in conjunction with the FHWA, developed the Highway Safety Manual (HSM), a document which many consider the definitive reference on highway safety. The HSM offers a comprehensive and balanced approach and set of tools which consider operations, the environment, and the cost of construction alongside safety considerations. A good overview of the HSM can be found here. The approaches provided in the HSM go beyond traditional approaches to identifying priority locations for safety improvements which rely solely on crash history data.
There are two fundamental problems associated with using crash data alone. First, crashes are statistical events and as such don't occur at regular predictable intervals. Consequently, crash data alone can sometimes lead an agency to falsely identify sections of a roadway as high risk and, conversely, sometimes overlook a risky section. The second problem of looking solely at historic crash data is that it disregards the dependence of crash frequency on traffic. As traffic levels increase on a section of the roadway due to changing travel patterns, crash rates can increase. To overcome these limitations, it is necessary to look not only at historic crash frequencies but also at expected crash frequencies based on roadway characteristics and traffic data.
Tools have been developed which implement the approaches defined in the HSM. These include AASSHTO's Safety Analyst and FHWA's Interactive Highway Safety Design Model (IHSDM). However, states often lack much of the data required to effectively use these tools, such as horizontal and vertical curve data. Horizontal curves are roadway curves that turn to the left or right, and vertical curves are roadway peaks/hills and valleys. For my Capstone Project, I used roadway centerline data to extract horizontal curvature data from Pennsylvania's roadways. I gave a lightning talk on the project at Penn State in November 2016 for GIS day. A link to the presentation is here (my presentation was just under 10 minutes in length).
Two model frameworks have been developed to help states structure the crash and roadway data needed for highway safety analyses in a standard format. The first is the Model Minimum Uniform Crash Criteria (MMUCC). MMUCC is a list of standard crash data elements and associated definitions developed by NHSTA. While the implementation of this model is voluntary, states are encouraged to adhere to the standard in collecting and compiling crash data. Similar in concept to the MMUCC, the Model Inventory of Roadway Elements MIRE is a list of over 200 roadway and traffic data elements critical to safety management developed by the FHWA.
Collecting roadway data according to the MIRE model will not only benefit the state DOT in regards to traffic safety efforts, it will also help other core areas of transportation such as operations, asset management, and maintenance.
Once a section of roadway has been identified for needed safety improvements, an agency needs to decide which types of countermeasures would be the most effective. There are many types of safety countermeasures that could be implemented. Here's a list of 20 proven countermeasures published by FHWA's Office of Safety.
Assignment 7-1 (15 points)
My Capstone project gave me an opportunity to complete a project I had been thinking about for a few years. The idea was to use spatial techniques to extract horizontal curvature information from roadway centerline data. Horizontal curvature is an important roadway characteristic which many state DOTs lack. It can provide high value to a number of groups within the agency, not the least of which are those concerned with improving highway safety. Another use for this data is in the area of routing oversize / overweight vehicles. Most state DOTs are responsible for issuing permits to those who wish to travel along state roads with an oversize / overweight vehicle. As part of the permit, the DOT defines the route the vehicle must travel along.
Take a look at a lightning talk I gave in 2016 at Penn State's GIS Day event. As you're listening to the brief presentation, advance through the Powerpoint slides I was using (unfortunately they were not incorporated into the video). Then watch an interview I recently recorded with Jason Hershock, a highway safety engineer at PennDOT, where Jason discusses a project the Department is conducting to comply with a set of requirements FHWA has imposed on states to ensure curves are properly signed. A recording of the interview can be found in Canvas' Media Gallery. Finally, take a look at this 2016 cost-benefit analysis PennDOT conducted on a countermeasure involving High-Friction Surface Treatment (HFST).
Submit an M.S. Word document (no more than 500 words) to Assignment 7-1 in Canvas which addresses the following items:
- Why is horizontal curvature information often lacking and/or inadequate for highway safety analyses? (3 points)
- Why is looking at crash data alone less than ideal for identifying the best places to incorporate safety improvements? (2 points)
- Briefly describe how Jason's group used spatial technologies to address the FHWA requirements on curve signage. (5 points)
- Using your knowledge of network analyst, how might you incorporate horizontal curvature information to route oversized vehicles? (2 points)
- What was the finding of the cost-benefit analysis PennDOT performed on the HFST countermeasure? What are your thoughts about the dollar value assigned to a fatality? (3 points)
The Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS)
FARS is a system used to collect, store and analyze fatalities on U.S. roadways. The system is administered by the National Center for Statistics and Analysis (NCSA) which is part of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The system includes data from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. The primary purpose of the system is to monitor the effectiveness of vehicle safety standards and highway safety programs which are implemented at the state level. Only crashes which result in at least one fatality and occur on a roadway which is open to the public are included in FARS.
Pennsylvania Crash Information Tool (PCIT)
Some states make crash data available to the public and other interested parties via a web portal. As an example, Pennsylvania makes crash information available via the Pennsylvania Crash Information Tool (PCIT).
Many of the reports on this site are similar to those in FARS. PennDOT is in the process of adding mapping capabilities to the next version of PCIT scheduled for release in the spring of 2017. Similar to FARS, PennDOT also makes raw crash data available. The PCIT site simply guides users to the PennDOT's GIS Data Portal for this data.
Pennsylvania crash data is available from 1997 to 2016. Differences between the FARS crash data and PennDOT's crash data include:
- crash data from PennDOT include all reportable crashes and not just fatal crashes;
- crash data from PennDOT includes many more attributes or "flags" which can be used to filter the crashes;
- PennDOT's GIS Data Portal provides very limited querying options (year and county only) and, consequently, the burden is on the user to filter the data to meet their needs.
Assignment 7-2 (20 points)
In this assignment, you'll have an opportunity to work with crash data from FARS and PennDOT's GIS Data Portal. Submit an M.S. Word document to Assignment 7-2 in Canvas which addresses the following items:
- Using the FARS system, create a thematic map (they refer to it as an intensity map) which shows how fatal crashes varied by state in 2015. Include a screenshot of the thematic map you produced in FARS. Which 3 states had the most fatal crashes? (5 points)
- Export crash data from FARS in Excel format which includes all 2015 fatal crashes in Pennsylvania. In step 2 of the "Query FARS Data" wizard, you can select any of the 3 options since you only need data from the Crash table. The only attributes which you need to include are the latitude, longitude and the number of fatalities. You should also select the "Case Listing" to get the unaggregated list of crashes. Import the crash data into ArcMap and create a map of the crashes where the symbology varies by the number of fatalities. The map should include Pennsylvania county boundaries. (Hint: For the Pennsylvania county boundaries you can download the county boundaries for the entire US from TIGER and then do an attribute query on these counties to select PA counties. The 'StateFP' = 42 for Pennsylvania counties. Once you have selected only the Pennsylvania counties, export them as a new feature class.) Include a screenshot of your map. (5 points)
- Imagine you work for the Pennsylvania State Police and you are trying to identify good locations for DUI checkpoints in Centre County. To do so, you're going to look at crash data for 2015 to see where alcohol-related crashes occurred. Since you want to consider all crashes which involved alcohol and not just fatal crashes, the FARS database will not be sufficient. Instead, use 2015 Centre County crash data available from PennDOT's GIS Data Portal.
- Create a map which shows the crashes of interest. Include a screenshot of your map. This exercise will require you to convert the crash data to a feature class, join the crash feature class with the crash flags and use an attribute query to create the set of crashes you want. While there are a number of flags which you could use to identify these crashes, use the "alcohol_related" flag for this exercise. (5 points)
- Using the crash data, select 3 locations for DUI checkpoints. Create a screenshot of the map with the checkpoints designated on the map. You can either create a feature class for the checkpoints or simply place graphic symbols, available on the draw toolbar in ArcMap, where you want the checkpoints to be. Provide a brief rationale for your choices. (3 points)
- What additional information would be useful in helping you to establish good DUI checkpoints? (2 points)
GIS Uses and Benefits in Highway Safety
As we learned in Lesson 6, spatial technologies are used to locate crashes and perform crash analysis to locate crash hotspots, otherwise known as crash clusters. Spatial technologies also play a critical role in expanding network screening to include roadway characteristics and traffic data in addition to historic crash data as called for in the HSM. Spatial analyses not only help in identifying priority sections of roadway for safety improvements, but they can also be used to determine the countermeasures which are most likely to be effective and to assess their impact once they have been in place for a period of time. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, GIS plays a huge role in vehicle to vehicle communications and autonomous car technologies. These initiatives promise to have revolutionary impacts on highway safety and make the goal of 0 fatalities seem not so far-fetched.
Optional Reading
In August 2013, FHWA published a document titled Assessment of the Geographic Information Systems' (GIS) Needs and Obstacles in Traffic Safety. In the document, FHWA identified some of the challenges states face in collecting and integrating crash data in addition to some of the opportunities GIS offers to address these issues.


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Rescues & Nonprofits
Whenever I can, I try to give back to the animal community, and for me, that means donating my time and talent to producing adoption photos that represent the true personality of an adoptable pet. Professional quality pet photography has been proven to get adoptable pets noticed by more pet seekers and adopted faster.
Time and images are donated in the best interest of getting more pets adopted; travel fees are the only potential costs and only if required travel is extensive. If you are an animal rescue or nonprofit organization seeking professional photography services, contact me to discuss further.


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Name Games
4 comments:
- Sarah said...
Kayleigh is not a great name at all... (hopefully you don't have any friends who read this named that- whatev. it's uggs.)
Kalea on the other hand is really cute. And i've never mispronounced it. I did spell it wrong ONCE when Steve phoned and told us her name, but I like it better without the 'H'. (less Leah, also an awful name)
MY POINT- Gorgeous name for a gorgeous girl! People are just idiots...
- 15.12.08
- Scott and Tara said...
I didn't know you had a blog! FUN, i am excited!
- 15.12.08
- doyles said...
I think it's normal part of life for people to correct their names unless they are really common, like Timothy for instance! because english is so messed up and because parents often spell names so different and uniquely its hard to know sometimes! people pronounce my name "cass-on-dra" sometimes and it drives me nuts!
- 16.12.08
- the fellers said...
Allison, I didnt know you had a blog, I will have to add you. Kalea is so cute...and I TOTALLY know what you mean about people not getting the name thing....Shon and I both have retarded names....Vinnie? For a girl? And yes, it is spelled with and ie, not a y or just an i....I get so annoyed....Shon is S H O N...not S E A N or S H A W N....just Shon, and yes, Vinnie is the girl and Shon is the boy in our relationship...we get that a lot....Scoty...well where do I begin with that? His name is spelled Scot. Yes, just one T. So, we decided to call him Scoty....cause Scot is a name for older people...but we didnt want to do Scotty or Scottie, cause that has two T's we just wanted one....so we spell it Scoty...totally not right, but looks like I wanted it too...then there is Rylee...who names their girl Rylee? We do! And yes, she is a girl, that is why she is dressed in pink, with a big old bow in her hair! And no, it isnt spelled Riley...that is a boy....man....I think we secretly named our kids funny names with funny spellings just to have them go through the same stuff we did in school....grrr...ok, that was long! haha
- 19.12.08


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Quality Manager
Location: Greater Memphis Area
About the job: This is a leading manufacturer and marketer of plastic packaging products - also providing products, which include engineered materials, nonwoven specialty materials and consumer packaging. With 125+ manufacturing facilities worldwide, they continue to globally expand its footprint with net sales of $7.1 billion.
Job Description:
- Maintain quality program and drive process improvements to ensure quality systems meet customer specifications and company requirements.
- Lead the design and implementation of quality assurance systems and resolve quality problems with manufacturing, vendors and customers.
- Formulate quality objectives and coordinate with production to maximize product reliability and minimize costs.
- Develop and analyze statistical data and product specifications to determine present standards and establish proposed quality and reliability expectancy of finished product.
- Direct employees engaged in testing and inspection activities to ensure quality control over materials and product.
- Oversee customer improvement opportunities (CIO) system, and drive continuous improvements.
- Investigate root cause and implement corrective actions to customer complaints regarding quality.
- Ensure product safety and compliance with applicable regulatory requirements.
- Direct activities to ensure ISO 9001 compliance, including document control, Internal Audits and Management Review.
- Oversee Quality focus on ISO operating system as well as Food Safety including AIB, SFQ, IMS, GMA-Safe, and CTPAT.
- Interact with Plant personnel and sales/customer service personnel on quality problems. Call on customers or potential customers with sales executives to provide assistance relating to quality issues.
- Plan, promotes and organizes training activities related to product quality and reliability.
- Maintain pertinent production records for trace ability and evaluation of product and processes.
Job Requirements:
- A Bachelor's Degree in Quality or Science related field.
- 5-10 years of experience in Quality Assurance/Quality Control /Supervision in a manufacturing facility.
- Experience in the manufacturing of plastic preferred -Stretch blow molding, Injection molding
- Excellent communication skills and the ability to work well with people at all levels are essential.
- Candidate must have strong organizational, analytical, problem-solving, and management skills.
- Experience and proficiency with MS-Office (Excel, Word & PowerPoint) are required.
- Candidate must be able to make sound decisions based on data analysis and make recommendations to the management team while ensuring compliance within the department and facilities.
Salary: $75,000- $90,000


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Another peanut butter recipe that doesn't use wheat? Yes! Another one! I bet you didn't know that even one no-wheat pb-cookie recipe existed, let alone two of them!
This recipe is easy — easy is important for busy bakers. It's almost the same as the other PB recipe except this one adds vanilla flavoring, and baking soda which makes the cookie puffy.
Here are the photos from my kitchen. Click image for a close up. Recipe below.
Ready for the oven
Baked and cooling on bamboo mat
- 1 egg, slightly beaten
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup peanut butter (creamy or chunky)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/8 cup chopped nuts
- 1/8 cup mini chocolate chips
- Pinch of cinnamon
Heat oven to 350° F.
Measure sugar in medium bowl. Add in peanut butter, egg, and baking soda. Stir using a spoon until all ingredients are mixed well.
Add in vanilla. Stir.
Chill dough in the refrigerator for about 10 minutes.
Roll dough into 1-inch balls. The heat from your hands should warm the dough if it's too stiff and cold.
Place dough balls onto greased cookie sheet.
Bake for 16-17 minutes or until lightly browned and set.
Remove pan from oven but let cookies rest untouched on the cookie sheet for about 2 minutes. Then remove cookies to rack to cool.
Yield 24 cookies
Source RecipeTips


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Have you ever had a delayed reaction offense? This has happened to me recently. I was talking with one of my friends and she said something to me that I honestly did not think anything of at the time, everything was fine, we laughed, talked and had a good time. An entire 24 hours later as I was vacuuming my room, this thought barges into my brain: What is THAT supposed to mean? And the more I thought about it, the angrier I became. So I stewed for a bit, then vented to my husband (please tell me this is sounding familiar to some of you!) and then I stewed some more.
My wonderful husband looked at me and said these words, "You know, the only one this is affecting is you."
At first, I just stared at him. Then I wanted to smack him. Then I realized just how right he was. I had let something said to me hurt me when, at the time, I didn't think anything of it. So, why, all of a sudden, am I having this violent reaction?
Maybe this scripture will shed some light on the subject:
"The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 (emphasis mine)
Paul reminds us here that our war is not a battle fought in the physical realm, but one fought in the spiritual realm. And the forefront of the fray is our mind. The enemy will come in and plant a thought in order to create an emotional reaction. Once the emotion is created, a lot of the time, our actions will follow suite.
We need to learn to recognize these attacks. I could have continued to be angry and let those emotions get in the way of a wonderful friendship. I could have continued to stew about what she said until I became bitter towards her. Instead, I chose to hear the wisdom in the words of my husband. My anger had no bearing on her (she had no idea I was mad) but it had a great bearing on me.
When we let our negative emotions get the best of us, we put a boundary between us and God. This boundary is because we are not listening to God, we are listening to us. This is never more true than when it comes to anger. The Bible tells us, "In your anger do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold," Ephesians 4:26-27. The devil gets a foothold when we hold onto our anger. Anger is not a sin, it is an emotion. It is the path we follow under the influence of that emotion that puts us in danger of sinning.
As a woman, I am prone to be led by my emotions. I tend to follow the way I feel; and to be honest, that can be dangerous. We say things we don't mean because we feel angry; we over-commit ourselves because we feel excited; we hurt others because we feel wronged. When we let our emotions take the driver's seat in our lives, we are on a dangerous road.
Let us make an effort to think logically and rationally when we feel the emotional tidal wave threatening to sweep us away. Stop for just a moment and consider:
1) The source of offense. I know my friend and she would never say anything to me spitefully or hatefully in order to hurt my feelings (clue #1 that I might be on the verge of over-reaction).
2) Am I in a highly emotional state already? There are those certain times when we are more sensitive (ladies, you know what time I'm talking about). There are also certain circumstances that can lend itself to a rash reaction (when I am hungry or when I am already frazzled).
3) Is my reaction to this situation God honoring? How does He want me to respond to this? We know that it does not honor God when we give someone a piece of our mind or incite a nasty confrontation. If there is true cause for offense we are still called to peace. Maybe this means we have to spend time in the Word of God get a firm handle on our runaway emotions before we confront but we are always called to conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of our Lord.
I could go on and on and cite Scripture after Scripture on the dangers of being overly emotional but I will leave you with the one that has affected me the most:
"Do not hasten in your spirit to be angry, for anger rests in the bosom of fools." Ecclesiastes 7:9
I would much rather follow the Lord's word and be wise than to forever be flying off the handle and be foolish. I long for balance and consistency; in that quest I have found my emotions to be my worst enemy. If we are to battle the enemy on a daily basis and WIN, we must learn to monitor our thoughts and thereby control our emotions So, let's suite up and get out there and deal the devil a deathly blow by not giving him a foothold!! My mind is now officially. off. limits!
An uplifting blog about God's grace, His love and how we find these things in and amongst the messiness of life!
Monday, March 5, 2012
To Be or Not To Be Offended; That is the Question
2 comments:
Great post. We are so often led by our emotions- think of all the young people who have lost their lives because someone felt "dissed".ReplyDelete
Awesome. I was struggled w some anger since Thursday and finally on a Monday I asked for prayers and I refused to fret over it. Within couple of hrs it started to refresh and slowly working out. I really needed this.ReplyDelete
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AET Series: 36/60" Towable
Tow Behind Aerator
Click and drag image to rotate.
At up to four acres an hour, the tow behind AET60 maximizes large property aerations and configures to widths of 36", 48" or 60" with a simple flip up or down of the aerator's wings. This unit weighs 440 lbs without supplemental weights for deep, hard soil aeration.
For ultimate maneuverability, the AET60 also features swiveling tine assemblies (when used with 3-point hitch). It mounts to a standard tow bar or category 1, 3-point hitch, runs up to 5 mph, and pulls behind any type of tow vehicle (20 HP or more). This unit provides a quality 6" x 7" aeration pattern up to 4" deep. Built-in manual jack lifts and lowers tines with ease. Two pneumatic wheels for transport. Note: Will accept cinder blocks or sand bags for weight.FIND A DEALER
Product Details
|Hitch Type (in)
|Category 1, 3-point or Standard Tow Bar
|Weight (lbs)
|Length (in)
|Extendable tongue 76 to 88
|Width (in)
|37 - 60
|Height (in)
|Wheels (in)
|Wheel Type
|Towing Requirements
|20 HP min. riding mower or tractor
Warranty - Czech
Warranty - Danish
Warranty - Finnish
Warranty - Italian
Warranty - Dutch
Warranty - Polish
Warranty - Russian
Operator's/IPL Manual - French
Operator's/IPL Manual - Dutch
Operator's/IPL Manual - English


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I DO NOT WANT lightoom CC and want to simply update my lightroom 6.0 in the latest update and it is impossible to find how on adobe which always tries to put me with lighroom CC !!!
Hopefully, this link helps Download Photoshop Lightroom
Thank you but it does not upgrade my 6.0 which does not accept my new camera fudjifilm x100f


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Continuous Threat Visibility – An Ovum Research Report
One in three businesses rely on outdated cyber security tools.
Your customers know that perimeter defenses are no longer sufficient to secure their businesses. As operations become more digitally-diverse, their threat vectors continue to grow.
skwiid by Cyber adAPT is braking new ground in network-traffic based threat detection.
If you have industry operational expertise and security pedigree you should read more about our ELITE partner program.
As one of the most competitive and fastest growing IT contractors to the federal government, our clients are amongst the most actively targeted in the world. By adding the deployment and support of Cyber adAPT solutions to our mature cyber practice, we provide the most comprehensive defense for remote and mobile operations."
– STOPSO Director, Steve Chong
Our partners have seen significant revenue increases within weeks of joining the Cyber adAPT ELITE partner program. Sales cycles can be less than a month and generate tiered annuity revenue alongside specialist service income for the partner.
This is not just another security platform – this is the only detection platform you should feel comfortable/confident providing your clients if they need to isolate and eliminate attacks on their mobile devices, IoT connections, cloud services and inside their network.
Cyber adAPT's ELITE partner program delivers:
Interested in what you are reading?
Want to join our partner network?
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Practice Accounts Manager | London
- Recruiter
- AJ Chambers
- Location
London (Greater)
London (Central)Kent
- Salary
- £50,000 - £60,000
- Posted
- 02 Jan 2018
- Closes
- 01 Feb 2018
- Ref
- 16200201
- Job Role
- Accountant
- Sector
- Accounting Practice
- Qualification Level
- Fully qualified, Newly qualified
- Professional Membership
- Seniority Level
- Manager
- Contract Type
- Permanent
Are you a General Practice Accounts Manager Looking to join a London based leading Independent firm of Chartered Accountants? This role offers an outstanding opportunity for the right candidate with a strong background in accountancy, enhancement of both their skills and career development is a priority. If you believe you possess the required experience and are looking for that next step up in your career then this could be a perfect opportunity for you.
The successful candidate will have a strong base of experience in statutory accounts preparation under UK GAAP. We are looking for a candidate experienced in preparing statutory accounts and corporation tax computations across a range of client industries. The role include management accounts preparation and supervision of junior team members. They are seeking a candidate who is enthusiastic to work within a growing department, able to work from their own initiative and contribute to the success of the department.
Main duties and Responsibilities include:
- Statutory accounts preparation including year-end adjustments and accounts disclosures,
- Preparation of corporation tax computations;
- Management accounts preparation;
- Communicate with and deal with any queries from clients;
- Supervision of junior staff within the department
- On-site client work (occasionally).
The Ideal Candidate
- ACA, ACCA, or equivalent, (qualified)
- 4 years' experience within an accountancy practice firm
- An ambitious individual looking for an opportunity to develop ad progress a career within the firm
- Strong base of experience in statutory accounts preparation under UK GAAP
- Able to work from their own initiative and contribute to the success of the department
For more information on this General Practice Accounts Manager role please either apply directly, or contact Cody Palmer at AJ Chambers. If this role isn't for you but you do possess many of the requirements please do get in contact with us as we may be able to offer a more suitable role.


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Try this awesome idea from Gwyneth Paltrow's health and lifestyle website GOOP.com using raw honey. The honey soothes and nourishes, while the acid in the apple gently tones skin.
• 1 apple, cored and peeled
• 1 tablespoon raw honey
• squeeze of lemon
Combine apple and honey in a blender and pulse until it reaches the consistency of apple sauce. Spread mixture over face and allow it to stay for 15 minutes, then rinse.


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British Blogger, Desi Dreamer, Mad Muslimah
Did you ever have a penpal? I had one in school, from Germany. We kept writing letters till uni. Ironically, contact ended w/ rise of email.
Written by iMuslim
December 4, 2010 at 5:19 pm
Posted in Status
Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.


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Celebrate Your Child's Birthday With Jollibee! Here's A Practical Hack to Save More Money
Jollibee is the leading Filipino fast food chain in the country. It is also one of the top choices of practical mothers when it comes to celebrating birthday parties for their children since Jollibee offers party packages that can make the child's special day fun and memorable.
It is easy to book a birthday party with Jollibee. Plus, your child will truly enjoy partying with family and friends. Although Jollibee offers affordable party packages, you might be surprised to know that you can save even more money with this hack shared by Mommy Blogger Pehpot. This #TipidHack will save you almost PHP5,000!
What To Do
When you are going to book a party in Jollibee, you will be given an option to choose between their Food Packages or Create Your Own Menu. If you will choose the Create Your Own Menu option, you would need to spend at least PHP5,000 worth of solo items before you can avail their value meal.
Here's a sample package that you can use:
Jollibee's Party Food Package D is worth PHP225 each. This includes:
- Chicken with rice, fries, and drinks
- Spaghetti
- Sundae
The total price, including the party fee of PHP1,500, is PHP24,000.
Meanwhile, if you will create your own menu:
- Spaghetti: PHP5,000 (PHP50 x 100)
- Chicken with rice, fries, and drinks: PHP9,900 (PHP99 x 100)
- Sundae: PHP2,900 (PHP29 x 100)
The total price, including the party fee of PHP1,500, is PHP19,300.
That means you are saving PHP4,700! Plus, this package is good for 100 people.
Some Things to Keep in Mind
To save money in preparing your child's Jollibee Kiddie Party, bookings should be made online. Upon booking, you can choose the branch nearest to you. Your option to pay should be in the branch where you will hold the party.
A Happy Plus Card may also come in handy (however, according to Mommy Blogger Pehpot, she is still unsure about this one and this needs to be confirmed with your branch of choice). Using your Happy Plus Card will not only save you money, it will also earn you rebates. Since there is a maximum amount of PHP10,000, you can pay for the down payment first and then settle the full payment the next day.
Read the whole story here:
Pang student meal ang budget pero gusto Jollibee party? May hack si Mommy Blogger Pehpot for you! #TipidHack na makaka…
Posted by Mommy Blogger Pehpot on Friday, January 12, 2018
Are you now excited to celebrate your child's birthday party? Share some photos with us too!
Source: Mommy Blogger Pehpot


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A relative of the artichoke, this vegetable is grown for its edible stalks, much like celery. The head and large leaves are removed before the stalks are shipped to food markets. It is traditionally grown and served in the Mediterranean regions of Europe, where it is sautéed, deep fried, or steamed for salads, as a side dish, or in main dishes. Similar to artichokes in taste, the cardone has a noticeable aftertaste that will be present if the stalks are not pre-soaked in salt water prior to preparation. Refrigerated fresh or cooked cardone should be stored for only a few days before being served.
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Steve and Peggy Kittelson - Kaleidoscopes
Call For Pricing and Availability
Steve & Peggy Kittelson are known for their classical 2-mirror kaleidoscope imagery. The high-quality optical illusions are defined by the incredible display of glass sculptures found in the object chambers.
The Kittelsons have been combining their artistic talents for many years. They began designing stained glass windows. It was their attention to detail and keen sense of design that attracted art patrons to their work. Their windows are found throughout the country in private and public collections.
When they were introduced to kaleidoscopes, they were instantly hooked. They had no idea how kaleidoscopes would change their life. As artists, it has given them an outlet to explore new techniques and ideas in a three dimensional form. Over the years, Steve and Peggy have perfected their techniques. The bodies of their kaleidoscopes are made by fusing and slumping glass.
With careful attention to the image, Peggy creates tiny glass sculptures from opaque and translucent glass in a process called flameworking. This process is an ancient art form that has been incorporated into kaleidoscopes since the first patented kaleidoscope in 1817. Only a few contemporary artists have excelled at the process. Peggy Kittelson is clearly one of them.
All images and information copyright © Scherer Gallery 2009


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About Us
Early Nutrition is a professional Nutrition and Dietetic Clinic servicing the southern region of Adelaide with a focus on children and families.
We are a team of highly experienced dietitians who are able to help you with all aspects of nutrition and health.
We have a interest in all areas of paediatric and family nutrition, with a special focus on children with feeding difficulties. We also specialise in helping clients to identify and manage their food allergies and intolerances in a safe and effective manner. We are able to see clients of all ages and for all health conditions.
Do you have a child with food allergies...
... and are struggling to manage these?
... finding it difficult to know what foods are okay to eat?
... getting lost in the supermarket with reading nutrition labels?
... your child isn't eating a lot and not growing well?
Does your child have a history of colicky behaviour, eczema, reflux, loose or constipated bowels?
Do you have a child who appears unsettled and out of sorts?
Then we may be able to help! See our services page for more information.
Have you been diagnosed with Irritable Bowel Syndrome...
... and finding nothing seems to be helping?
... heard of a low FODMAP diet but unsure how to go about it?
Or, do you have ongoing migraines, headaches, eczema, gut issues and other health issues and have had all medical causes ruled out?...
... then you may have intolerances to 'food chemicals' and an appointment with Laura may help to manage these!
Health on Aldersey
5-9 Aldersey St
McLaren Vale SA 5171
© Early Nutrition 2013-2017


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This is our second Song of the Day featuring outdoor music videos shot around Vancouver! I'm proud to say that this is one of the most beautiful areas of the world and it inspires some of the best music in the world. As a North Van born-and-bred girl, as much as I hate to admit it, the small city/district does deserve appreciation for its natural beauty, and it's definitely much more fun to watch a video that's filmed 5 minutes away from my house and identify all of the exact spots in the forest that I know like the back of my hand.
Today we're featuring local band Headwater, who are playing Friday night, May 4, to launch their new record PUSH that comes out that day! Head down to the Biltmore Cabaret to see them play with our friends The River and the Road and C.R. Avery, show details here. This is their first music video, and the song is definitely worth a listen as it's a heart-warmer. You can even score a free download on the bands site!


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Task Force Hears Update on Campus Diversity Strategy
The UA's Diversity Coordinating Council is working on a campuswide diversity and inclusion strategy to work in concert with the University's Never Settle strategic plan.
Tannya Gaxiola, chair of the council, provided an update on the effort on Monday, during the second meeting of the UA's Diversity Task Force.
"When we have the strategy developed and approved, this is the diversity strategy for our Never Settle strategic and business plan," said Gaxiola, UA assistant vice president for Community Relations. "So it will be linked right off our Never Settle website and become part of the metrics and the work that we do in order to be achieving our goals as an institution."
The Diversity Coordinating Council was established by Provost Andrew Comrie in 2014 and includes individuals who work directly on diversity and inclusion issues as part of their formal University roles. Its primary priorities have been developing a campuswide strategy for diversity and inclusion and defining the role of the UA's chief diversity officer, a new position that is close to being filled, and will lead the UA's Office of Diversity Initiatives.
The Diversity Task Force, on the other hand, was formed this semester to address diversity-related concerns expressed by students both in writing and in listening tours with the UA president and with faculty. The group includes students and employees from various areas of campus and is working in subcommittees to address concerns in multiple areas.
Gaxiola serves as a chair of both groups. The other co-chairs of the Diversity Task Force are Bryan Carter, associate professor of Africana studies, and Javier Duran, professor of Spanish and border studies and director of the UA Confluencenter for Creative Inquiry.
Gaxiola said the Diversity Coordinating Council's efforts center on developing a strategy that would help establish diversity as a competitive strength for the UA by concentrating on key focus areas such as faculty and staff recruitment and retention; student recruitment and pipeline building; student retention, graduation and success; community partnerships; and University systems, physical structures and campus climate.
She gave an overview of a number of strategic imperatives identified by the Diversity Coordinating Council: rewarding and supporting the development of diverse curricula; rewarding and supporting diversity in research priorities; diversifying the student and employee population to be more reflective of the greater community; expanding and improving student success programs; ensuring a climate of access and inclusion in learning, working and social environments; and strengthening relationships with diverse communities.
The Diversity Task Force was the second group on campus to hear the update on the Diversity Coordinating Council's efforts around a campuswide diversity strategy. The information also was shared with the Strategic Planning and Budget Advisory Committee and will be presented to student, community and employee governance groups, including the Faculty Senate, Appointed Professionals Advisory Council and Classified Staff Council.
"We're going to be taking it to anyone who wants to hear about it and have input into it," Gaxiola said.
Anyone interested in scheduling a presentation for a campus group should email Gaxiola at firstname.lastname@example.com.
The Diversity Task Force used the second half of its Monday meeting to break into subcommittees and begin work in a number of areas, including, but not limited to, the classroom experience; health and wellness; faculty and staff diversity; space and facilities; and student support.
UA President Ann Weaver Hart stopped by the meeting to express her support for the group's efforts to "create a new U of A that is more inclusive and diverse and welcoming."
"I can't thank you all enough and I just want to assure you that we will all be a part of this together," she said.
"We will be here across the spectrum of students, faculty and staff to make sure that we build the kind of campus community that we want to have."
For more information about the Diversity Task Force and its upcoming meetings and how you can get involved, visit diversity.arizona.edu.


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Butcher Billy Says "You must whip it"
1 comment:
Las Las vegas is about verifying your spouses, spouses, lovers, men, etc. at the entrance and reducing yourself reduce from any morality, problems, moral sense. This is the position where everyone seems to think that "anything goes" - and it usually does! Individuals actually do appreciate acting they are somebody else. Even the most traditional lady in your workplace will let her locks down and provides in to that one evening take a position -- she is in Las vegas, after all! "Whip It" rockersReplyDelete
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Big Brother Africa
- Category
- Ethiopian News
- Tags
- Hanni and Lomwe, Big Brother Africa, Amplified, Ethiopian Hanni
Post your comment
kidist ababa BannedAdded
አሳፋሪ የኢትዮጺያ የተለቀቁ የወሲብ picture & videos
This is abhorrent thing I have ever seen on Diretube. Diretube kept this footage for unreasonably long time. I don't know why. Is that because they didn't see an Ethiopian lady kiss a man. Kissing a man is not a big deal. Neither is having sex with sb. But they kept this video to show how foolish they are. If it's not for this reason, they wouldn't do such silly thing.
Proud Ethiopian Amhara who appreciate the advancement of current Ethiopia!Added
You know what, this bitch is slutttttttttttttt!!! it is amazing to me to watch , In her mind kissing man on televised TV, is a sign of advancement!!!! let me tell you bitch I lived USA most of my life. I always respect my culture no matter what. In addition here USA the slut one is the one uneducated they have nothing to live for, such as like you slutyyyyyyy!!!! I was so happy the other slutyyy was about to be charge for been slutyyy in public put down Ethiopian Culture!!!!! what the *** happened to that low life Ethiopian bitchhhhhhhhhhhh!!!
What a dirty seen...... what people do for money.
I kind of shame this is nothing to do with freedom of speech this one of western brain washing. Some on STOP this show


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The actress Shelley Duvall is best remembered for her indelible portrayal of a terrified woman in The Shining, opposite Jack Nicholson. But that performance wasn't ultimately as disturbing as Duvall's appearance on Dr. Phil. Duvall admits to Dr. Phil that she is "sick" and "needs help."
Dr. Phil claims to use his "show's platform to make psychology accessible and understandable to the general public" and "as a teaching tool." But the interview with Duvall seems more like a circus show, shining an invasive light on a woman whose celebrity has faded and whose grasp on reality is apparently tenuous. (She believes former co-star Robin Williams isn't dead but "shape-shifting" — she claims to have seen him recently.) Dr. Phil hopes to teach about "bullying, drug abuse, domestic violence, depression, child abuse, suicide and various forms of severe mental illness." What the public will learn from his Shelley Duvall interview is hard to grasp. But when she says she "needs help" he replies "that's why I'm here."


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Chefchaouen, known as the "Blue City" of Morocco is a unique city nestled up in the northeastern Rif mountains of morocco. As you walk through this lovely city, you will be astounded by its beauty. Chefchaouen is a photographer's dream. Each of the doors painted a beautiful blue, while the walls contrasting white make the city feel cool and serene. Some people say that the white and blue illuminate the city.
You will notice that the streets are kept very clean, as your hosts take pride in their city. It is not a surprise that many people go there each year to relax! The main attraction of Chefchaouen is the medina. The white walls and décor, made by the Jewish immigrants, is a nice switch from the thrilling yet crowded cities or Fes, Marrakesh and Rabat. The medina is dotted with small shops with stunning hand woven carpets or lamp shades. Don't miss the many wood workers in the medina making there own special type of craft. You will find it quite interesting to stop and observe these master craftsmen at work.
For those active travelers, there are a number of easy hikes out into the surrounding mountains. The easiest is up the nearby hill which holds an old crumbling mosque. Once at the top you can relax in peace overlooking this little city!
Your night in Chefchaouen would not be complete until you have spent the night in the lovely guesthouses of Casa Hassan or Dar Mezianna. These 4 star traditional guesthouses provide you with a charming location for your night's sleep.


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Okay, I'll be honest – until last night at around ten o'clock, I had no idea what to write about when it came to this thing. Do I write about the fantastic veal parmigiana I had? No, that wouldn't be very exciting. How about the dog? He did that one thing last night with the barking and nub-wagging. Something about birds? WHAT. I honestly had no idea.
So. Ten o'clock. After a long day of working on the novel (did I mention I'm past the 40k mark finally?) I realized something terrible. Horrible. I daresay even herrible. I had no idea what the hell my villain was doing. Wait, that's not entirely right. No, I knew What he was doing, or even Why he was doing it, but I hadn't the faintest idea How. If you don't know how your villain's doing things or why he's doing it the way he is, you're sort of screwed.
In theory, it should've been easy. Where I am at the novel right now, there were only like, five lines which even mentioned what my original idea was anyway. (I'd say, but I don't want to spoil anything.) All I'd have to do is just erase those and be done with it, right? RIGHT?!
I had a lot of stuff already written about a particular plot element vital to the villain's strategy, and that would've meant completely trashing the novel, curling up into a ball under my writing desk, and waiting for the embrace of sweet, sweet death. Perhaps by dog licks. However, as luck would have it, I remembered a certain group of writers which I'd battled to form, and thus called upon the full power and cunning of The Hellfire Club to help my ass out, which Chuck Wending referred to as Bringing In The Motherfucking A-Team. Sadly, Pierce is in L.A. working for The Jewish Journal and Chris is busy trying to find a job, so I was boned, irritated, and disheartened at what was now 10pm. But then, wonder of wonders, God, Jesus, Buddha, Cthulhu, whoever must've heard my pleas and holy shit Dan logged on.
Little did I realize he was the best person for the job. Chris comes up with plots like nobody's business, Pierce is the relationships man, but Dan can edit a motherfucking book. After what took about an hour of me trying to catch him up on everything, he practically pulled a "Dude, you realize you could just do it this way, right?"
And the day was saved.
SO. What's the point here, then? That Dan should be an editor/agent/whatever? Maybe. What I'm really trying to get at is, yeah, writing is often looked at as a solo activity, and in the end, you're still the one who has to write the story. However, having a group of writing friends, or people who know the craft, or who know what makes a good story, or people who just aren't as far up the story's smelly sphincter as you are and can thus see the proverbial forest are absolutely vital. No, really. Look at every Thanks page in a book. There's always that nod of the head to the people without whom the book could've never existed. Normal folks who were able to look at the draft and not only offer advice – everyone has their own idea of what the book should be or where it should go – but can see where you're going with it, what you're trying to do, and help you do it.
In Summary: Lesson learned. Back on track. Plenty more book to write.
Stata buon.