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AFKInsider's Tom Jackson attended the Africa Tech Summit in Kigali last week, and what he discovered was an understanding of the obstacles and a clear path to continuing tech growth on the continent.
"We need to build a taskforce that can sustain the tech growth that is happening."
So said Stacey Ondimu, director of operations at Kenya's Moringa School, during a panel on tech talent during last week's Africa Tech Summit Kigali.
Ondimu was specifically focused on developing more talent for Africa's tech companies, but she could just as easily have been talking about the event itself, which brought together 430 stakeholders from across the continent for two days of discussions.
"We see an opportunity to invest in human capacity and reshape the world's view of where talent comes from," said Andela chief strategy officer Wambui Kinya.
"Software engineering has a really low entry point. You can go online and start learning. You just need a space, and a computer, and an internet connection, and you can make great things," said Amy Robinson, software product manager at Fenix International.
That Africans are making great things is undeniable, but much of the summit focused on what happens once these exciting innovations have been developed. A panel specifically dedicated to innovation said the nature of innovating had changed, with startups less focused now on simply creating jobs, but more dedicated to identifying problems and fixing them.
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This is especially the case in the mobility space, where companies like Rwanda's Yego Moto are bringing informal markets – in this case moto taxis – into a new era with the help of tech.
Managing director Karanvir Singh told the conference that individuals were benefiting hugely from innovative solutions like these.
"He sees a lot of value. He gets a new helmet, a new way of understanding tech. He doesn't have to stand on the roadside waiting for cash or change. He doesn't need to ride around looking for rides. They get the larger picture, but it is a step at a time," he said.
The opportunity is huge, but the continent isn't there yet. As Crystal Rugege, director of strategy and operations at Carnegie Mellon University Africa, said: "There's a massive opportunity. But there's still a long way to go in terms of scaling."
What holds back that scaling? Internet access is one, with a panel including representatives from Facebook, BRCK and Liquid Telecom bemoaning the fact that internet services are often still too expensive for many Africans in spite of the increasing penetration of smartphones. The good news? The panel believes that in a few years the internet will actually be free.
Funding is another thing that holds the tech scene back. Ido Sum of TLcom told the conference that it was not always necessary for tech startups to raise money, but where they do need to, where does it come from?
Sum and his fellow panelists agreed startups are often unprepared for how long a process of obtaining funding is, and participants in a round-table on angel investing called for more people to start backing startups at an early stage, and called for more linkages within the investment space.
So what does the future hold? As ever, the takeaways from events like these are a mixed bag. Progress has been significant, but building a tech scene where there wasn't one before is not an overnight job. Rwanda – the host country – has done good work from a tech point of view. Many startups present are developing exciting solutions. The likes of TLcom are raising huge funds to back tech startups.
But concerns about connectivity, market sizes, talent, funding and scalability have not gone away. All stakeholders must do more if the pace of development is to be quickened.
Yet by bringing so many stakeholders from across the continent to a country that has proven how much can be achieved in a short period of time, Africa Tech Summit Kigali made its own small contribution to assembling the "taskforce" that will be needed to sustain the tech sector's growth.
Tom Jackson is co-founder of Disrupt Africa, a news and research company focused on the African tech startup ecosystem.


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For the first time ever, we're digging into the Proprietor's (Chicago-only release) vault and bringing back a fan favorite with Bourbon County Fourteen Stout. But this time, it's with a twist. We're paying homage to the popular Proprietor's 2014 recipe, but upping the rye ante by adding rye to the mash bill. Layering cassia bark, cocoa nibs, panela sugar, and coconut water, this stout has an intricate, sweet and spicy flavor profile that will have fans going back sip after sip.
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So, why are you waiting? Just contact us and see the difference.


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Ministers Brad Cathers and Currie Dixon did not allow any questions during their presentation on the Peel watershed consultations at the Yukon Geoscience Forum this week.
That didn't stop Charlie Snowshoe, an elder from Fort McPherson, from standing up and saying his piece.
He wanted to know why the government was telling him what the Peel land use plan should look like, instead of listening to the voices of the people who have been involved with the planning process over the past several years.
"I feel like a student here, telling me what you're going to be doing," said Showshoe.
He has worked on land use planning since 1988, and he received a lifetime achievement award for environmental impact assessment in 2007.
"These land use plans are made by the people that lived on it and remember what is there. On top of that they know what has happened in other areas, and they don't want to see what's happening in other areas happen in the Peel watershed."
"Thank you, sir," responded Cathers. "We're not really taking questions here. We're doing a presentation."
The purpose of the presentation was to guide conference attendees through the government's ideas to modify the plan recommended by the planning commission.
The commission's final recommended plan called for protection from all new development in 80 per cent of the region. Existing claims could be developed by air access only.
The government has included the final recommended plan's vision for the Peel on their consultation website, www.peelconsultation.ca, but has made it clear that they want to steer the conversation in another direction.
In fact, in the walkthrough of the website presented by Cathers and Dixon, they at no point clicked on the tab that shows the commission's recommended plan.
While the government's maps are bathed in green, the information on the website provides little detail on how strict protections will be across their proposed land use designations.
One obvious gap is the lack of clarity on where and under what conditions roads would be permitted.
The commission's plan called for a total ban on roads in 80 per cent of the watershed, while the government doesn't rule out road access anywhere.
Dixon mentioned twice that in the government's new proposed restricted use wilderness areas, the level of surface disturbance would be limited to no more that 0.2 per cent of the total area.
"Even with the greatest amount of activity going on at any time, 99.8 per cent of that land management unit would be in its natural form, it's natural state, pristine wilderness, whatever the term is."
He failed to note, that is the same level of activity allowed in the Level 2 integrated management areas, which is one of the land use designations used outside of protected areas in both the commission's and the government's diagrams.
First Nation leaders were in attendance at the presentation.
Chief Eddie Taylor of the Tr'ondek Hwech'in told CBC News that he had requested to speak at the forum about the consultation process, but was denied.
In the legislature Thursday, Liberal Leader Sandy Silver called on the government to apologize for refusing Taylor the chance to speak.
Ed Champion, the newly elected chief of the Nacho Nyak Dun, was also in attendance. He plans to meet with other First Nation leaders about the government's presentation, and would not comment on it until after he has done so, he said.
The government will hold an open house to receive comments on the Peel plan Monday through Friday next week from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Gold Rush Inn in Whitehorse.
Contact Jacqueline Ronson at


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About Us
Filtered by PlanetCare is your go-to destination for the latest research on microfiber pollution and practical tips & tricks for fighting it to save oceans. We're here to help you navigate your journey in sustainable living, celebrate the big milestones with you, and get you connected with like-minded people.
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Mojca Zupan, PlanetCare Founder & CEO
Mojca Zupan is an entrepreneur who quit her career as a corporate lawyer to change the way we do laundry forever.
Visiting a touring exhibition about marine litter, where she first learned about microplastics pollution, changed the course of her life. She decided to embark on an impactful journey: founding a purpose-driven company, which has changed the narrative of sustainable living and paved the way for policy changes.
Mojca's unparalleled passion and determination for ending microplastics pollution have been recognized globally and today she is an established thought and business leader in the field. Among others, she presented PlanetCare solutions to ambassador Peter Thomson, UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy for the Ocean, and the French Secretary of State Brune Poirson as France was set to pass the groundbreaking anti-waste law, with PlanetCare supporting the policy change with the proof that it can be done.
Our joint efforts have been recognized by


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When it comes to employee loyalty, there are three motivators more important than money.
That's according to Harvard Business School Professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter, who's pretty much the smartest person on the planet when it comes to employee loyalty. You might want to listen to her.
The three before money? Also M's, according to Professor Kanter…
Membership: Create community by honoring individuality. Employees have a strong desire to feel like part of a team.
Mastery: Help people develop deep skills. Employees have a strong desire to learn new skills and feel accomplished.
Meaning: Repeat and reinforce a larger purpose. Employees have a strong desire to be striving toward some greater good.
Therefore, as you brainstorm ways to reward employees and increase motivation and employee loyalty, consider what projects, training, and team activities you could use to celebrate milestones in your company.
Interestingly, and Professor Kanter doesn't mention this in any of her research that I've read, these motivators correspond nicely with Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Maslow taught us that man is a perpetually wanting creature, and he illustrated it in this pyramid.
Once one level is met, you ascend to another, and we are always striving to reach the next level.
Isn't it interesting, then, that Professor Kanter's three M's each ascends a level higher into Maslow's Hierarchy?
Money's required for the first two levels to provide basic needs.
Membership provides for psychological belonging and love needs.
Mastery satisfies our psychological need for prestige and feelings of accomplishment.
And finally, meaning… and humankind's search for it… satisfies the very highest order of Maslow's hierarchy.
Dude. It's science.
In other words, two really, really smart people – and me – are saying you need to strongly consider recalibrating how you motivate your team.
What steps will you take to do so? When? If not, why not? I'd love to hear your thoughts.


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Kevin Forsythe and Laura Ubelhor
$ 14.95 $ 49.95
Written by business developers for business developers, this book focuses on HTML for business applications. Using this guide, professional business programmers like you--even those with little or no HTML experience--will quickly acquire the knowledge and skills needed to develop and deploy robust, data-driven, Web-based interfaces for their business applications.
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Item Number: | 5092 |
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Publication Date: | September 15, 2008 |
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Steve Halsey
United Kingdom
Music Adviser and Head of Music Service in Newcastle upon Tyne. Recent compositions include the Singing Schools series of songbooks - Seriously Silly Songs,Seriously Soulful Songs etc (further info. on Newcastle Music Service website) Just completed 2 major books to support whole class brass teaching at Key Stage 2 - Pocket Trumpet File 1 and 2 are a major resource for brass teachers across the country. New music for advanced players includes the fantastic - Trumpet Concerto (2009)World Premiere at the Sage Gateshead in June 2009, Burlesque for Trombone and Wind Ensemble and Recitatives and Arias for String Orchestra. Steve is an accomplished composer who is able to create music in a wide range of musical styles and for players of all ages and abilities.


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Sitting in a classroom at MIT's Executive Education Center in the autumn of 2019, Chris Roth (pictured below) had a revelation: Instead of growing the Las Vegas-based heating and cooling company he'd been building for eight years, why not sell it and focus on the business he was really passionate about?
Chris' decision to exit his business caught him by surprise. He had just completed day one of the five-day Birthing of Giants Fellowship Program and was staring at the results of the first exercise the group worked on. How could his plans for the future have changed so much in just a few hours?
His epiphany challenged what Harvard Business School professor Thomas J. DeLong calls "the paradox of excellence." Most entrepreneurs, DeLong explains, have their identity (not to mention net worth) so wrapped up in their business that they settle into established routines on their path to success.
When Chris and his cohort arrived that morning—before any welcome speech, before meeting one another or even learning what would be in store for them—they had to take out their laptops and send emails to 10 people in their business network who know them well. In those messages, fellowship candidates asked their peers, clients, mentors and subordinates this question: "What am I best at?" I first wrote about this exercise in The First Habit: The One Technique That Can Change Your Life. It changed my life as much as it changed Chris'.
Chris launched Climate Control Experts in 2012 as a one-van operation. By 2020, it was one of the largest residential services providers in the Southwest, serving six states and generating sales and profits that put it in the top 10 percent of the industry. This dramatic trajectory led Chris to receive an invitation to the Birthing of Giants Fellowship program.
Residential service is a grueling industry. Customers are notoriously difficult to please, and Chris had hundreds of competitors ranging from sole proprietors to large regional companies. Finding employees with the technical and communication skills needed to compete successfully was a major challenge. The only way he could deliver on his promises to his customers was to create a steady supply of capable technicians that he trained himself—so he launched his own trade school in Las Vegas in 2018.
As he read through the responses he received from his email exercise, Chris was struck by their consistency. The message was clear: Chris' skills were a better fit for his trade school business, and the opportunity there was much bigger than his HVAC business. Even though the trade school business was one-tenth the size of the HVAC repair business, Chris couldn't ignore the results of the exercise.
That night, he signed a letter of intent to sell his business to a buyer who expressed interest just a few days before. Then and there, as a result of that morning's email exercise, Chris broke out of his own paradox of excellence and began a process that would result in the sale of Climate Control Experts 90 days later for an estimated $40 million. He then shifted his attention to the fledgling trade school business, National Technical Institute, focusing on expanding its digital learning platform with an ambitious goal of building a $100 million business in five years.
That was in October 2019, months before the word "coronavirus" entered the popular consciousness. Within a year, National Technical Institute had exceeded every milestone he'd set for it, fueled by the global pandemic and its impact on the career plans of millions of American workers. He reached his five-year enrollment goal by the end of year one. He achieved all of this by taking a fresh look at his skills and passions, seeing himself the ways others saw him and focusing his time, energy and passion on the thing he does best.
Do you have the same clear-eyed view of your business and your relationship to it? Are you leveraging your own skills and passions to create a business that works for you instead of the other way around? With a few minute's effort, the answer could be sitting in your inbox.


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Historian Yuval Harari's 21 Issues Facing The 21st Century
ResumeThis hour originally aired on Sept. 6, 2018
With Meghna Chakrabarti
From hacking to terrorism, and our polarized world, it's going to take a radical rethink of everything to survive this century, says historian and best-selling author Yuval Harari. He's with us.
Yuval Noah Harari, lecturer at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he specializes in world history. Author of "21 Lessons for the 21st Century," "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" and "Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow." (@harari_yuval)
From The Reading List
Excerpted from the book 21 LESSONS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY by Yuval Noah Harari. Copyright © 2018 by Yuval Noah Harari. Published by Spiegel & Grau, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Allison Pohle produced this show for broadcast.
This program aired on January 1, 2019.


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It's déjà vu as Nancy Pelosi was re-elected Speaker of the House Thursday. The magic number for Pelosi was 218, and she managed to garner 220 votes. She first held the speakership reins from 2007 until 2011. During that time she oversaw some momentous pieces of legislation, most notably President Obama's Affordable Care Act. Remember her infamous mantra that Congress had to "pass it to find out what's in it?"
House Democratic Caucus Chair Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) rose to formally nominate Pelosi for speaker, noting that she's "just getting started."
.@RepJeffries: "It is with great joy that I rise today as directed by the House Democratic Caucus to place the name of Nancy Pelosi in nominations to be the next speaker of the United States House of Representatives." #116thCongress pic.twitter.com/BP4oAY06H5
— CSPAN (@cspan) January 3, 2019
Her win today was not unanimous, but it was more convincing than political analysts thought it would be when the race was first shaping up this fall. In November a group of 16 Democrats released a "Never Pelosi" letter pledging to vote against her come election time. Other progressives like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez openly criticized Pelosi's lackluster leadership on certain liberal issues. Yet, the opposition gradually burned out. Over the past several weeks some of those signatories changed their mind, either because Pelosi promised them that their issues would make her priority list, or they realized that the party needs to seem united.
Ocasio-Cortez stood up and voted for the woman she had protested just weeks earlier.
.@AOC votes for Pelosi, generating cheers from the left and boos from the right pic.twitter.com/mgJ0NB7R1n
— jordan (@JordanUhl) January 3, 2019
Even Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH), who challenged Pelosi for the speakership in 2016 and spoke out strongly against her liberal elitism, fell in line this time and endorsed the California representative. Other Democrats who didn't sign the pledge yet said they wanted new leadership while on the campaign trail, like Rep. Andy Kim (NJ), also backtracked when it came time to actually vote.
A few select Democrats did stay true to their word and voted for someone else. See below.
Final anti-Pelosi Dem list:
— Cameron Joseph (@cam_joseph) January 3, 2019
Brindisi (Biden)
Cooper (present)
Crow (Duckworth)
Cunningham (Bustos)
Golden (Bustos)
Kind (Lewis)
Lamb (Kennedy)
McAdams (Murphy)
Rice (Abrams)
Rose (Duckworth)
Schrader (Fudge)
Sherrill (Bustos)
Slotkin (present)
Spanberger (Bustos)
Van Drew ("no")
Pelosi may appease some of the above rebels by agreeing to limit her speakership to four years.


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This Periscope video of the Aggie War Hymn during Friday night's baseball win over Binghamton. comes from @Statboy203 It was deemed to be the "best a cappella Aggie War Hymn of all time."
That was the best a capella War Hymn of all time
— Aubrey Bloom (@aubreybloom) June 4, 2016
Best a capella War Hymn ever...wow
— Statboy (@Statboy203) June 4, 2016


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With gas prices at all-time highs, the Bellingham Whatcom County Tourism office has developed a gas card promotion to encourage summer trips to the region. By staying one or more nights Sunday through Thursday in a participating hotel or inn, visitors can receive a $25 Shell gas card by mail and a free money-saving coupon book on area attractions.
"Recent surveys by the Travel Industry Association and others indicate that consumers will be looking for closer destinations for their summer travel," stated John Cooper, president and CEO of Bellingham Whatcom County Tourism. "The gas cards and coupon books are two projects we have developed to help consumers have an affordable and fun summer vacation."
To redeem the offer, visitors may either make lodging reservations online at www.bellingham.org or call (888) 261-7795 between 8:30 – 5:30 daily. The gas card is good at Shell gasoline stations in Whatcom County or wherever Shell cards are accepted.
Fiberglass company sells assets and company name
Bill and Connie Henderson have decided to sell their company, B & J Fiberglass, at 4905 Guide Meridian, after nearly 20 years of ownership. Connie Henderson said the couple decided to make the move primarily due to issues of time.
"We have another business," she said, referring to the couple's fiberglass boat refurbishing and repair business in Alaska. "We don't have enough time to do both businesses. B & J has a huge potential to grow."
Connie said the couple would act in an advisory role for the next few months as needed to help with the transition. Buyers Keith and Donna Olsen purchased the assets and name of the company — but not the property — for $320,000.
B & J, which has been under the Henderson's ownership since 1988, carries a full line of fishing and ski boats — as well as a selection of both new and pre-owned boats. It also offers a full line of fiberglass products and services, including boat repair.
Keith Olsen, 41, has been working in the fiberglass industry the past eight years, and he said he's excited to run the business.
"It made sense to buy something that already had customers coming in," he said. He said he wants to stay in the boat painting business, and perhaps build a larger facility on the site in the future.
Jim Teshera, a 15-year veteran in the local fiberglass industry, will be his business partner, Keith Olsen said.
Guess what's brewing on the corner of Railroad and Champion
Caffe Adagio, a new Italian-inspired coffee shop, will open at 1435 Railroad Ave. — on the corner of Railroad Avenue and East Champion Street, north of Casa Que Pasa — in July.
Co-owner Dianna Del Giorgio said she and her husband and partner, Luke Del Giorgio, recognize the space has had issues in the past with panhandlers but will ensure their coffee shop is clean and family-friendly. The couple will be remodeling the 1,800-square-foot space during the next month.
Caffe Adagio, which means "leisurely coffee" in Italian, will serve coffee roasted by Seattle-based company Caffe D'Arte, and will also serve homemade soups and sandwiches.
After having a child and wanting to spend more time together, the couple moved to Bellingham recently from Seattle to open the coffee shop. Neither has owned a business before, but Dianna is a certified barista through the Seattle Barista Academy, which requires a two-day course, three months of on-the-job training and a final exam. For more information, call 820-8844.
BBF launches initiative for G-P cleanup
The Bellingham Bay Foundation filed a ballot initiative May 30 that would require the City of Bellingham to work for the highest standard of contamination cleanup at the Georgia-Pacific site.
Although the Port of Bellingham owns the site, the city holds the final authority to issue master plan and shoreline permits for the area. The initiative would require the city to advocate and support cleanup plans that would permanently remove mercury and other contaminants from the Whatcom Waterway and would clean the former mill site to meet residential standards.
The foundation wants the city to insist the site be cleaned to meet an unrestricted standard, a designation which they said would pave the way for mixed-use development in the new downtown area. An unrestricted cleanup standard would allow the new neighborhood to include residences, businesses, educational institutions and parks, all of which the foundation said are essential to a vibrant and prosperous downtown core.
According to the foundation, the port has proposed cleaning the site to a less stringent industrial standard. Under state law, the industrial cleanup standard assumes continued industrial uses, they said.
However, Carolyn Casey, corporate communications officer for the Port, said the Port has never proposed cleaning the site to an industrial standard. From the beginning, she said, the Port has proposed cleaning the site to a higher standard that would allow the full range of uses, including residential, parks, business, education and light industrial.
The initiative will need approximately 3,650 signatures to qualify for the November general election ballot. The signature-gathering phase of the initiative will end before the state releases the Whatcom Waterway Remedial Investigation and Feasibility Study, which is the first of many documents intended to guide waterfront cleanup decisions.
Keller Williams Realty expands
Keller Williams Realty in Bellingham recently added 5,000 square feet to its operations after acquiring space previously used by the Washington state Department of Motor Vehicles. The realty company, at 3800 Byron Ave. in the Lincoln Professional Center, started moving into the additional space in early May.
"We're very excited to have all our agents under one roof," said Marsha Lockhart, a broker and partial owner of the company. "We're looking forward to another season."
Lockhart said the company, which has been at the professional center since November 2002, increased its office space to 9,460 square feet.
The Lone Wolf howls its last
Stephen Stimson, owner of the historic building at 107, 109 and 111 Prospect Street, has closed his antique store, The Lone Wolf, there. Stimson said he wants to lease the 14-by-50-foot front space to a local craftsperson or furniture maker as a display area, and will use the back part of the space as a living area for himself.
Stimson is renovating the building, located next door to the Whatcom Museum, and hopes to complete the rehabilitation in a year.
Computer service and data recovery shop to open two branches
Data Doctors Computer Services will open two new shops in Bellingham — one at Sehome Village and one at Barkley Village, said franchise owner Mark Knittel. Data Doctors has stores throughout the U.S., and Bellingham seemed like a good option for two more, Knittel said.
"Bellingham is a great market opportunity," he said. "It's got a great demographic in terms of customer base." Data Doctors specializes in computer service and repair, data recovery and home and business networking, among other things.
He said the Sehome location opened May 30, and the Barkley facility should be operational by June 19. After that, he hopes to start three more branches in the next 18 months throughout the Pacific Northwest, he said. Knittel, 51, has been working with high tech companies for many years — including 20 years with IBM.
He also plans to offer free seminars for local businesses and individuals within the next couple of months on computer-related issues, he said. For more information, call 527-8679.
Downtown chiropractor to work out the kinks at new location
The Adich Clinic, a chiropractic clinic currently located on Ellis Street, has purchased land on Barkley Boulevard for a new 5,000-square-foot building.
Dave Adich, the clinic's owner, chiropractor and acupuncturist, said his business has outgrown its 1,600-square-foot space at 1470 Ellis St. In addition to himself and 10 massage therapists, Adich said he hopes to add another chiropractor in the fall as well as offer expanded rehabilitation services at the clinic's new location.
Adich said he will apply for a building permit for the land, located at 2065 Barkley Blvd. — behind the Barkley Medical Center — this fall, and hopes to complete the project in a year and a half. Adich said he hasn't decided whether to keep his Ellis Street location after the new clinic opens.
Local software company is shedding light on Cornwall Avenue
LumenIQ is moving to 1204 Cornwall Ave., the former Academic Outfitters location, at the end of June.
Audra Waller, executive assistant and quality system manager at LumenIQ, said the software company needed to downsize from its current location at 725 N. State St.
Piano store moves operations
Rawlings Music Company, Inc. recently packed up its pianos and slid down a few doors to a different address. The company, which has been at 3106 Northwest Ave. for the past few years, will be moving to 3030 Northwest Ave.
Company president Ken Rawling said the move made sense because the store needed more room.
"The space was right," he said.
"The rent was right." The 3106 location had about 1,100 square feet of "usable" room, while the new store would have about 2,400.
"There was not enough space (in the old location)," he said. The company has been in Bellingham since 1997, and has been in three different locations — not including the new store, which opened June 1. The store offers piano lessons and piano refurbishing and tuning. It also sells pianos, organs, digital pianos and rents and sells band instruments.
For more information, call (360) 647-9435, or visit the store online at www.rawlingsmusic.com.
Redesign coming for Cascade Laundry site
Bob Goodwin is under contract to purchase the Cascade Laundry Service building at 205 Prospect St., and said he hopes the sale will close in August.
Goodwin, a former executive producer of The X-Files television show and a Bellingham resident, also owns an apartment building on the corner of Flora and Commercial Streets.
Goodwin said he is putting together a redevelopment package for the building, but did not want to disclose the plans until the purchase is final.
Northwest Medical Weight Management moves to King Street
A weight-management clinic recently got a new home.
Dr. Anthony Burden, M.D., owner of Northwest Medical Weight Management, moved his business operations from 1704 Iowa St. to 1345 King St. on June 1. The clinic offers individualized treatment for weight loss, as well as counseling services and medically supervised nutrition advice.
He said the business would be incorporated into Northstar Medical Specialists at the King Street location.
Local developer to build Sunset Terrace
Local developer Sundance Zenjestorf will build 35 condo units at 2001 E. Sunset Drive. He hopes to complete the condos by April 2007, and will sell them for approximately $120,000 to $190,000.
The project, called Sunset Terrace, will feature studios, one-bedroom and two-bedroom condo units. For more information, call (360) 920-4600.


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115 Awesome Facebook Fan Pages
There were already a ton of great collections floating around out there on the best Facebook fan pages so we thought we would put them all in one easy to find place on SaltyWaffle. Thanks to all our great sources!
- 20 Most Beautiful and Effective Facebook Pages from 10Steps.sg
- 40+ Great Examples from Noupe.com
- 35 of the Best Facebook Fan Pages from App Storm.
- 20 Examples of Great Facebook Pages from HubSpot.
Personal favorites:


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Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species - Malaysia
Saleh Huddin L J, Pagad S (2020). Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species - Malaysia. Version 1.3. Invasive Species Specialist Group ISSG. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/j9xkz3 accessed via GBIF.org on 2024-03-04.Description
The Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species (GRIIS) presents validated and verified national checklists of introduced (alien) and invasive alien species at the country, territory, and associated island level. Checklists are living entities, especially for biological invasions given the growing nature of the problem. GRIIS checklists are based on a published methodology and supported by the Integrated Publishing Tool that jointly enable ongoing improvements and updates to expand their taxonomic coverage and completeness. Phase 1 of the project focused on developing validated and verified checklists of countries that are Party to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Phase 2 aimed to achieve global coverage including non-party countries and all overseas territories of countries, e.g. those of the Netherlands, France, and the United Kingdom. All kingdoms of organisms occurring in all environments and systems are covered. Checklists are reviewed and verified by networks of country or species experts. Verified checklists/ species records, as well as those under review, are presented on the online GRIIS website (www.griis.org) in addition to being published through the GBIF Integrated Publishing Tool.Purpose
The resource will be a support to countries to make progress to achieve Aichi Biodiversity Target 9 -in the development of their National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plans, their National Invasive Alien Species Strategy and Action Plan, target setting and monitoring.Sampling Description
Study Extent
The geographic focus of this checklist is MalaysiaSampling
This annotated checklist is focused on introduced (alien) and invasive species that are known to occur in Malaysia The International Union for Conservation of Nature, (IUCN) describes an Introduced/ Alien and Invasive alien species as follows:An Introduced or Alien species means a species, subspecies, or lower taxon occurring outside of its natural range (past or present) and dispersal potential (i.e. outside the range it occupies naturally or could not occupy without direct or indirect introduction or care by humans) and includes any part, gametes or propagule of such species that might survive and subsequently reproduce. An Invasive Alien Species is an alien species which becomes established in natural or semi-natural ecosystems or habitat, is an agent of change, and threatens native biological diversity. In GRIIS, species are recorded as having an impact (as 'yes' under 'isInvasive') if there is evidence of the species negatively impacting biodiversity, and including species that are widespread, spreading rapidly or present in high abundance (Pagad et al. 2018). This usage is relevant to the purpose of GRIIS, and consistent with the concept of impact as formulated by Parker et al. (1999) and now widely used (e.g. Didham et al. 2005, Strayer et al. 2006, McGeoch et al. 2010, 2012, Vila et al. 2011), where impact is a function not only of the per capita effect of an individual organism, but is a combined function of the effect, abundance and range size of a species. Impact can of course be defined in different ways, driven by different objectives, such as its usage in EICAT where it is defined as a measurable change to the properties of an ecosystem caused by an alien taxon (Hawkins et al. 2015).
Quality Control
The draft checklist is compiled by collating data and information through a comprehensive literature overview. Additional steps implemented to control the quality of the data are described below. Taxonomic harmonization and normalization using the GBIF taxonomic backbone To harmonize all species names across countries, species lists are subjected to a normalization process in which taxon rank and taxonomic status are identified and assigned. Spelling and other errors in assigning species authorship are also corrected. Data validation The Project Personnel complete a review and validate all the annotations, especially those on provenance and 'invasive' status of the species based on evidence of impact. Data verification The checklist is submitted to a network of country editors for a review of both accuracy of records, annotations, and identification of any significant gaps in the data. Data verification is an iterative process and the activity for a particular version is declared complete on agreement of all relevant country editors (see versioning details below). One of the key tenets of the GRIIS project has been engagement with country editors in the verification process and as custodians of country checklists. While this has been possible in the majority of countries, for a small number of countries this engagement process has not succeeded in delivering a verified checklist. In these cases, the GRIIS Project Personnel have completed the validation of the species records but continue to work towards identifying country experts.Method steps
- Data collation and categorization Data filtering and categorization/ classification Taxonomic harmonization and normalization Data validation Data verification
- The published methods underpinning GRIIS and each checklist are described in Pagad et al 2018.
Additional info
Versioning The original versions of each country checklist (v1.0) undergo two potential types of updates: 1. Major updates: These happen when batches of new species or records become available, usually addressing multiple taxonomic groups simultaneously. Each checklist is assigned a new version number after a major update (e.g. from v1.0 to v2.0). 2. Incremental updates: These are smaller ongoing updates involving the addition of new species or records based on new publications as well as taxonomic or other updates. Incremental updates to a checklist are associated with a subversion number, e.g. v1.1. The checklist version number is visible/available on the citation.Taxonomic Coverages
Animalia, Bacteria, Chromista, Fungi, Plantae, Protozoa, Viruses
Animaliarank: kingdom
Bacteriarank: kingdom
Chromistarank: kingdom
Fungirank: kingdom
Plantaerank: kingdom
Protozoarank: kingdom
Virusesrank: kingdom
Geographic Coverages
Bibliographic Citations
- Hamer, M., Victor, J., Smith, G.F. (2012). Best Practice Guide for Compiling, Maintaining and Disseminating National Species Checklists, version 1.0, released in October 2012. Copenhagen: Global Biodiversity Information Facility, 40 pp, ISBN: 87-92020-48-8, Accessible at http://www.gbif.org/orc/?doc_id=4752. -
- Pagad S, Genovesi P, Carnevali L, Schigel D, McGeoch MA (2018) Introducing the Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species. Scientific Data, 5, 170202. https://www.nature.com/articles/sdata2017202 -
- Parker I, Simberloff D, Lonsdale W. et al. (1999) Impact: Toward a Framework for Understanding the Ecological Effects of Invaders. Biological Invasions 1, 3–19 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010034312781 -
- Didham RK, Tylianakis JM, Hutchison MA, Ewers RM, Gemmell NJ. (2005) Are invasive species the drivers of ecological change? Trends Ecol Evol. 2005 Sep;20(9):470-4. Epub 2005 Jul 21. -
- Strayer DL, Eviner VT, Jeschke JM, Pace ML. (2006) Understanding the long-term effects of species invasions. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 21(11):645-51 -
- McGeoch MA, Butchart SHM, Spear D, Marais E. Kleynhans EJ, Symes A, Chanson J, Hoffmann M. (2010) Global indicators of biological invasion: species numbers, biodiversity impact and policy responses. Diversity and Distributions Volume16, Issue1 January 2010. -
- McGeoch, M.A., Spear, D., Kleynhans, E.J. & Marais, E. 2012. Uncertainty in invasive alien species listing. Ecological Applications 22, 959-971. 10.1890/11-1252.1 -
- Vilà M, Espinar JL, Hejda M, Hulme PE, Jarošík V, Maron JL, Pergl J, Schaffner U, Sun Y, Pyšek P. (2011) Ecological impacts of invasive alien plants: a meta‐analysis of their effects on species, communities and ecosystems. Ecology Letters Volume14, Issue7 July 2011 Pages 702-708 -
- Hawkins CL, Bacher S, Essl F, Hulme PE, Jeschke JM, Kühn I, Kumschick S, Nentwig W, Pergl J, Pyšek P, Rabitsch W, Richardson DM, Vilà M, Wilson JRU, Genovesi P, Blackburn TM. (2015) Framework and guidelines for implementing the proposed IUCN Environmental Impact Classification for Alien Taxa (EICAT) Diversity and Distributions Volume21, Issue11 November 2015 Pages 1360-1363 -
- Avibase (2018) Avibase - Bird Checklists of the World Malaysia -
- CAB International (2014) CABI Invasive Species Compendium (ISC) -
- FAO (2018). "DIAS. FAO Database on Introductions of Aquatic Species." -
- Froese, R. and D. Pauly (2002). "FishBase: a global information system on fishes." World Wide Web electronic publication: www. fishbase. org. -
- Government of Malaysia (2015) Biological Diversity: Clearing House Mechanism >> Flora Database >> Provisional Checklist of Vascular Plants of Malaysia http://www.chm.frim.gov.my/Bio-Diversity-Databases/Flora-Database.aspx -
- Mezger, D. and M. Pfeiffer (2011). "Influence of the arrival of Anoplolepis gracilipes (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) on the composition of an ant community in a clearing in Gunung Mulu National Park, Sarawak, Malaysia." Asian Myrmecology 4(3): 89-98. -
- Palomares, M.L.D. and D. Pauly. Editors (2017) SealifeBase http://www.sealifebase.org/ -
- Salleh, N. H. M., et al. (2012). "Distribution and management of Pomacea canaliculata in the Northern region of Malaysia: mini review." Apcbee Procedia 2: 129-134. -
- Siti-Munirah, M. and M. Chew (2010). "Cabombaceae, a new family record for Peninsular Malaysia." Malayan Nature Journal 62(3): 241-248. -
- Tan, K. and B. Morton (2006). "The invasive caribbean bivalve Mytilopsis sallei (Dreissenidae) introduced to Singapore and Johor Bahru, Malaysia." Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 54(2): 429-434. -
- Turner, I. M. (1995). "A catalogue of the vascular plants of Malaya." Gardens' Bulletin (Singapore) 47(2). -
- Walton, S. E., et al. (2016). "A newly identified population of Gambusia affinis (Baird and Girard, 1853), a non-native invasive species, in Lake Kenyir, Malaysia: implications for management." BioInvasions Records 5(2): 107-114. -
Lailatul Jumaiyah Saleh Huddinoriginator
position: Principal Assistant Director
Entomology Unit Plant Biosecurity Division Department of Agriculture Malaysia
email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Secretariat of Malaysia's National Committee of Invasive Species
Shyama Pagad
position: Deputy Chair- Information
IUCN SSC Invasive Species Specialist Group (ISSG)
email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Shyama Pagad
metadata author
position: Deputy Chair- Information
IUCN SSC Invasive Species Specialist Group (ISSG)
email: email@example.com
Shyama Pagad
position: Deputy Chair- Information
IUCN SSC Invasive Species Specialist Group (ISSG)
email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Shyama Pagad
administrative point of contact
position: Deputy Chair- Information
IUCN SSC Invasive Species Specialist Group (ISSG)
email: firstname.lastname@example.com


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Search Results
You are looking at 1 - 2 of 2 items for
- Author or Editor: Seung-Hoon Yoo x
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This note attempts to approximate the distribution function for the number of innovation activities (NIA) in the manufacturing sector using the dataset of 2002 Korean Innovation Survey. The mixture model applied here can easily capture the bimodality feature of the NIA distribution and provide some useful information such as the mean of NIA and the effect of a firm's characteristic on whether the firm will undertake innovation activity.
Modeling firms' R&D expenditures often become complicated due to the zero values reported by a significant number of firms. The maximum likelihood (ML) estimation of the Tobit model, which is usually adopted in this case, however, is not robust to heteroscedastic and/or non-normal error structure. Thus, this paper attempts to apply symmetrically trimmed least squares estimation as a semi-parametric estimation of the Tobit model in order to model firms' R&D expenditures with zero values. The result of specification test indicates the semi-parametric estimation outperforms the parametric ML estimation significantly.


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Australian asset management firm Macquarie Asset Management has taken a minority stake in ST Telemedia Global Data Centres' (STT GDC) UK unit Virtus Data Centres.
The companies said this week that STT GDC has reached an agreement for Macquarie Asset Management, via Macquarie European Infrastructure Fund 7, to acquire a 'significant minority stake' in Virtus. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Virtus' portfolio comprises 11 facilities across four campuses in Greater London with a combined capacity of over 180MW. The company says it has another 100MW pipeline of projects under consideration across the UK and Europe. STT GDC picked up 49 percent of Virtus from Brockton Capital in June 2015 and made the company a wholly-owned subsidiary in 2017.
"While London's data center market is expected to continue seeing increased absorption levels, driven by strong demand for hyperscalers, we believe Europe – including core markets such as Germany and France – will present sizeable growth opportunities over the next decade," said Nathan Luckey, a senior Managing director at Macquarie Asset Management.
Macquarie said it intends to "further strengthen Virtus' focus on sustainability" and its aim of zero carbon emissions by 2030 through backing further investment in its technology and enhancing the lifecycle management of its equipment.
Bruno Lopez, president and group chief executive officer at STT GDC, said: "We are pleased to have propelled Virtus' growth journey over the past seven years which has seen their platform grow into the UK's leading hyperscale data center provider today. With Macquarie's partnership, we look forward to building on this strong momentum, accelerating Virtus' growth strategy and expanding our services to customers across Europe."
Virtus CEO Neil Cresswell added: "Our vision is to lead the data center industry in Europe by being different by design. We are excited to have an experienced data center investor in Macquarie join ST Telemedia to support not only our growth plans, but also our continued innovation and commitment to ensure our facilities are future-proofed with sustainability at their core."
Macquarie Asset Management currently manages investments in AirTrunk. It has also invested in Aligned Data Centers and Netrality Data Centers in the US.


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I have read through some threads, but my problem seems to be a bit different. I have designed a small website, but it is not being recognised by search engines although I have done some SEO, and submitted to google etc.
The strange part is that I can't even pick up the domain name when entered in a search engine. The URL works if you go to it directly, but isn't recognised by searh engines? Any ideas on what may be wrong?
<snipped URL>


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In the beginning, the world was void – formless, nameless, unreadable. Then everything got categorized, and we've been trying to file it ever since. It makes sense, doesn't it?
So too with books. Just as soon as an author writes something, somebody comes along and categorizes it. The most successful authors categorize their work first, then write it.
When you have information, you need to put it somewhere. You've got to be able to access it again, and other people will probably want to look at it too. Thus was born the BISAC, the Publishing industry's answer to the Dewey Decimal system.
The BISAC is a list of hundreds of categories and sub-categories that has rapidly becoming the industry standard for classifying books by genre. There are those who argue that in time it will replace the venerable Dewey Decimal System. Others contend that it already has.
If you're a published author – or would like to be – it pays to educate yourself on the technicalities of book publishing. You only need to be a little bit more savvy than the rest of the pack in order to be miles ahead, perhaps even capture that elusive best-seller status.
Let's take a look at how choosing the right category can help you sell more books.
Dewey or Don't We?
The Dewey Decimal System is most commonly associated with stern-faced librarians and dusty book covers. I can remember volunteering at the Arbor Heights Grade School library as a kid, hoisting abandoned volumes into gaps on the shelves, putting away the day's reading material while Miss Marian looked on from behind her half-glasses while adjusting her bun.
It was kind of fun. I could sort and organize, while enjoying the smell of ink and leather that when combined makes that "library smell." Come on, you know what I mean! The fact that I grew up to be a publisher is amusing to my high-tech executive sensibilities – but then, certain advances in publishing technology have helped take the toil out of hocking Tolstoy and his modern-day equivalents.
This leads us back to the BISAC, more formally known as the Book Industry Standards and Communications list. What I've found in working with authors is that very few of them have ever heard of the BISAC. Little do they know how essential this tool is for their publishing success!
Unless you're writing for your own amusement, we can make the argument that your book needs to fit into an established genre. People need to find it, and book sellers need to be able to organize War and Peace next to your masterpiece.
Many would argue that the Dewey Decimal system does this, but that does little for the author when it comes to selling books at retail. This archaic system is too confusing, and it takes an entire course of study in Library Science to learn to speak Dewey.
ISBN for Ibsen, BISAC for the Basics
The ISBN (International Standards Book Number) is a numeric commercial book identifier based on a 13-digit code (generally), and it serves as the anchor for your book's bar code. Retailers and e-tailers need to have one for your book in order to sell it – even if your name is Henrik Ibsen and you've won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
But the ISBN doesn't do anything to help customers find your cherished volume. It's for machines only – not at all user-friendly. The Dewey Decimal System is the next best thing, but it still doesn't quite fit the bill.
Way back in 2007, there was a flap in the news about a public library in Texas doing away with the Dewey Decimal System altogether and organizing their catalog like a bookstore would. The nerve! Imagine helping people find what they're looking for in an easy-to-understand way. What system did they use? The BISAC.
The BISAC is the brainchild of the Book Industry Study Group, and their list itself is copyrighted material. But just about every bookseller in the world refers to it now. I predict that it won't take long for libraries to catch up. You can find the BISAC master list on the BISAC website: https://www.bisg.org/complete-bisac-subject-headings-2014-edition
At the core of every book is a sense of relativity – where your book fits into the grand scheme of things. As you set about to draft, polish and market your magnum opus, ask yourself these questions:
- Who else has written a book like yours?
- Why is their book successful?
- Who will want to read your book?
- What is the single most relevant category for your book?
- What is the most appropriate BISAC genre for your book?
Some authors don't like to be pinned down to a single category as they write. What they don't realize is that they're doing themselves a disservice by ignoring genre requirements. Books aren't supposed to be elusive. Even books on cryptozoology are easy to find with BISACs.
When you sit down to write, try to think like a book seller. Choose a BISAC that matches your material. With a little discipline and forethought, your manuscript will serve more people with less effort.
In the end, you'll actually sell more books. Now that's a category any author can live with – the best-seller category.
Bryan Heathman is the President of Made for Success Publishing. Bryan works with bestselling authors in the role of publisher and marketer, including the late Zig Ziglar, Chris Widener and John C. Maxwell. Bryan is the author of Conversion Marketing, a marketing book on converting website visitors into paying customers. Bryan's Fortune 500 experience includes working for Microsoft, Eastman Kodak and Xerox.


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In a process that is well documented, but not well understood, various items fail shortly after their warranty expires. In this case, the otherwise reliable Neuton 6.2 rechargeable electric lawnmower had its main relay weld itself in the "ON" position during use, providing a clear indication that it had retired from active duty. This situation resulted in having three options:
Option 3 was the obvious choice, especially because options 1 and 2 cost $100(US) and $90(US) respectively. The new and improved(?) Applied Sciences control board costs around $25(US) to build and can re-use some of the existing parts. It also has the added benefit of not being able to weld itself "ON", because it relies on an N-channel MOSFET for power switching rather than a relay. The design and construction are exceedingly simplistic. The "safety key" (a resettable circuit breaker of unknown specs. - probably 20 amp) and a fuse holder (which actually holds the safety key) were salvaged from the old control board. A four pin row of breakaway headers were found to have the proper spacing to mate with the existing connector that terminates the wires from the handle. The wires attach to the breakaway header (CONN1 in the diagram) as follows: 1 - red, 2 - black, 3 - brown, 4 - purple. The middle pin of the MOSFET was removed because the "gate" connection is made near the heatsink. Zener diodes prevent the MOSFET gate from receiving a damaging, high voltage. The salvaged circuit breaker provides over-current protection to the motor.
Is this a drop-in replacement for the original control board?
Not entirely. By salvaging the connectors from the original control board, you may be able to use it without re-wiring the handle, assuming the color coded wires are the same on all mowers. Also, this board spins down when the handle is released. There is no electronic braking.
Do I have to use the exact parts listed?
No, but make sure that the parts you buy can handle the current of a 700W motor.


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Dr. Narendra K Bairwa, Assistant Prof., School of Biotechnology, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, attended the 2 days virtual workshop from 4-5th June 2021 on iCURE (interdisciplinary Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences) organised by the Arizona State University, USA.
The iCURE programme of NSF, USA, is to impart the course-based research experience to undergraduate students for improving the Undergraduate STEM Education. The iCURE programme director at Arizona State University, Prof. Pamela A Marshall is the recipient of the NSF grant to develop the iCURE curriculum and implementation.Dr. Narendra K Bairwa benefitted from the workshop, and he will incorporate the learning in the teaching curriculum of undergraduates for the students at SMVDU.


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Each person is different. In Aerocar we know and we are prepared to make you feel comfortable and enjoy a memorable trip and adapted to your needs.
Especial Transfer
You only have to indicate the characteristics of your transfer, and from Aerocar we will adapt to you so that you get the service you were looking for.


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The Collectible
Got a few demons up here, no problem because I have a special helmet! Now it's time to learn about me. My name is Sam. I'm just your average guy, I suppose… and even though I'm American, I still enjoy drinkin' a boba tea. Glad you got me blastin' my shorts there at the end. Standing 4.4 inches tall, Brandon Rogers' "Sam" character holds a custom microphone in one hand (complete with a design of a miniature version of his face), while raising the other hand in the air during one of his preaching ceremonies. He wears green and black sneakers, green socks and tight yellow shorts. On his body is a yellow and blue zip up vest which sets overtop a green dress shirt, sleeve rolled up. His window box is designed to reflect his angelic presence, as well as the interior of where he likes to do his work. This collectible ships in a matte, embossed, protective outer sleeve.
About Brandon Rogers
Brandon Rogers is a sketch comedian, writer, director, actor and content creator on Youtube. He lives in the United States of America, where he is best known for the many different characters he portrays online.


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Freebie Feelers... Snakeball
Freebie Feelers is a series where we download the free monthly console-specific or newly released free-to-play games to test their worth.This series will contain some useful information as well as plenty of personal opinion. While these articles may not be reviews, we hope that you will be able to use them to help decide whether that free download is worth it.
What is it?
Snakeball originally came out December of 2007, and is free for the month of August. As the name implies, it is a pseudo reimagining of the classic arcade game Snake, except with an emphasis on online multiplayer. The aim of the game is to deliver balls into a goal, dispatching opponents along the way either with your ever lengthening tail, or a variety of weapons available.
What did you think?
The controls are loose, and while I initially found it difficult to aim my snake after some practice I started to become better at maneuvering. The same cannot be said for the dreadful camera, of which there are two perspectives to choose from: overhead and behind the back. The overhead is completely useless, being too close to the action to get any sense of space; while the behind the back perspective is better in that it lets you see directly in front of you, if nowhere else.
The controls and camera may have their issues, but the worst thing about Snakeball is that no one is playing online. It's not surprising that a decade old game doesn't have much in the way of a player base, but it means that casual and ranked matches are entirely non-functional. You can still play against some competent AI, or create a lobby if you convince some friends to dust off their PS3s, as well as play a variety of challenge modes, but the meat of the game (according to the title screen, I never managed to get into a match myself) is its non-existent online multiplayer.
Is it worth downloading?
Normally Snakeball is £3.29, and I certainly would not recommend paying even that price for it, but If you and several of your friends are desperate for a multiplayer game on PS3 then it may be worth trying for free. Worth noting is that there is also a team mode available for an additional $1.99, but is absent from the EU PSN store. With such a small pool of players it would probably be difficult to field two teams of four, so, assuming it's available in your region, I doubt the team mode is worthwhile.


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"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go."
― Dr. Seuss, I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!
When we think about improving students' writing skills we tend to think of spelling, grammar, phonemic awareness and phonics. Recently, studies have shown that working with students to improve their reading skills can have an impact on their essay writing.
Because most students don't like to read, the vast majority of them find writing essays to be even more of a daunting task. According to BetterWrititngServices.com, essay writing services are extremely popular among college students, and the number of websites that sell academic papers to students grows rapidly. For this reason, it is important to help students improve their writing skills.
In this article, we will cover why reading is essential for improving essay writing skills. There are several ways we can draw a connection between reading and writing skills where some ways both skills benefit each other.
Mechanics of writing
We often teach reading and writing as two separate subjects, but students cannot complete a writing task if they cannot read and understand the instructions. These two skills are intertwined and both equally important to students' success.
Reading serves not only to expose the student to different styles of writing but also supports them in their emerging skills.
The most well-known benefit reading has on writing skills is the increased exposure to different words. The more students read, the more it exposes them to alternative ways to use words they are both familiar and not familiar with.
The more students read, the bigger chance that they will learn new ways to structure their sentences and express their ideas. Reading allows them to learn new patterns they can use in their own writing.
The more well-read the writer is, the better grasp they have on understanding poor writing versus quality writing. This will allow students to make this identification more clear in their own written work.
Power of words
Essays are a tool used to get an idea across, make a point, prove something, or tell a story. The more students read, the more access they have to literature that seeks to make the same things happen.
It gives more weight to the words themselves and by extension more weight to what the students write.
Reading is also a proven way to support the development of imagination. While reading, we tend to picture the events in our mind's eyes based on what we are reading. This has been shown to support your ability to understand situations and the solutions from the text.
Developing their voice
Without reading a variety of different authors and texts, it is hard for students to understand the idea of the voice of the author. The more students are exposed to different authors, the more courage and sense of self they develop for their own writing.
The more we expose students to different writing styles (classics, modern-day fiction and nonfiction), the more we support them in crafting their own voice for essay writing.
The development of a unique voice is an important skill needed to write essays, and it will aid in setting them apart from their peers.
Keeping up with the times
Language is something that is ever-changing, even in the world of essays. The words and phrases used by a student can change from year to year. Reading is essential for students who want to stay informed about modern language and style changes.
APA and MLA are always evolving in order for students to understand these changes. They need to see how they are implemented in various forms of writing.
Outside of the evaluation of different citation reading keeps students involved in learning the ways modern writing is changing.
Entwining reading and writing in the classroom
For those in education looking to improve their students' essay writing skills, there are a few ways reading and writing can be taught together for the most benefit to the student.
Note-taking is the easiest way to aid students in their reading and writing skills. Having your students take notes on what they have read not only increases their deep reading skills, but benefits their writing as well.
Students do not just write one form of essay, they write personal essays, persuasive essays, they compare and contrast, so why are they only reading one thing? In order for students to understand the different tones and syntax required for these different forms of essays, they need to read them.
Exposing your students to different forms of literature broadens their ideas on what their next essay could be.
Genre Study
By selecting one genre for students to narrow their field of study it allowed them to learn the specific genre before they experiment with writing within that genre.
Letting students take the lead fosters their interest and independence in their language skills.
For teachers who find themselves struggling with ways to improve their student's essay writing this may be the perfect solution. We know that we are more likely to complete certain tasks when we are motivated.
Thus it would make sense that if we allow students to pick the genre they both read and write about, they will be more motivated as well. Allow students to pick their own reading materials, then craft the writing work around their chosen piece.
In conclusion
The ways of teaching reading and writing separately are changing as more of us in education understand that reading is vital to essay writing skills.
As a basic level skill, students need to understand the written instruction before they can write the essay. In addition, the more well read students are the more vocabulary and grammar they are absorbing that is then transferred to their own writing.
The more students reading is spread out of topics and genres the deeper understanding they develop on the topics they are then to write essays about.
The absorption of knowledge that happens through the process of reading is integral to students improving their essay writing skills.


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Sydney Hobart: Comanche takes line honours
Published on December 28th, 2015
Sydney, Australia (December 28, 2015) – When Comanche crossed the finish line of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race at Castray Esplanade in Hobart, Tasmania, at 9:58:30 hours tonight, history was created, because Kristy Clark became the first female owner to take line honours in the blue water classic.
Kristy, who raced aboard the yacht while co-owner husband Jim stayed ashore, was thrilled to take line honours in her first foray into the race. While the yacht represents the New York Yacht Club in the USA, Kristy is of course, Australian through-and-through.
Jim was on the water to greet the Ken Read skippered Verdier Yacht Design and VPLP yacht as it made its way up the Derwent River to the finish line.
It is the first time, possibly with the exception of the early years, that a boat has retired, her crew sail 30 odd nautical miles back towards Sydney, before deciding to continue on racing and go on to win.
And the locals loved it. As Comanche zigzagged close to shore, trying to find pressure on the River Derwent, at Blackman's Bay lights were being flashed on and off from hundreds of houses and those in cars at Blackmans Bay Beach flashed their lights on and off, making an unforgettable impression against the last light of the day.
But it was at the dock, where Comanche arrived, that one of the largest crowds in living memory had gathered. There was not a square inch to be had around the piers and wharfs surrounding Hobart where thousands cheered the American victory
Comanche's finish was impeded by the breeze which came and went at whim as the yacht rounded the Iron Pot. At one stage she was powering at 15 knots, then down to 8.5 knots. Her finish time of two days eight hours 58 minutes 30 seconds was outside the record of 1 day 18 hours 23 minutes 12 seconds set by Wild Oats XI in 2012.
But it did not matter. The last American to take line honours in the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia's race was Larry Ellison's Sayonara, 17 years ago in the fatal 1998 race, so Comanche's efforts was quite some achievement, even if their quest of beating Wild Oats XI was not to be.
However, the Oatley family and Wild Oats XI skipper, Mark Richards, were watching back home in Sydney and sent a congratulatory letter to Jim Clark.
Comanche's highlights to this moment include:
First overall (Elapsed Time division). Voiles St Barts
First overall elapsed, Storm Trysail Block Island Race
Elapsed time record, Storm Trysail Block Island Race
First overall handicap class and fleet, Storm Trysail Block Island Race
First overall elapsed, Rolex Transatlantic Race
24 Hour Monohull Distance Record, 618 miles
First overall elapsed, Rolex Fastnet Race
First overall (Elapsed Time Class), Rolex Maxi Worlds
"This is a hard race. I have sailed around the world two and a half times and I thought I had seen it all but this is one hard body of water" was how Comanche's skipper Ken Read summed it up dockside after bringing his wounded supermaxi across the line tonight. One of the most extraordinary line-honours triumphs in the history of the Rolex Sydney Hobart. "This is a hard race. You guys have a hard race here. The people who have done this race 25 times, God bless them, they are the hardest people on Earth or the dumbest people on Earth, probably a combination of the two."
This was a moment of supreme elation, joy and relief for Read and Comanche's owners, Jim and Kristy Clark. Relief because Comanche could so easily not have made it to Hobart at all. It had all come so terribly unstuck on that first night of the race, when something destroyed one of their daggerboards.
"The first thing was we had to get rid of the daggerboard," Read recalls, "It was attached by a bunch of ropes and you could hear it failing around under the boat. I was most worried about the sharp edges of the daggerboard actually puncturing up through the hull of the boat. So we desperately cut the ropes to get rid of the daggerboard. And of course when we got rid of the daggerboard by cutting the ropes we saved the hull but kind of cleaned out the rudder on the way through."
They had somehow wrecked the entire steering system inside the boat, and when they finally had a chance to inspect the damaged rudder they found it facing backwards. "That's when we said we're done," Read said. "We stopped and took all the sails down. We actually started kind of drifting back towards Sydney. And then all of a sudden I see the tools come out and when I see the tools come out with these guys that's usually a good sign that they have an idea. All of a sudden you hear cutters and little grinders."
Somehow they patched it all together. "There's three stainless threads holding the entire steering system together right now," Read adds. Maybe they would not need to pull out after all. "I talked to the watch captains and we all decided unanimously we're here to finish this race."
"I did not quite know what was going on," Jim Clark said. Stuck on shore, the owner was only getting patchy news from his boat. "First I was told they retired and then that they were racing on. Until we came alongside the boat I wasn't fully aware of exactly what had gone on. It was my first real indication of just what had happened."
While Read's tradies were ferreting away at the steering, Rambler swept past into the lead. It would be 13 hours before Comanche would take it back again after, bizarrely, Rambler smashed one of her daggerboards. Suddenly it was game on again. "About half way through we put in a long port tack and chewed up Rambler," Read says. "We went from let's just finish to, holy crap, we might win this thing." And win it they did, in grand style.
Comanche had blitzed the field in the fresh nor-easter at the start, and, until losing her daggerboard and rudder, had continued to slowly increase her lead in the tough, southerly bash on the first night. But that was expected. What was not expected was how, in today's lighter winds, the big, wide supermaxi consistently built on her lead over Rambler and Ragamuffin 100.
"I have been hearing all the time that we couldn't perform in light wind" Read said, "and I have been saying that we're really different from last year. This boat is doing everything we dreamt it could do and more. We love this boat. It got us here safe, right?"
By Di Pearson, Jim Gale and Bruce Montgomery, RSHYR Media
Race website – Tracker – Facebook – Twitter
Background: The 71st edition of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race starts December 26 in Sydney Harbor, taking an entry list of 109 boats along the 628 nautical mile course to Hobart that is often described as the most grueling long ocean race in the world.
Photos: © StudioBorlenghi/StefanoGattini


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Our in-person Small Business Networking is your chance to promote your business to about 25 other businesses in a round-robin introduction. Be sure to bring plenty of business cards and information about your services!
We gather in our Joyce Conference Room on the second Thursday of each month from 8:00 - 9:00 a.m. Attendees have the opportunity to present a 1-2 minute elevator speech, hear from our sponsor and our featured business of the month.
In the end, it's all about networking! Stay as long as you'd like and make new contacts while renewing old ones.
For additional information, contact Director of Events and Programming BreAnna Robinson or Membership Director Norm Nelson.
Click here to visit our calendar and register for an upcoming Small Business Networking opportunity.


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Personalised packaging in beauty
Cornelius Group, Bishops Stortford, United Kingdom
The article discusses the growing role of personalisation in the beauty industry, including the product and packaging. It outlines the fundamental changes in retail and consumer behaviour that have changed the power dynamic in retailing, including a need to forge new connections with shoppers. Personalisation is a format of experiential marketing – a growing phenomenon that has already caused waves in the cosmetics retail space, and will continue to do to as the industry continues to embrace digitalisation. The article considers the circular ecosystem of marketing, data and technology, and how data-driven marketing has tangible implications on purchase decisions, which makes personalisation a key advantage for brands. After outlining the factors at play including psychological influences on purchase behaviour, the article focuses on the cosmetics industry with examples of personalisation being leveraged for brand loyalty. The article takes a balanced view, also alluding to some of the current format limitations. Following this, the article makes a natural progression to the important packaging developments that accompany the growing need for personalisation, before forecasting the future of personalisation in cosmetics.
Iconic American author Maya Angelou once wrote that people will forget what you said, but they'll never forget how you made them feel. This is the essence of experiential marketing, and it's big business. The term itself is a relatively new addition to the retail and marketing lexicon, with origins in 1997. At the time, e-commerce was in its infancy, mobile technology was limited, and actionable data-driven marketing was still a pipe dream.
As the global retail environment continues to evolve and technology has advanced apace, experiential marketing has rocketed to the forefront and personalisation is the new standard. Reflecting a change in collective value-led purchasing, consumers today don't just want throwaway one-off purchases; they want a connection. It taps into that fundamental human need for belonging, to feel part of something and to feel seen. The change has come about over recent years as the retail/buyer power dynamic has shifted. The global retail market is now consumer-led, and shoppers vote with their wallets.
Strip it back to the fundamental components and it's a simple ...


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With the help of this creative mockups, designers can present their ideas to their prospects in a creative fashion. High-resolution mockups can easily be created in Photoshop and they can be edited and customized as per the requirements of the clients. For designers, candle mockups are a great resource in their toolkit as this creative design finds use in a lot of design material. You can create PSD mockup template that you can use in your design projects.You may also see Glass Mockups.
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This illustration displays a mockup that is blend of a candle and a lamp shade. This high quality mockup has a great design which makes it stand out from other candle mockup templates.You may also check Interior Mockups.
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This mockup of a website shows an elegant candle that looks very realistic. This mockup template is perfect for a project that involves website creation as the hues used in the template are soothing and look classy.You may also see Folded Card Mockups.
Decorative Frame Mock-up With White Candles
This free PSD candle mockup template features white candles and has a simple background. This PSD template can be edited in Photoshop and customized as per the need of a design project.
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This mockup features a gift box and a candle in a perfect way to show off your designing skills. You can use your creative ideas to tweak this high-resolution PSD mockup template and impress your clients, without toiling too much.
Creative Design Mock-up of Candle
This high-quality mockup is very creative and has a classy appeal which impresses instantly. There is a good scope to edit and make this template look better and use personalized ideas depending upon the project.
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This mockup can be used as advertising material for lifestyle brands and food joints. This template features elegant candles and menus that look like a candle dinner at a restaurant. This mockup would find great use among designers working on brochures and flyers of projects from the food industry.
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If you are looking for colourful candles then this template is a perfect choice. You can get some amazing candles here that can be edited and used in various creations. You can edit the flames and change the background of this high-resolution template and weave magic in your designs.
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Candle mockup PSDs are a great tool for designers as they come in a variety of templates and can be edited in Photoshop. For designers, there are ample mockups available that are both creative and easy to use. You can download them and use for your personal and commercial design projects.
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Gravitational wave astronomy on the short and long timescales
Wednesday 02 Jun 2021 @ 12:00 p.m., Zoom
Dr Xingjiang Zhu, Beijing Normal University; Email: zhuxj[at]bnu.edu.cn
Gravitational wave astronomy is revolutionizing our understanding of the Universe. Since the historic discovery of GW150914 five years ago, LIGO and Virgo detectors have discovered 50 compact binary merger events. These merger events, lasting from fractions of seconds to minutes, include stellar-mass binary black holes, binary neutron stars and likely neutron star-black hole binaries. Meanwhile, pulsar timing arrays have been used to search for gravitational waves with periods of years to decades. After several decades of international efforts, it is believed that we are approaching the sensitivity to detect waves from supermassive binary black holes. In this talk, I will summarize recent progresses and future prospects of gravitational wave astronomy on both short and long timescales, with a focus on the study of binary neutron stars and recent results from the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array.


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Posted on October 7, 2011
After the success of our auto rickshaw themed steel coasters, we are launching some new designs. These are basically targeting tourists & travellers who are buying gifts and souvenirs to take back home from India. The images are heat tempered and they do not come off.


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The trash is being taken out in Minden.
After delays in the schedule, Gary Bartels with Republic Services, the company contracted to provide curbside trash pickup for the city, says trash pickup is back on track.
"We will be back on track if not today (Thursday), by tomorrow (Friday) morning," Bartels, general manager of Republic Services' Shreveport office, said.
Minden Mayor Tommy Davis said Thursday morning that he spoke with company representatives and that mechanical problems were to blame.
"I called them this (Thursday) morning and they told me they had some trucks down, but they are back up and running," Davis said. "They are telling me they are a day behind."
Bartels wouldn't confirm the cause of the delay, but said they are working to get back on track.
"We value the city of Minden's residents and we are working diligently to make sure that you guys (Minden residents) are taken care of in time. We have multiple trucks in the area and we expect to be right back on track," he said. "We recognize the point of good service and make sure that is carried forward."


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Thank you to theProfessional Marketing Association of Bowling Green, KY for having me as a speaker at their October 2018 meeting to discuss how to best work with social influencers like myself. It was an honor to speak with and meet you all.
To download copies of my presentation and presentation notes,
please click HERE.
Feel free to reach out with any questions or partnership requests.
[email protected]


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Before beginning your weight lifting workout, stretching can help with flexibility and give you greater muscle strength that will aid in preventing sore muscles and prevent the risk of injuries. Stretching can also help improve posture and balance and improve your physical performance while lifting weights.
The following are some upper body pre-workout stretches you can do before lifting weights:
Even though your neck isn't involved in weight lifting directly, it has major muscles that need to be stretched.
•Neck Extension Stretch: Clasp your hands behind your head and pull your head slowly toward your chest.
•Neck Flexor Stretch: Put your clasped hands on your forehead and pull your head slowly backward, looking up toward the ceiling. This reverses the first stretch.
•Sides of Neck: Hold the back of a chair with your right hand and lean your head left. Reverse and hold the chair with your left hand and lean your head right.
Your major shoulder muscles, the deltoids, are involved in weight lifting so it's important to stretch them.
•Place your left arm across your chest. Using your right hand, pull slowly toward your body then do the same stretch on the opposite arm.
•Clasp your fingers together. Palms facing up, breathe slowly as you raise your arms to the ceiling, pushing and leaning back slightly.
•Grab a towel or stretch band with your left hand. Lift it above your head then hold on to the other end with your right hand, behind your back. Slowly raise your left arm to stretch your right arm, then change arms and repeat the stretch.
Bodybuilders love to work their biceps to get those bulging muscles; therefore¸ it's important to warm up the biceps with this simple stretch.
•Stand in your doorway and extend your arm and hand straight out on the wall, then slowly turn your body toward the left, holding the stretch for 15 to 30 seconds. Repeat with the opposite arm.
•Raise your right arm above your head, bend your elbow then put your right hand behind your neck. Hold on to your right elbow with your left hand, then gently press your arm back and down. Hold for 15 to 20 seconds.
•Wrist Extension Stretch: While kneeling on the floor, place the backs of both hands on the floor while pointing your fingers toward your knees. Lean back slowly with elbows straight, and hold for 15 to 30 seconds.
•Wrist Flexor Stretch: While kneeling on the floor, put both palms on the floor, pointing fingers toward you. Slowly lean back with elbows straight¸ and hold for 15 to 30 seconds, as before.
•Stand or sit and hold one arm straight out in front, fingers facing the floor and your wrist bent. Pull your fingers toward you¸ using your other arm.
This stretch will help improve your posture and prevent drooping shoulders.
•Clasp your hands behind your back, straighten your arms then breathe in as you lift your hands slowly as your chest stretches and opens up. Lower your arms while breathing out. Repeat.
The following are some lower body pre-workout stretches you can do before lifting weights:
Lower Back
•Lie down on your back and pull up your knees slowly toward your chest. Hold for 30 seconds.
Hamstring Stretch
•Lie down on your back with your knees bent. Lift and extend your right leg straight up then hold your thigh and pull your leg gently toward your chest. Hold for 30 seconds. Repeat the stretch with your left leg.
Glute Stretch
•Lie down on your back and bend both knees. Cross your right leg over your left leg and pull both knees toward your chest. Hold for 30 seconds. Repeat with your right leg.
Quad Stretch
•While standing, lift your right foot behind you and grab with your right hand. Pull your foot toward your butt and hold 30 seconds. Repeat with your left foot.
One important reminder: Remember to breathe when doing all of your stretches.
Also, to optimize your weight lifting regime, bpm labs offer high-quality nutritional supplements that will help with your pre-workouts, as well as help you attain the fitness goals you have set for yourself.


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Knowing that the mind and body are interconnected we can begin to learn and understand how to heal mentally and physically through meditation. We are always under the influence of our emotions and thoughts, and when we begin to still the mind we can begin to heal. It is through the stillness of the mind where we can find peace and healing energy.
Mindfulness meditation has its origins in Buddhism, but the practice is secular and has no religious affiliation. Mindfulness simply means paying attention on purpose, in the present moment nonjudgmentally. When one is able to practice this type of attention it nurtures greater awareness, clarity, and acceptance of the present moment.
Studies indicate that our minds play a large part in engineering our mental and emotional health, along with physical wellness. Focusing on breathing in meditation trains the mind to develop concentration and awareness. It reduces stress, anxiety, and depression.
When we are able to focus on the present moment, we are not dragged into the past or future. When we think about the past we may become depressed, and when we think about the future, we can become anxious. Present moment awareness provides a grounded, stable place where we can be fully awake to the unfolding of our life in the moment. When we lack present moment awareness we are not open to the present, and may miss opportunities for growth and transformation.
Here's a simple guide to help you get started. You need no special tools or props just yourself, and a comfortable seat to rest in. Understand that in the meditation you are shifting from the mode of doing to the mode of be-ing. I like to start people with 5 minutes, but that may be too much for some. Go with what works for you, and know that it is not the amount of time you spend doing mindfulness, but it's really about the frequency. The more you can practice the better, even if it's for shorter bursts of time.
Beginning Meditation
- Taking a comfortable seated position, gently close your eyes. You may choose to lie down, and that is fine. Bring your attention to your breath, and follow the breath as you inhale and exhale. As you breathe in and out, count to 4 slowly as you inhale and as you exhale.
- As you are breathing in and out, your mind will begin to wander. That is completely normal. When your mind wanders gently bring it back to your breath with no judgment.
- As you sit breathing don't try to change anything, just breathe and let go. Give yourself permission to be in this moment, exactly as it is and exactly as you are. There is no need to force your breath, just feel the breath as it enters and exits your body.
- When you have finished gently open your eyes and take a moment to feel what you are experiencing.
When we practice mindfulness we are not trying to improve anything or get anywhere. We are just be-ing present in the moment, moment-by-moment, breath-by-breath. It's about making the mind still and experiencing the moment. We are not searching or forcing anything, we just are inviting ourselves to be in the present moment with full awareness. This awareness allows us to embody calmness, mindfulness and balance.
As you practice your practice will grow and mature, and out of it will come calmness, stillness, and insights. What you experience in your seat will begin to embody your life and all that you do. You will develop an awareness of self and become more connected with your physical body. Through the practice of mindfulness, you will become a more compassionate and loving witness to your life.
For more information visit JoanneKingCounseling.com