text:
Max Abelson
Tuesday, 08 January 2013 09:10 AM EST
Sitting onstage in Washington's Ronald Reagan Building in July, Lloyd C. Blankfein said Goldman Sachs Group Inc. had stopped using its own money to make bets on the bank's behalf.
"We shut off that activity," the chief executive officer told more than 400 people at a lunch organized by the Economic Club of Washington, D.C., slicing the air with his hand. The bank no longer had proprietary traders who "just put on risks that they wanted" and didn't interact with clients, he said.
That may come as a surprise to people working in a secretive Goldman Sachs group called Multi-Strategy Investing, or MSI. It wagers about $1 billion of the New York-based firm's own funds on the stocks and bonds of companies, including a mortgage servicer and a cement producer, according to interviews with more than 20 people who worked for and with the group, some as recently as last year. The unit, headed by two 1999 Princeton University classmates, has no clients, the people said.
Editor's Note: 5 Signs Stock Market Will Collapse in 2013
The team's survival shows how Goldman Sachs has worked around regulations curbing proprietary bets at banks. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul A. Volcker singled out the company in 2009, saying it shouldn't get taxpayer support if it focuses on trading. A section of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act known as the Volcker rule, drafted to prevent banks from taking on excessive risk, limits short-term investments made with firms' capital.
The law doesn't bar longer-term wagers. That leaves room for other risky investments, according to Matthew Richardson, an economics professor at New York University's Stern School of Business. Bets that last months can go awry and belong outside federally backed banks, he said.
"From a systemic-risk perspective, it's really the longer- term holdings which are of issue," said Richardson, who heads NYU's Salomon Center for the Study of Financial Institutions.
'The Don'
Michael DuVally, a Goldman Sachs spokesman, said in an e- mail that MSI engages in long-term investing and lending. A 2011 proposal for implementing the Volcker rule uses a 60-day cutoff to classify short-term trades.
"We have made changes to the strategies this business historically has employed to bring them into compliance with our current understanding of the Volcker rule," said DuVally, who declined to make MSI executives available for interviews. "If the final rule requires additional changes, we'll make them."
The team of about a dozen people, based at the firm's Manhattan headquarters, is headed by Daniel Oneglia and Geoff Adamson. Oneglia was treasurer of the Princeton eating club Tiger Inn, where his nicknames included "the Don" and "the Weasel," according to the university's website. Adamson was coxswain for men's heavyweight varsity crew. A Boston Globe photo shows teammates flinging him into a Massachusetts lake after a victory.
Hedge Fund
Their team at Goldman Sachs has bet against companies through short selling, or the sale of borrowed securities, and while investments are supposed to last for months they sometimes end early, according to half a dozen former members.
"MSI is very much like a hedge fund," said Ashkan Marsh, 30, who worked for the unit before leaving the firm in 2008.
Goldman Sachs, the fifth-biggest U.S. bank by assets, doesn't report on the holdings or performance of MSI, or of the Special Situations Group in which it's housed. That parent group, which uses the firm's funds to profit from distressed and middle-market companies, has been a major profit center at the bank, sometimes the biggest, former executives told Bloomberg in 2011. Its holdings that year included debt of Melville, New York-based pizza chain Sbarro Inc.
Editor's Note: 5 Signs Stock Market Will Collapse in 2013
Slaughtered Pig
"SSG had its own culture from Goldman, one of those things where everyone had sharp elbows, but in a good way," said Ryan Frankel, 29, who worked in the division until 2008 and is now CEO of VerbalizeIt Inc., a New York-based translation company. "It was definitely the place to be. I felt very honored and excited and lucky to be there."
Marsh, now a Harvard Business School student, recalled a trip with colleagues to Texas with paintball, portfolio analysis and freshly slaughtered pork. The team paid "an extreme amount" to a farm that "killed the pig that day and barbecued it for us," he said. "We would go boating, we'd go golfing, I really felt very much that they were friends."
Tamin Pechet, 34, who worked in a predecessor group before he left the bank in 2005 and has stayed in touch with former co- workers, said MSI still has similar people and strategies.
"In spite of all of these things which seem like exogenous factors that would mean that a group like this couldn't possibly continue, there's actually quite a bit of continuity," said Pechet, now CEO of Banyan Water Inc., a San Francisco-based commercial water manager.
He recalled a "passion for and understanding of how to make money" among "extraordinarily commercial" colleagues.
'Elegant Animals'
MSI looks for members who are "driven, motivated and excel in everything they have done," James Brower, who was on the team until 2010, said at a University of Pennsylvania panel on banking and the liberal arts sponsored by Goldman Sachs in 2006.
The team's traders "should be market-savvy, enjoy a quick pace, dislike long-term projects and have a risk appetite," Brower said, according to a transcript. They look across many asset classes, he said, investing "hedge-fund style."
Brower is now an analyst at Serengeti Asset Management LP, a New York-based hedge fund founded by Jody LaNasa, who ran MSI from 2002 to 2006. LaNasa named his firm after the African region because of his admiration for leopards, "elegant animals who hunt by themselves," he said in a 2012 interview with the Harvard Law Bulletin. MSI managed more than $4 billion when he was in charge, LaNasa said.
Treasury Medal
Other former members refer to the team as a hedge fund. G. David Bednar, now a managing director at Ladder Capital Finance LLC, worked in SSG's "proprietary multi-strategy hedge fund" until 2006, according to his LinkedIn profile. Cevdet Samikoglu was at MSI's predecessor, Special Situations Investing, a "proprietary internal hedge fund," before he left in 2003 and joined Greywolf Capital Management LP, filings show.
Another MSI veteran, David N. Miller, became chief investment officer of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, which rescued U.S. banks during the 2008 financial crisis. He was awarded the Treasury Medal by Secretary Timothy F. Geithner when he left and is now CEO of a real-estate investment trust.
Miller, LaNasa, Bednar and Brower declined to comment. Samikoglu didn't respond to two phone messages.
Editor's Note: 5 Signs Stock Market Will Collapse in 2013
Ocwen, Cemex
MSI investments last year included shares of Ocwen Financial Corp., a West Palm Beach, Florida-based mortgage servicer, according to two former team members.
Goldman Sachs sold Litton Loan Servicing LP to Ocwen for $263.7 million in 2011. To gain New York State approval, the firms said they would compensate borrowers whose homes were wrongly foreclosed and make changes to prevent "robo-signing," where documents are automatically signed without verification.
The bank owned 2.3 million Ocwen shares as of Sept. 30, according to filings that don't disclose which part of Goldman Sachs holds them. The firm had more than 3 million Ocwen shares before the deal was announced, filings show.
Another MSI proprietary investment was in Monterrey, Mexico-based Cemex SAB, the largest cement maker in the Americas, according to two former members of the Special Situations Group who requested anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak.
'Handsome Returns'
MSI doesn't trade in and out of positions each day, according to alumni, and one said he wished he could have traded more. Still, the team sold most assets after a few months, said Marsh, the former member who's now at Harvard. Jeanette Cajide, 36, an associate in the Special Situations Group in 2007 and 2008 who now works in development at Dialexa LLC, a Dallas-based technology firm, said she was jealous of MSI's faster pace.
Goldman Sachs has been wagering its own money for decades. After the firm bought commodities broker J. Aron in 1981, the unit risked the bank's capital "not in the service of clients but simply to achieve handsome returns," according to "Goldman Sachs: The Culture of Success" by Lisa Endlich, an ex-employee.
Harvey M. Schwartz, 48, who will succeed Chief Financial Officer David Viniar when he steps down this month and joins the board, began his Goldman Sachs career at J. Aron, as did Blankfein and President Gary D. Cohn.
The firm also used its own capital for risk arbitrage, or betting on takeover targets, under a team led in the 1980s by Robert Rubin, who became Goldman Sachs's co-chairman and later U.S. Treasury secretary. The group grew into the equities division's Principal Strategies team. A separate global macro desk speculated on currencies and rates.
Blankfein, Viniar
Blankfein's comments about shuttered proprietary businesses, and similar remarks a year earlier by Viniar at a conference in Miami, referred to those two teams, DuVally said in his e-mail. The firm has said in filings that Principal Strategies was closed in 2010 and global macro in 2011.
MSI, which stayed open, started in the late 1990s as Special Situations Investing. It became part of SSG in 2003, when Mark McGoldrick, a former Goldman Sachs partner, combined proprietary units into one global business. He left four years later, disappointed by a $70 million bonus, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The bank's proprietary stock holdings were so large that markdowns on stakes in Asia helped wipe out revenue from client work there in 2011, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Editor's Note: 5 Signs Stock Market Will Collapse in 2013
Clients First
"It's been shut down," Viniar, 57, said of the firm's proprietary-trading business at the Credit Suisse Financial Services Forum on Feb. 9, 2011. "Whatever effects there have been, you've seen them already."
Nine days later, the Special Situations Group posted a Hong Kong job listing seeking a person skilled in equities, loans and bonds. The job "mainly consists of valuing companies and their associated securities," according to the posting.
Cajide, who left SSG in 2008, called it a "very hush- hush" division because it wagers the firm's capital.
"You don't talk about what you're doing," she said. "It's Goldman's money, right?"
The page on the bank's website that describes businesses inside SSG, including specialty lending and alternative energy, doesn't mention Multi-Strategy Investing.
After the Securities and Exchange Commission accused Goldman Sachs in 2010 of defrauding clients in the sale of collateralized debt obligations and before the company settled for a record $550 million, the firm created a committee to review its business practices. The group reiterated the company's late-1970s principles that said clients come first.
'More Prop'
To comply with Dodd-Frank, banks from Goldman Sachs to Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase & Co. have said they would break off or wind down proprietary units.
"We should not be a firm that is betting our shareholders' capital for our own benefit," Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman, 54, said at a Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association conference in November 2010. "We should be working with our shareholders' capital for our clients' benefit."
Even so, with banks pushing in Washington to limit the trading rule, not all proprietary bets were banned. Former Fed Chairman Volcker, who graduated from Princeton 50 years before Oneglia and Adamson, pushed to bar long-term investments when Dodd-Frank was written, according to three people with knowledge of the talks. He tried again when regulators drafted rules based on the legislation, they said.
"There were so many elements of the rule that in order to get it passed had to be softened quite a bit, and that may very well have been one," Kimberly Krawiec, a law professor at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, said of the focus on short-term trading. "There's going to be more prop trading than what the general public and perhaps even some experts believe."
'Volcker Firewall'
Regulators, who had planned on completing rule-writing by the end of 2012, now expect to finish early this year, according to Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke. Firms have until July 2014 to conform to the trading rules.
"The Volcker firewall in Dodd-Frank set up a clear distinction between lending banks and hedge funds," said Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat and one of two senators who inserted the trading ban into the legislation. "Any way you slice it, the work of the London Whale and similar setups are hedge funds, whether the trades endure days or months. The regulators have full authority and clear direction to prohibit these operations. They have stalled for two years, and it is way past time for them to act."
Not Venal
Even before JPMorgan lost about $6.2 billion on wrong-way bets by a trader who came to be known as the London Whale, the SEC expressed confusion about how much wagering the firm was doing with its own money. The agency wrote to the New York based bank, the largest in the U.S by assets, after the company said in 2011 filings that it no longer had proprietary holdings in its equities unit. It "is not clear if this was the extent of your proprietary-trading business," the SEC letter said.
Editor's Note: 5 Signs Stock Market Will Collapse in 2013
At the lunch in Washington where Blankfein spoke, he was asked by private-equity billionaire David Rubenstein, co-CEO of Carlyle Group LP, if Goldman Sachs makes the bulk of its profit from proprietary instead of client work. Blankfein, 58, said the firm no longer wagers its own money without client interaction.
"Our job is to grow the pie and make everybody wealthier," Blankfein said. "Not for the venality of trying to get richer and more wealthy, but wealth in the sense of making the world stronger and healthier -- and, for lack of a better word, better."
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text:
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
French police have raided Google's Paris office as part of an investigation into the company's tax affairs.
The raid began at 5 a.m. Tuesday, Paris time, according to local newspaper Le Parisien, and involved five public prosecutors, 25 computer experts, and investigators from the French tax office and the Central Office for the Prevention of Corruption and Financial and Tax Crimes (OCLCIFF), the public prosecutors' office told local media.
French prosecutors began investigating Google's finances last June, following allegations from the tax authorities that the company was involved in serious tax fraud.
Google channels much of its European advertising sales through its Irish subsidiary, Google Ireland, profiting from low tax rates there. Tax officials in other European countries are concerned about the resulting loss in tax revenue.
Directing profit to a low-tax jurisdiction by having a subsidiary there send out invoices is not necessarily illegal, if there is some justification for the transfer. In manufacturing industries, it's relatively easy to see where the work is done and the value added, but with cloud services such as programmatic advertising, it's much harder to pin down where the work is done or the service delivered.
In January, Google came under fire when it agreed to pay £130 million (US$186 million) in back taxes in the U.K. in settlement of a 10-year investigation there. Fair tax campaigners such as John Christensen of the Tax Justice Network say that sum represented a tax rate of just 3 percent, when the nominal tax rate was over six times higher, at around 20 percent.
French officials believe Google owes €1.6 billion (US$1.8 billion) in back taxes, and unlike the U.K. tax authority, they are disinclined to negotiate a settlement, local media reported in February.
It's not just Google that has felt the wrath of French tax investigators: In 2012 almost 100 tax and police officials raided a Microsoft office on the outskirts of Paris following the discovery at another company of invoices from Microsoft's Irish subsidiary for services officials believed were performed in France by staff of its French subsidiary.
Google officials in Paris did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Tuesday's raid.


text:
CANONSBURG, Pa. -- Sidney Crosby just wants to get back to work. At this point, where he takes the ice hardly matters.
The Pittsburgh Penguins star said Friday the prospect of lacing up his skates in Europe is growing more appealing as the NHL lockout nears the three-month mark. The latest round of talks between owners and players broke down Thursday night, leaving Crosby "disappointed" and considering other opportunities.
"I just want to play hockey," Crosby told reporters after an informal workout with some of his teammates on Friday morning. "As far as whatever option is best there, I'll start thinking of it a lot more because this stuff is getting ridiculous."
Crosby spent three days in New York this week as part of the negotiations and felt progress was being made until NHL commissioner Gary Bettman shot down any growing optimism during an emotionally charged news conference in which the commissioner scoffed at the idea the sides were close to a deal.
With no deal in the works, Crosby ended up taking a late-night flight back to Pittsburgh wondering what else the players could have done to move things along.
"I think we knew what the issues were and we moved on those," Crosby said. "I think if it's the case there like Gary said in his press conference, where they're going to draw a line in the sand, just say that, don't waste guys' times there."
The lockout has become another setback in a maddening two years for the game's most popular player. The 2007 NHL MVP and 2010 Olympic gold medalist has been limited to just 28 games since January 2011 because of a series of debilitating concussions. He's healthy now and signed a 12-year contract extension last summer that would keep him in Pittsburgh until his late-30s.
Yet instead of focusing on getting the Penguins back to the Stanley Cup, Crosby has spent the past three months trying to help salvage at least part of the season. All games through Dec. 14, along with the New Year's Day Winter Classic and the All-Star Game, have been canceled. The last NHL lockout resulted in the 2004-05 season getting wiped out.
"The foundation (for a deal) is there and I don't think we can move any more," Crosby said. "We've done everything from our side to make this work"
Though any foreign team that signs Crosby would also have to take out an expensive insurance policy, Crosby maintains playing overseas -- where dozens of NHL players are keeping sharp, including Penguins teammate Evgeni Malkin -- is a "practical" alternative.
"I think I've tried to be optimistic and things like that and given it every chance possible," Crosby said. "But I've got make sure I keep playing hockey. I haven't played for awhile."


text: Hi Alexis, I have looked at it, but I obviously didn't understood it correctly. So, let's see if I grok this. Suppose I send a tx.select, send my basic.publish and then send a tx.commit. If I receive a tx.commit-ok all is well, otherwise I'll receive a channel exception from the server. Not as straightforward as a publish-ok, but hey, if it works ... :) Thanks, Chris On 4 Jan 2010, at 22:11, Alexis Richardson wrote: > It would be nice to have a lazy ack and things like that will be in > future versions of amqp. > > For now, have you looked at the TX class? > > alexis > > > On Mon, Jan 4, 2010 at 9:26 PM, Chris Duncan <celldee at gmail.com> > wrote: >> Before I begin let me state for the record that I have read the 0-8 >> and 0-9 AMQP specs and realise that they will not change just because >> I believe that it might be a good idea. Neither do I advocate >> deviation from the specs for the sake of expedience. >> >> OK, I've been looking at including Channel.Flow method processing in >> the Bunny client (again) and have come to the conclusion that >> publishing should be synchronous in AMQP terms. My reasoning is as >> follows - >> >> The AMQP Channel.Flow method is a device to try to prevent servers >> getting swamped by message producing clients. The server sends a >> Channel.Flow method with :active argument set to false to a producer >> in order to get the producer to stop sending messages when server >> memory is getting critically low. >> >> When a client application publishes a message it passes that message >> into the care of the server. If something goes wrong the client >> application needs to be notified, but it is equally important for the >> client to know that the server has the message and will do its level >> best to deliver it to an appropriate destination queue. It seems to >> me that the second piece of information, namely a "yes I have your >> message", is missing. This absence of information means that the >> client has to make a judgement on the success of the publish >> operation based on what it does not receive, rather than what is does >> receive. >> >> If, after issuing a Basic.Publish method, a client does not receive >> an error indication or Channel.Flow method, it has to assume that a >> publish has succeeded. For a simple single-threaded synchronous >> client like Bunny, the lack of a publish-ok method means that it has >> to wait to see whether a message arrives that indicates a problem. So >> in the case of Basic.Publish, the client could do a blocking read >> that times out if no message is received. However, even if I could >> rely on the timeout to work without fail (which my current testing is >> suggesting may not be the case), I don't like that solution at all. >> >> With a publish-ok method things become much more straightforward. If >> the client receives a publish-ok then everything is rosy in the >> garden. If not, the client handles the issue. There could be >> a :nowait flag as there are for other methods for asynchronous >> processing. >> >> If anyone has any ideas as to how I can get around this issue using >> Ruby without additional threads, fibers, eventmachine etc. I would be >> very pleased to hear from them. >> >> Regards, >> >> Chris >> >> _______________________________________________ >> rabbitmq-discuss mailing list >> rabbitmq-discuss at lists.rabbitmq.com >> http://lists.rabbitmq.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/rabbitmq-discuss >>


text:
Facet Block or Selective Nerve Root Block
Facet joints are paired joints on the side of the midline at each level of the spine. A facet block or selective nerve root block is a procedure in which a needle is placed into the facet joint under imaging guidance for the nerve root block injection of a local anesthetic and/or steroid. A facet joint injection may be performed at one or multiple levels and on one or both sides (right/left) of the spine. Franklin Moser, MD, Director of Neuroradiology, heads our team of imaging physicians, nurses and technologists who specialize in this procedure.
Why Has My Doctor Ordered a Facet Block?
The facet block is a diagnostic test to localize the source of your pain by determining if your pain responds to the injection of medication. Alternatively, this procedure is used to treat symptoms arising from facet joint arthritis.
How is the Facet Block Procedure Performed?
The precise location for the needle placement is determined with imaging guidance. You may experience brief, temporary sensations of pain or an electric shock sensation down the leg. Iodinated contrast is injected to confirm the location of the needle tip.
Before, After and During the Procedure
Why Choose the S. Mark Taper Foundation Imaging Center for facet blocks?
The S. Mark Taper Foundation Imaging Center provides a full range of advanced imaging, both radiology and cardiology, as well as interventional radiology and interventional tumor (oncology) treatments to the greater Los Angeles area, including Beverly Hills, Encino, Mid-Cities, Sherman Oaks, Silver Lake, Studio City, Toluca Lake, and West Hollywood.


text:
Huge "Structure" of Satellites Found Orbiting Milky Way
Grouping of galaxies puts cosmology "basically in a shambles," scientist says.
A huge "structure" of satellite galaxies and star clusters has been found wheeling around the Milky Way, according to a new study.
The discovery surprised scientists, in part because the structure might spell trouble for theories of dark matter, the mysterious, invisible substance that's thought to make up about 23 percent of the mass in the universe.
The finding is only the latest to question dark matter's existence—last week, for instance, astronomers announced that they'd failed to detect dark matter in the sun's neighborhood, even though the substance should be there, according to accepted theory.
In the new study, led by Marcel Pawlowski of the University of Bonn in Germany, astronomers reconstructed the locations of the Milky Way's known satellites using sources ranging from 20th-century photographic plates to recent images from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.
The team found that the Milky Way's roughly 20 companions—including dwarf galaxies and blobs of stars known as globular clusters—are distributed in a tidy plane that orbits at a right angle to our galactic disk.
(Related: "Dark-Matter Galaxy Detected: Hidden Dwarf Lurks Nearby?")
"This is completely contrary to what we expect from theory," said study co-author Pavel Kroupa, also of the University of Bonn.
"You should be able to look in any direction and still find some satellite galaxies." That's because current models of galaxy formation—which are based on dark matter's existence—predict that the Milky Way's companions originally came from many different directions and so should have settled into a more or less spherical distribution.
"The logical implication of this [discovery] is that there is no dark matter," Kroupa said.
Cosmology in "Shambles"?
According to the standard theory of galaxy formation, dark matter was the gravitational scaffold upon which normal matter coalesced to form galaxies in the early universe.
As larger galaxies such as the Milky Way formed, the theory goes, leftover material amassed into hundreds of smaller satellites spread evenly around their host galaxies.
(Also see "Dark Matter Blob Should Not Exist, But There It Is.")
To explain the odd arrangement of satellites around the Milky Way, the Bonn team proposes that our home galaxy collided with a galactic neighbor about 11 billion years ago, which corresponds with the age of the oldest known satellite dwarf galaxy.
According to this idea, the Milky Way stripped material from the other galaxy, and gravity gathered the debris to form dwarf galaxies and globular clusters, which have remained in a plane around the Milky Way ever since, study leader Pawlowski said.
The team asserts that this model deals a significant blow to dark matter, since it shows that galaxies can form without the theoretical substance.
"It means that we have to completely and utterly rethink cosmology," Kroupa said. "Cosmology is basically in a shambles now."
(Related: "Dark Matter Is an Illusion, New Antigravity Theory Says.")
Dark Matter Still Viable
But other astronomers aren't quite ready to give up on dark matter.
"Although the alignment they find is intriguing, it is very premature to conclude that dark matter is in trouble," said Ken Rines, of Western Washington University in Bellingham.
"Galaxy formation is a very tricky business. We certainly don't understand the details, and these details may ... explain the alignment that they find," Rines said.
"Although dark matter may eventually be proven wrong, the alignment of dwarf galaxies is more likely a puzzle than a fatal flaw."
Sukanya Chakrabarti, an astrophysicist at Florida Atlantic University, is also skeptical that the new study rewrites galaxy formation.
The study team's galaxy-collision scenario can explain the positions of the satellite dwarf galaxies, she concedes.
But that model doesn't explain why the satellites act as if they have more mass than can be explained by their visible matter alone—one of the main reasons scientists think dark matter exists.
Any alternative to dark matter "must not only reproduce where the stuff is but what its mass is as well," Chakrabarti said.
(Related: "Dark Matter Hits the Average Human Once a Minute?")
Study author Kroupa counters that "this is not a problem, because it has already been demonstrated many times with other data that other theories of gravity—such as MOND—describe galaxies excellently, including the satellite galaxies."
Short for Modified Newtonian dynamics, MOND is a tweaked version of Newton's theory of gravity, which proponents say can explain the observed motions of stars and galaxies without resorting to dark matter.
Still, Chakrabarti said, it's also not surprising that current dark matter simulations can't explain the Milky Way satellites' unusual orientation.
While the simulations do a good job of modeling the evolution of large-scale structure in the universe, they're less reliable when it comes to modeling the scale of individual galaxies, which involves interactions between many more variables, she said.
"If you neglect these things and you're trying to do a very detailed analysis—like where all the satellite galaxies are distributed—you're going to come up with some discrepancies," Chakrabarti said.
"The current simulations of galaxy formation are incomplete," she continued, "but that doesn't imply that dark matter isn't a viable notion."
The Milky Way's satellite "structure" will be detailed in an upcoming issue of the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.


text:
I wrote a post last Thursday about the phrase I heard "Fun stories happen when you make choices you wouldn't normally make." It reminded me of this story which is the quote of the week.
I used to think of God as my observer, my judge, keeping track of the things I did wrong, so as to know whether I merited heaven or hell when I die. He was out there, sort of like a president. I recognized His picture when I saw it, but I didn't really know Him.
But later on, when I met Jesus, it seemed as though life was rather like a bike, but it was a tandem bike, and I noticed that Jesus was in the back helping me pedal.
I didn't know just when it was He suggested we change, but life has not been the same since I took the back-seat to Jesus, my Lord. He makes life exciting. When I had control, I thought I knew the way. It was rather boring, but predictable. It was the shortest distance between two points.
But when He took the lead, He knew delightful long cuts, up mountains, and through rocky places and at break-through speeds; it was all I could do to hang on! Even though it often looked like madness, He said, "Pedal!"
I was worried and anxious and asked, "Where are you taking me?" He laughed and didn't answer and I started to learn to trust. I forgot my boring life and entered into adventure. And when I'd say, "I'm scared", He'd lean back and touch my hand.
He took me to people with gifts that I needed, gifts of healing, acceptance and joy. They gave me their gifts to take on my journey, our journey, my Lord's and mine. And we were off again. He said, "Give the gifts away; they're extra baggage, too much weight." So I did, to the people we met, and I found in giving I received, and still our burden was light.
I did not trust Him, at first, in control of my life. I thought He'd wreck it, but He knows bike secrets, knows how to make it bend to take sharp corners, jump to clear high rocks, fly to shorten scary passages. And I am learning to shut up and pedal in the strangest places, and I'm beginning to enjoy the view and the cool breeze on my face with my delightful constant companion, Jesus.
And when I'm sure I just can't do any more, He just smiles and says… "Pedal."
(Author unknown)


text:
I tried freeshipping.org for an LL Bean order and was shown only an offer for free shipping if paying with an LL Bean credit card. Then I Googled LL Bean free shipping and found various promotion codes that I was able to use to get free shipping.
I have become a reluctant fan of online ordering, after dealing with some grief about it in the beginning. But it still rots my socks to have to pay for shipping, especially when it is pricey. Here's how to get the best of both worlds: the convenience of shopping from home, and free shipping to go along with it.
Since reading Paul's piece about Retailmenot, I never place an online order without first checking for coupons, which more often than not, save me more than a little bit of money.
But that darn shipping….how do you avoid these charges, which sometimes negate the value of the item you want to begin with?
Enter Freeshipping.org. Simply input the name of the store you plan to place an order with, and up pops a list of coupon codes you can enter for free shipping.
Coupons are not limited to free shipping; a myriad of coupons with various conditions will pop up, depending on the popularity of your chosen online retailer.
Online window-shoppers will not be disappointed either. You can browse by category, store, or by recent or expiring coupons.
So although I don't condone impulse shopping, I do approve of a good deal. If you are disciplined about brandishing your credit card and want to do some digging around to save extra money on your next online purchase, then check out Freeshipping.org.
Note: The author has no vested or affiliate interest in freeshipping.org
Disclaimer: The links and mentions on this site may be affiliate links. But they do not affect the actual opinions and recommendations of the authors.
Wise Bread is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
I tried freeshipping.org for an LL Bean order and was shown only an offer for free shipping if paying with an LL Bean credit card. Then I Googled LL Bean free shipping and found various promotion codes that I was able to use to get free shipping.
It is such a fantastic resource that you simply are offering and also you give it away at no cost. I adore seeing internet websites that realize the value of offering a quality resource free of charge. It?s the old what goes all-around comes all-around program


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The Year of Orfeo
Monteverdi, L'Orfeo / L'Incoronazione di Poppea / Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria, conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt and directed by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle (re-released March 13, 2007)
Monteverdi, L'Orfeo
The hokey qualities are made worse by the fact that the sound was recorded in the Opernhaus Zürich several months before the film was shot in Vienna (this was 1977 and 1978), and the lip-syncing is as unrealistic as ever. So this is not the DVD to buy if you only want one, but it is of obvious interest to a collector or a Baroque specialist. This marks the arrival of the HIP movement in many ways, one of the earliest residencies (I am inclined to think it was the first) of a specialized ensemble in a regular opera theater, a model that is now quite common in Europe. All the more unusual, then, that Harnoncourt's ensemble provides the musical fabric for a cast drawn more or less from the Zurich Opera's regulars. None of them would fit the stereotype of the "early music singer," and they are almost uniformly good. (Yes, that is the sweet tenor of Francisco Araiza singing the parts of a shepherd and a spirit.) By all accounts, the stage premiere of this production, in 1975, was an extraordinary success with audiences and critics alike. Monteverdi's operas were reborn.
Monteverdi's Orfeo, premiered in Mantua in 1607 (400 years ago this year), represents in many ways the beginning of the genre of opera: although there were operas before Monteverdi, he was the first to grasp the dramatic potential of opera and move beyond the mind-numbing predominance of the stile recitativo. Not to discount the importance of the pioneering works of the Florentine Camerata, but it is really in Orfeo that we first recognize what we will know as opera for the following four centuries. Here are not only arias with memorable and vocally virtuosic melodies like the stunning Possente spirto (.PDF file of the score) in the third act (by which Orfeo almost convinces Charon to allow him to enter Hades), but ensembles, choral numbers, love duets, a wedding divertissement, and instrumental sinfonias.
Of course, this is the summer in which I will be noticing references in everything to Dante, and Orfeo has a direct citation of a famous line from the Inferno. When Orfeo reaches the gate of Hades, to the sound of those famous trombones (sackbuts), he meets the allegorical character of Hope, La Speranza. She encourages Orfeo along his way to find Euridice's shade but stops where Charon blocks the way. According to law, she tells Orfeo, she is not allowed to enter that realm. "LASCIATE OGNI SPERANZA, VOI CH'ENTRATE," she sings twice, quoting the final verse of the three-stanza inscription that Dante reads on the gate of Hell (Inferno, Canto 3). In this production, a sign with that inscription, topped with a skull and cobwebs, drops in front of the camera. La Speranza, reciting, clasps her hands to her face in horror. If you intend to enter nella città dolente, she tells Orfeo, again alluding to the words of Dante, you must do so without me. It's a great moment.
The selection of Orfeo DVDs now available includes a couple that have been released this year, in connection with the anniversary. The musical and dramatic interest of any one of them is greater than the Harnoncourt classic, but his was the first and will always be a monument in the history of operatic staging. Surely, the 400th anniversary of the real birth of opera warrants owning more than one.
Ionarts will be bringing you reviews of two performances of Monteverdi's Orfeo next month, with Concerto Vocale and René Jacobs at the Aix-en-Provence Festival and with Concerto Italiano and Rinaldo Alessandrini at the Settimana Musicale Senese in Siena.


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A leadership programme for exceptional leaders
Up to 20 seats available in AAU School of Law
Register Now!
The DWDG program is offered to students who have the potential to shape a more sustainable and inclusive world. It is a part-time programme offered at no cost to university students in parallel to their curriculum. The programme is a blended programme (online and offline learning) , runs over 20 weeks and it is adjusted to local context to ensure students can balance their time between the programme and their academic curriculum. Students can't join the programme on their own, they join in teams. Today, 2400+ students from 100+ top universities and 50+ countries are following the ShARE programme.
The programme is structured to improve the students' ability to take initiatives and develop an entrepreneurial spirit. Students lead teams, lead projects, take initiatives and get coached to carve their leadership style.
Corporate skills
ShARE students acquire top corporate skills through training, projects with start-ups, case competitions.
Openness to the world
ShARE students learn how to work across borders, appreciate and embrace cultural differences.
Do well do good
Students collaborate on solving major societal issues and on cases to transform companies into "Do Well Do Good".
Pedagogy is complementary to an academic curriculum. ShARE's pedagogy is based on 3 axes: learning by doing, emulation learning and learning by teaching.
Learning by doing
Students spend more than 60% of their time on real projects so they can sharpen their skills through practice.
Emulation learning
Students are grouped into teams and they worked together.
Learning by teaching
Senior students become mentors of the junior students: this is the best way to ensure skills have been fully acquired.
Programme overview and commitment
The programme runs over 20 weeks and it is adjusted to local context to ensure students can balance their time between the programme and their academic curriculum.
During a typical week, a student will spend 2 hours on e-learning, 3 hours on assignments and 1 hour in local team meetings.
Requirements and selection process
Candidates must be students of AAU School of Law and be enrolled during the academic year 2023-2024.
The selection will be done by a 2-step process in which candidates will have to apply to the programme and take an analytical test followed by an interview with the ShARE senior member.
To apply to the programme, you must register here by completing the form . Click here to access the form.
Instructions for filling the form:
The form will take up to 40 minutes to complete and it has 3 parts. Please fill in the form only when you have enough time to complete the form. Each part of the form carries a different weightage.
Part 1 - Why ShARE - Prepare a small paragraph on why you want to join ShARE.(20%) max. Time suggested for this section is 10 min.
Part 2 - Analytical test - No preparation required, just speed (60%) max. 20 questions to be completed in 20 min.
Part 3 - Do Well Do Good - Do a case on Do Well Do Good. (20%) max. Time suggested for this section is 10 min.
If you are selected you will be invited for a group interaction with a senior ShARE staff.
Will the programme cost me anything?
The programme is free of charge and it is a supplement to the academic curriculum of AAU School of Law students.
Will the programme overlap with my courses?
The programme covers the basic knowledge of corporate skills required to become a successful leader. It is also very practical and hands-on.
Will I get any certification from the programme?
The programme offers a certification of completion at the end of the second year. Students will also join the Alumni community.
How will I interact with the ShARE international community?
The programme provides an opportunity to the students to participate in competitions and case studies with other international students.
Will the programme interfere with my academic obligations?
The ShARE programme is tailor-made to fit into the AAU School of Law calendar and it will not interfere with exams or internships.
ABOUT ShARE
ShARE is an innovative start-up at the crossroad of education and consulting and which offers a leadership programme to university students to supplement their academic curriculum, and offers corporates a new way to do consulting, build innovation ecosystems and access top talent.
More information on ShARE.


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Five little-known vegetables that could help end hunger
Native vegetables such as guar, Dogon shallot, and celosia could play an important role in feeding Africa.
No single food can put an end to hunger. But worldwide there are many different fruits and vegetables that are helping to improve nutrition and diets, while increasing incomes and improving livelihoods.
Today, Nourishing the Planet introduces a new series featuring the four vegetables – and one fruit that acts like a vegetable – that you have likely never heard of that are helping to alleviate hunger and poverty:
1. Guar: Like other legumes, guar's (Cyamopsis tetragonoloba) roots have nitrogen-fixing bacteria, which improve the quality of the soil and increase the yield of subsequent crops. In addition to being an organic green manure, the guar seed is a valuable source of vegetable protein for humans and cattle. The seeds contain a thickening agent that can be used to strengthen paper, as well as improve the texture of foods such as ice cream and salad dressing.
Best way to eat it: Guar can be cooked in water until tender and sautéed with mustard oil and other seasonings, garnished with coriander and served hot as a flavorful entre or side.
Guar in Action: The organization Practical Action is encouraging farmers in the semi-arid Zambezi valley of northern Zimbabwe to grow guar to improve nutrition and livelihoods. The project has provided small-scale farmers with some of the inputs they need to cultivate the crop, as well as helping them develop a sound market system to reap benefits from the harvest.
2. The Dogon Shallot: The dogon shallot is found in Dogon, the land in the Bandiagarà escarpment between Mopti and Timbuktu in Mali. Shallots (Allium cepa var. aggregatum), a relative of the onion, have long been appreciated for their unique sweet and rich flavor and are a staple ingredient for many popular dishes. The nutritional and savory part of this vegetable is the bulb which grows underground and produces leaves, flowers, and fruits above ground.
Best way to eat it: Dogon Somè is a condiment commonly used in Dogon cooking. It consists of the shallot and other local ingredients such as, gangadjou, oroupounnà, and pourkamà. The leaves, flowers, and fruit of each plant are included in a sauce that is served to flavor most meals.
The Dogon Shallot in Action: In 2009 USAID/Mali's Integrated Initiatives for Economic Growth program (IICEM) with funds from the Global Food Security Response (GFSR) sent women from the village to a conference in Burkina Faso in order to share their experience and their shallots. The attendees at the conference enjoyed the shallots so much that the women won a first place prize of $1,700 and one woman received an order for 25 tons of her delicious shallots.
3. Spider Plant: Spider plant (Cleome gynandra) – also known as African cabbage, spider wisp, and cat's whiskers – is a wild green leafy vegetable that grows all over tropical Africa, Asia, and the Americas. It is not formally cultivated, but among poor rural communities – especially in the Kalahari and Namib regions of southern Africa – young leaves are collected, cooked, and eaten like spinach. Spider plant is generally considered a weed, plaguing maize and bean fields in Kenya and other countries. But called mwangani in Swahili, spider plant is highly nutritious and is well adapted to many African ecosystems.
Best Way to Eat It: The leaves, stems, pods, and flowers taste best when boiled in water or milk or fried in a pan with oil. The addition of milk reduces the natural bitterness of the leaves.
The Spider Plant in Action: In southern and eastern Africa, spider plant is sold in both rural and urban markets when the plant is in abundance, proving that the crop can be a profitable product. Further economic benefit could come from the development of medicinal products and insecticides, and seed oils could be used in soaps, biofuels, or other commercial products.
4. Celosia: Because of its flavor and nutritional value, Celosia is widely consumed in several parts of Africa. It is an especially important food in Nigeria, Benin, and Congo because of its affinity for hot and humid climates. It is also commonly eaten in Indonesia and India. Celosias grow easily, require little care, and often reseed themselves making them high yielding, cheap, and simple to grow. Having proven widely tolerant to both tropical and dry conditions and usually unaffected by pests, diseases, or soil type, this crop is among the most flexible greens for harsh growing conditions.
Best Way to Eat It: The leaves, young stems, and flowers a can be made into soups and stews, served as a nutty-flavored side dish with meat or fish or with a cereal-based main course such as maize porridge.
Celosia in Action: In addition to their nutritional and aesthetic value, Celosia may also help repress striga, a parasitic weed which devastates other crops including sorghum, millet, and maize. Although the research on this trait is still far from clear, farmers call it "striga chaser."
5. African Eggplant: The African Eggplant is technically a fruit, but it is usually picked when it is green and eaten as a vegetable. The plant itself can grow in "agricultural wastelands," is somewhat drought resistant, and has the ability to grow in humid areas. The garden eggs have even proven to be resistant to molds, mildews, and certain soil-borne plant pathogens. They can also be grown alongside other crops or in small pots providing a high yield of fruit from a small area.
Best Way to Eat It: The fruit is usually picked when it is green and eaten like a vegetable in stews and sauces, or even consumed raw. If picked after it is ripe, it can be enjoyed as a fruit – though some varieties are more sour than others.
African Eggplant in Action: Even though the fruit is not well known for its nutritional content – it is 92 percent water – it also provides vitamin B, beta-carotene, and vitamin C in addition to calcium, iron, and potassium.
To read more about the vegetables that are helping to alleviate hunger, see: Guar: Food, Fodder, Fertilizer & More, The Dogon Shallot: An Underground Favorite, Spider Plant: A Hardy Nutritious African Native, Celosia: Nature's Prettiest Vegetable, and African Eggplant: The Fruit that Is Enjoyed As a Vegetable.
To purchase your own copy of State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet, please click HERE. And to watch the one minute book trailer, click HERE.
• The original version of this story appeared at Nourishing the Planet, a blog published by the Worldwatch Institute.


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By The Open Group
Last month, The Open Group hosted its San Francisco 2014 conference themed "Toward Boundaryless Information Flow™." Boundaryless Information Flow has been the pillar of The Open Group's mission since 2002 when it was adopted as the organization's vision for Enterprise Architecture. We sat down at the conference with The Open Group President and CEO Allen Brown to discuss the industry's progress toward that goal and the industries that could most benefit from it now as well as The Open Group's new Dependability through Assuredness™ Standard and what the organization's Forums are working on in 2014.
The Open Group adopted Boundaryless Information Flow as its vision in 2002, and the theme of the San Francisco Conference has been "Towards Boundaryless Information Flow." Where do you think the industry is at this point in progressing toward that goal?
Well, it's progressing reasonably well but the challenge is, of course, when we established that vision back in 2002, life was a little less complex, a little bit less fast moving, a little bit less fast-paced. Although organizations are improving the way that they act in a boundaryless manner – and of course that changes by industry – some industries still have big silos and stovepipes, they still have big boundaries. But generally speaking we are moving and everyone understands the need for information to flow in a boundaryless manner, for people to be able to access and integrate information and to provide it to the teams that they need.
One of the keynotes on Day One focused on the opportunities within the healthcare industry and The Open Group recently started a Healthcare Forum. Do you see Healthcare industry as a test case for Boundaryless Information Flow and why?
Healthcare is one of the verticals that we've focused on. And it is not so much a test case, but it is an area that absolutely seems to need information to flow in a boundaryless manner so that everyone involved – from the patient through the administrator through the medical teams – have all got access to the right information at the right time. We know that in many situations there are shifts of medical teams, and from one medical team to another they don't have access to the same information. Information isn't easily shared between medical doctors, hospitals and payers. What we're trying to do is to focus on the needs of the patient and improve the information flow so that you get better outcomes for the patient.
Are there other industries where this vision might be enabled sooner rather than later?
I think that we're already making significant progress in what we call the Exploration, Mining and Minerals industry. Our EMMM™ Forum has produced an industry-wide model that is being adopted throughout that industry. We're also looking at whether we can have an influence in the airline industry, automotive industry, manufacturing industry. There are many, many others, government and retail included.
The plenary on Day Two of the conference focused on The Open Group's Dependability through Assuredness standard, which was released last August. Why is The Open Group looking at dependability and why is it important?
Dependability is ultimately what you need from any system. You need to be able to rely on that system to perform when needed. Systems are becoming more complex, they're becoming bigger. We're not just thinking about the things that arrive on the desktop, we're thinking about systems like the barriers at subway stations or Tube stations, we're looking at systems that operate any number of complex activities. And they bring an awful lot of things together that you have to rely upon.
Now in all of these systems, what we're trying to do is to minimize the amount of downtime because downtime can result in financial loss or at worst human life, and we're trying to focus on that. What is interesting about the Dependability through Assuredness Standard is that it brings together so many other aspects of what The Open Group is working on. Obviously the architecture is at the core, so it's critical that there's an architecture. It's critical that we understand the requirements of that system. It's also critical that we understand the risks, so that fits in with the work of the Security Forum, and the work that they've done on Risk Analysis, Dependency Modeling, and out of the dependency modeling we can get the use cases so that we can understand where the vulnerabilities are, what action has to be taken if we identify a vulnerability or what action needs to be taken in the event of a failure of the system. If we do that and assign accountability to people for who will do what by when, in the event of an anomaly being detected or a failure happening, we can actually minimize that downtime or remove it completely.
Now the other great thing about this is it's not only a focus on the architecture for the actual system development, and as the system changes over time, requirements change, legislation changes that might affect it, external changes, that all goes into that system, but also there's another circle within that system that deals with failure and analyzes it and makes sure it doesn't happen again. But there have been so many evidences of failure recently. In the banks for example in the UK, a bank recently was unable to process debit cards or credit cards for customers for about three or four hours. And that was probably caused by the work done on a routine basis over a weekend. But if Dependability through Assuredness had been in place, that could have been averted, it could have saved an awfully lot of difficulty for an awful lot of people.
How does the Dependability through Assuredness Standard also move the industry toward Boundaryless Information Flow?
It's part of it. It's critical that with big systems the information has to flow. But this is not so much the information but how a system is going to work in a dependable manner.
Business Architecture was another featured topic in the San Francisco plenary. What role can business architecture play in enterprise transformation vis a vis the Enterprise Architecture as a whole?
A lot of people in the industry are talking about Business Architecture right now and trying to focus on that as a separate discipline. We see it as a fundamental part of Enterprise Architecture. And, in fact, there are three legs to Enterprise Architecture, there's Business Architecture, there's the need for business analysts, which are critical to supplying the information, and then there are the solutions, and other architects, data, applications architects and so on that are needed. So those three legs are needed.
We find that there are two or three different types of Business Architect. Those that are using the analysis to understand what the business is doing in order that they can inform the solutions architects and other architects for the development of solutions. There are those that are more integrated with the business that can understand what is going on and provide input into how that might be improved through technology. And there are those that can actually go another step and talk about here we have the advances and the technology and here are the opportunities for advancing our competitiveness and organization.
What are some of the other key initiatives that The Open Group's forum and work groups will be working on in 2014?
That kind question is like if you've got an award, you've got to thank your friends, so apologies to anyone that I leave out. Let me start alphabetically with the Architecture Forum. The Architecture Forum obviously is working on the evolution of TOGAF®, they're also working with the harmonization of TOGAF with Archimate® and they have a number of projects within that, of course Business Architecture is on one of the projects going on in the Architecture space. The Archimate Forum are pushing ahead with Archimate—they've got two interesting activities going on at the moment, one is called ArchiMetals, which is going to be a sister publication to the ArchiSurance case study, where the ArchiSurance provides the example of Archimate is used in the insurance industry, ArchiMetals is going to be used in a manufacturing context, so there will be a whitepaper on that and there will be examples and artifacts that we can use. They're also working on in Archimate a standard for interoperability for modeling tools. There are four tools that are accredited and certified by The Open Group right now and we're looking for that interoperability to help organizations that have multiple tools as many of them do.
Going down the alphabet, there's DirecNet. Not many people know about DirecNet, but Direcnet™ is work that we do around the U.S. Navy. They're working on standards for long range, high bandwidth mobile networking. We can go to the FACE™ Consortium, the Future Airborne Capability Environment. The FACE Consortium are working on their next version of their standard, they're working toward accreditation, a certification program and the uptake of that through procurement is absolutely amazing, we're thrilled about that.
Healthcare we've talked about. The Open Group Trusted Technology Forum, where they're working on how we can trust the supply chain in developed systems, they've released the Open Trusted Technology Provider™ Standard (O-TTPS) Accreditation Program, that was launched this week, and we already have one accredited vendor and two certified test labs, assessment labs. That is really exciting because now we've got a way of helping any organization that has large complex systems that are developed through a global supply chain to make sure that they can trust their supply chain. And that is going to be invaluable to many industries but also to the safety of citizens and the infrastructure of many countries. So the other part of the O-TTPS is that standard we are planning to move toward ISO standardization shortly.
The next one moving down the list would be Open Platform 3.0™. This is really exciting part of Boundaryless Information Flow, it really is. This is talking about the convergence of SOA, Cloud, Social, Mobile, Internet of Things, Big Data, and bringing all of that together, this convergence, this bringing together of all of those activities is really something that is critical right now, and we need to focus on. In the different areas, some of our Cloud computing standards have already gone to ISO and have been adopted by ISO. We're working right now on the next products that are going to move through. We have a governance standard in process and an ecosystem standard has recently been published. In the area of Big Data there's a whitepaper that's 25 percent completed, there's also a lot of work on the definition of what Open Platform 3.0 is, so this week the members have been working on trying to define Open Platform 3.0. One of the really interesting activities that's gone on, the members of the Open Platform 3.0 Forum have produced something like 22 different use cases and they're really good. They're concise and they're precise and the cover a number of different industries, including healthcare and others, and the next stage is to look at those and work on the ROI of those, the monetization, the value from those use cases, and that's really exciting, I'm looking forward to peeping at that from time to time.
The Real Time and Embedded Systems Forum (RTES) is next. Real-Time is where we incubated the Dependability through Assuredness Framework and that was where that happened and is continuing to develop and that's really good. The core focus of the RTES Forum is high assurance system, and they're doing some work with ISO on that and a lot of other areas with multicore and, of course, they have a number of EC projects that we're partnering with other partners in the EC around RTES.
The Security Forum, as I mentioned earlier, they've done a lot of work on risk and dependability. So they've not only their standards for the Risk Taxonomy and Risk Analysis, but they've now also developed the Open FAIR Certification for People, which is based on those two standards of Risk Analysis and Risk Taxonomy. And we're already starting to see people being trained and being certified under that Open FAIR Certification Program that the Security Forum developed.
A lot of other activities are going on. Like I said, I probably left a lot of things out, but I hope that gives you a flavor of what's going on in The Open Group right now.
The Open Group will be hosting a summit in Amsterdam May 12-14, 2014. What can we look forward to at that conference?
In Amsterdam we have a summit – that's going to bring together a lot of things, it's going to be a bigger conference that we had here. We've got a lot of activity in all of our activities; we're going to bring together top-level speakers, so we're looking forward to some interesting work during that week.


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A sale is the act of selling a product or service in return for money or other compensation. It is an act of completion of a commercial activity.
The seller or salesperson – the provider of the goods or services – completes a sale in response to an acquisition or to an appropriation or to a request. There follows the passing of title (property or ownership) in the item, and the application and due settlement of a price, the obligation for which arises due to the seller's requirement to pass ownership. Ideally, a seller agrees upon a price at which he willingly parts with ownership of or any claim upon the item. The purchaser, though a party to the sale, does not execute the sale, only the seller does that. To be precise the sale completes prior to the payment and gives rise to the obligation of payment. If the seller completes the first two above stages (consent and passing ownership) of the sale prior to settlement of the price, the sale remains valid and gives rise to an obligation to pay.
Sales Techniques
A sale can take place through:
- Direct sales, involving person to person contact
- Pro forma sales
- Agency-based
- Sales agents (for example in real estate or in manufacturing)
- Sales outsourcing through direct branded representation
- Transaction sales
- Consultative sales
- Complex sales
- Consignment
- Telemarketing or telesales
- Retail or consumer
- Traveling salesman
- Door-to-door methods
- Hawking
- Request for proposal – An invitation for suppliers, through a bidding process, to submit a proposal on a specific product or service. An RFP usually represents part of a complex sales process, also known as "enterprise sales".
- Business-to-business – Business-to-business sales are much more relationship-based owing to the lack of emotional attachment to the products in question. Industrial/professional sales involves selling from one business to another
- Electronic
- Web – Business-to-business and business-to-consumer
- Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) – A set of standard for structuring information to be electronically exchanged between and within businesses
- Indirect, human-mediated but with indirect contact
- Sales methods:
- Selling technique
- Consultative selling
- Sales enablement
- Solution selling
- Conceptual Selling
- Strategic Selling
- Transactional Selling
- Sales Negotiation
- Reverse Selling
- Paint-the-Picture
- The take away
- Sales Habits
Sales Agents
Agents in the sales process can represent either of two parties in the sales process; for example:
- Sales broker or Seller agency or seller agent: This is a traditional role where the salesman represents a person or company on the selling end of a deal.
- Buyers broker or Buyer brokerage: This is where the salesman represents the consumer making the purchase. This is most often applied in large transactions.
- Disclosed dual agent:This is where the salesman represents both parties in the sale and acts as a mediator for the transaction. The role of the salesman here is to oversee that both parties receive an honest and fair deal, and is responsible to both.
- Transaction broker: This is where the salesperson represent neither party but handles the transaction only. The seller owes no responsibility to either party getting a fair or honest deal, just that all of the papers are handled properly.
- Sales outsourcing involves direct branded representation where the sales representatives are recruited, hired, and managed by an external entity but hold quotas, represent themselves as the brand of the client, and report all activities (through their own sales management channels) back to the client. It is akin to a virtual extension of a sales force (see sales outsourcing).
- Sales managers: qualified and talented sales managers aim to implement various sales strategies and management techniques in order to facilitate improved profits and increased sales volume. They are also responsible for coordinating the sales and marketing department as well as oversight concerning the fair and honest execution of the sales process by their agents.
- Salesmen: The primary function of professional sales is to generate and close leads, educate prospects, fill needs and satisfy wants of consumers appropriately, and therefore turn prospective customers into actual ones. Questioning – to understand a customer's goal and requirements relevant to the product – and the creation of a valuable solution by communicating the necessary information that encourages a buyer to achieve their goal at an economic cost comprise the functions of the salesperson or of the sales engine (for example, the Internet, a vending machine, etc). A good salesman should never mis-sell or over-evaluate the customer's requirements.
Inside sales vs. Outside sales
Since the advent of the telephone, a distinction has been made between "inside sales" and "outside sales" although it is generally agreed that those terms have no hard-and-fast definition.In the United States, the Fair Labor Standards Act defines outside sales representatives as "employees [who] sell their employer's products, services, or facilities to customers away from their employer's place(s) of business, in general, either at the customer's place of business or by selling door-to-door at the customer's home" while defining those who work "from the employer's location" as inside sales. Inside sales generally involves attempting to close business primarily over the phone via cold calling or telemarketing, while outside sales (or "field" sales) will usually involve initial phone work to book sales calls at the potential buyer's location to attempt to close the deal in person. Some companies have an inside sales department that works with outside representatives and book their appointments for them. Inside sales sometimes refers to upselling to existing customers.
The Relationships between Sales and Marketing
Marketing and sales differ greatly, but have the same goal. Marketing improves the selling environment and plays a very important role in sales. If the marketing department generates a list of potential customers, that can benefit sales. A marketing department in an organization has the goal increasing the number of interactions between potential customers and the organization. Achieving this goal may involve the sales team using promotional techniques such as advertising, sales promotion, publicity, and public relations, creating new sales channels, or creating new products (new product development), among other things. It can also include bringing the potential customer to visit the organization's website(s) for more information, or to contact the organization for more information, or to interact with the organization via social media such as Twitter, Facebook and blogs.
The relatively newfield of sales process engineering views "sales" as the output of a larger system, not just as the output of one department. The larger system includes many functional areas within an organization. From this perspective, "sales" and "marketing" (among others, such as "customer service") label for a number of processes whose inputs and outputs supply one another to varying degrees. In this context, improving an "output" (such as sales) involves studying and improving the broader sales process, as in any system, since the component functional areas interact and are interdependent.
Most large corporations structure their marketing departments in a similar fashion to sales departments and the managers of these teams must coordinate efforts in order to drive profits and business success. For example, an "inbound" focused campaign seeks to drive more customers "through the door", giving the sales department a better chance of selling their product to the consumer. A good marketing program would address any potential downsides as well.
The sales department would aim to improve the interaction between the customer and the sales facility or mechanism (example, web site) and/or salesperson. Sales management would break down the selling process and then increase the effectiveness of the discrete processes as well as the interaction between processes. For example, in many out-bound sales environments, the typical process includes out-bound calling, the sales pitch, handling objections, opportunity identification, and the close. Each step of the process has sales-related issues, skills, and training needs, as well as marketing solutions to improve each discrete step, as well as the whole process.
One further common complication of marketing involves the inability to measure results for a great deal of marketing initiatives. In essence, many marketing and advertising executives often lose sight of the objective of sales/revenue/profit, as they focus on establishing a creative/innovative program, without concern for the top or bottom lines – a fundamental pitfall of marketing for marketing's sake.
Many companies find it challenging to get marketing and sales on the same page. The two departments, although different in nature, handle very similar concepts and have to work together for sales to be successful. Building a good relationship between the two that encourages communication can be the key to success – even in a down economy.
Marketing Potentially negates the Need for Sales
Some sales authors and consultants contend that an expertly planned and executed marketing strategy may negate the need for outside sales entirely. They suggest that by effectively bringing more customers "through the door" and enticing them into contact, sales organizations can dramatically improve their results, efficiency, profitability, and allow salespeople to provide a drastically higher level of customer service and satisfaction, instead of spending the majority of their working hours searching for someone to sell to.
Industrial Marketing
The idea that marketing can potentially eliminate the need for sales people depends entirely on context. For example, this may be possible in some B2C situations; however, for many B2B transactions (for example, those involving industrial organizations) this is mostly impossible.Another dimension is the value of the goods being sold. Fast-moving consumer-goods (FMCG) require no sales people at the point of sale to get them to jump off the supermarket shelf and into the customer's trolley. However, the purchase of large mining equipment worth millions of dollars will require a sales person to manage the sales process – particularly in the face of competitors.
Sales and Marketing Alignment and Integration
Another area of discussion involves the need for alignment and integration between corporate sales and marketing functions. According to a report from the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council, only 40 percent of companies have formal programs, systems or processes in place to align and integrate the two critical functions.
Traditionally, these two functions, as referenced above, have operated separately, left in siloed areas of tactical responsibility. Glen Petersen's book The Profit Maximization Paradox sees the changes in the competitive landscape between the 1950's and the time of writing as so dramatic that the complexity of choice, price and opportunities for the customer forced this seemingly simple and integrated relationship between sales and marketing to change forever. Petersen goes on to highlight that salespeople spend approximately 40 percent of their time preparing customer-facing deliverables while leveraging less than 50 percent of the materials created by marketing, adding to perceptions that marketing is out of touch with the customer and that sales is resistant to messaging and strategy.
Sources; Wikipedia and other encyclopaedias


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Because banks are subject to both provincial and federal regulations, procedures can vary greatly from bank to bank and province to province. Some provinces have been known to automatically freeze joint bank accounts when one of the joint owners dies. To avoid problems, contact your bank directly, to determine the amount of money accessible and learn the procedures for releasing these funds, and to establish a new account for funds received after the death. At least one joint checking or savings account should be left open for at least six months. This will allow you to deposit any checks that you are entitled to but are in the deceased's name. For instance, "Insurance Reimbursement Check". This check would be endorsed on the back as follows: "Deposit Only" with the deceased's name PRINTED underneath, followed by the bank account number.
If after six months you want to take the deceased's name off the account, the bank will want to have a Certified Copy of the Death Certificate. A Certified Copy will also be necessary for any accounts that are left "In Trust For" someone. (I.T.F.). Your bank can advise you regarding IRA's or CD's (Certificates of Deposit). Both will need a Certified Copy of the Death Certificate before they are released.
If the safety deposit box is in the sole ownership of the deceased. Banks will require a Certified Copy of the Death Certificate and Letters of Administration to gain access to the contents. On co-owned safety deposit boxes, the rules vary from province to province. Call your attorney or bank for their requirements.
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The "Quiz Show Timer" track is for game show and quiz show events for counting down the time of the candidates. Mood of this track – exciting, thrilling, thinking, gaming, background. The background music is designed for 30 second countdown of shows, grants a pulsating atmosphere, is innovative short videos, teaser and trailer.
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Release Day Blitz: From Russia with Fangs (From Russia... #2) by Jacey Conrad & Gia Corona (Promo + Giveaway)
New Release from Molly Harper, writing as Jacey Conrad, and Gia Corona: From Russia With fangs! The companion novel to the best selling From Russia with Claws, this time we hear sister irina's story.
Between her family's drunken antics and vicious verbal attacks from her socalled friends, Irina Sudenko Volkov is having the worst night ever. And that's before she's widowed. Volatile, cheating, nogood Sergei's deathbyassassin unleashes chaos in the werewolf criminal underground. Irina's panicked Papa assigns Beta wolf Viktor Zhukovsky to Irina's security detail until her husband's killer is found. As Irina's world crumbles around her, the perfect princess mask falls away and Viktor meets the sharp, passionate woman underneath. Their initial chemistry gives way to a deeper attraction when Irina begins to see the decency underneath Viktor's gruff, tattooed exterior, despite his insistence that it doesn't exist. Their tendency to find themselves seminude and in enclosed spaces is a source of amusement to her sister, Galina, but each of them knows of the deadly consequences if their relationship is brought to light. Things get even more complicated when Papa Sudenko begins to matchmake Irina and Andrey Lupesco, who also happens to be in a secret relationship with Galina. Family dinners are awkward.
With danger closing in on all sides, Irina has to find her claws and learn to howl.
In the muchanticipated sequel to From Russia with Claws, readers get a new perspective of the lusty exploits of the untameable Sudenko family.
Gia Corona and Jacey Conrad craft a delightful tale of the anything-but-average human Irina and the libidinous lycanthropes in her life.
Buy it on Amazon! http://amzn.to/216ghmu
And here's Book One: http://amzn.to/1PQ5Hea
Buy it on Barnes and Noble! http://bit.ly/1NFMIhH
Add it to your TBR: http://bit.ly/GRFANGS
About The Authors:
Jacey Conrad is a sushiloving, pop culture nerd living in the South with her high school sweetheart. She delights in horribly made mutant shark movies and watching Sean Bean die in his various cinematic incarnations. To keep up with Jacey on twitter, go to https://twitter.com/JaceyConrad
Gia Corona loves boots, boys, and bourbon, not necessarily in that order. When she's not actively stalking Michael Fassbender and his abdominals, she's watching questionable television or reading comics. You can find her at twitter.com/Gia_writes


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Soccer Shots Mini is a high-energy program introducing children to fundamental soccer principles, such as using your feet, dribbling and the basic rules of the game.
Through fun games, songs and positive reinforcement, children will begin to experience the joy of playing soccer and being active.
This program may require parent involvement. To follow social distancing recommendations, only one family member per child is permitted on Soccer Island during the session.
Soccer Shots Classic utilizes creative and imaginative games to focus on basic soccer skills like dribbling, passing and shooting.
We also highlight a positive character trait each session such as respect, teamwork and appreciation.
Health & Safety on Soccer Island:
We have been diligently working behind the scenes to modify our curriculum and current operating procedures to ensure a safe return. You will see our coaches making adjustments to our regular routine to continue to keep safety our top priority. Additionally, all coaches will complete a mandatory health and safety course before returning to coaching.
Mask Guidance Update - Summer 2022:
During our sessions your coach will:
Additionally, coaches will be sanitizing all equipment before and after each session and monitoring their temperatures daily. We will do our best to use smaller group sizes and/or larger field setups to allow for the distancing of participants and observers.
We are requesting that families attending in-person sessions follow these guidelines for the health and safety of other families and coaches:
*Access information from your past participants.
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Trinity Advocate. (Palestine, Tex.), Vol. 3, No. 39, Ed. 1 Saturday, December 10, 1853
Description: Weekly newspaper from Palestine, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.
Date: December 10, 1853
Creator: Ewing & McClure
Item Type: Refine your search to only Newspaper
Partner: The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History


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When I first started teaching, I promised myself that I would be an innovator…and I have been. But, this year, my growth has been exponential, and the impetus for that growth resides in my role as a fellow.
Crystal Kirch, my DLC, will tell you that the word "purposeful" has driven our work this year. For instance, I am not interested in blindly adding a tech factor to my lessons, or using technology just to be different and edgy and current. The technology I have incorporated this year has aided my instruction – or I have not used it. Rather, I have developed lessons solely because of the learning opportunities that the technology allows. If an app will allow me to provide students with more immediate feedback, I'll use it. If a website will allow my students to collaborate more effectively, I will use it. If software exists that will allow my students to learn with greater facility, I'll use it. These principles have guided me this year. Fortunately, apps and websites and software DOES exist that will allow my students to learn and grow with greater ease, and incorporating them into my curriculum has been the most rewarding work I have completed.
A few examples…
This is the website I use most often simply because it works so well for feedback. I can immediately see the progress my students are making on writing assignments, and I can help them modify and improve their work before they submit. The assignment below was an evidence-gathering activity used in conjunction with The Old Man and the Sea unit in my Freshman Transitional English class. Timely feedback is critical in this class because most students are not as adept at writing as they should be. It is incredibly beneficial to correct writing and grammar errors as they make them; doing so helps students learn to make modifications in their own grammar and syntax. For example, my typical procedure for a Formative assignment is to 1) introduce the assignment, 2) model the assignment, and then 3) allow students time to start. After 5 - 10 minutes, I'll log in to "Live Results" on Formative and start reviewing students' work. It never fails: Almost immediately, I will observe a "teachable moment" that I will bring to their attention. I'll project one or two students' work on the screen and then commence the compliment/issue/problem. In the example below, for instance, I used the partially completed student examples to discuss the effective incorporation of quoted evidence into an argumentative literary analysis.
A terrific app for collaboration. The assignment below was a collaborative effort involving three or four students per group. Immediately after submission, students were able to evaluate the work of their peers anonymously (each was color-coded only when viewed in class) and determine superior and exemplary models. The comments students offered were carefully contemplated as well. It was extremely meaningful for students to have their opinions taken into consideration in the evaluation process.
Newsela:I am routinely looking for insightful, relevant articles for my students to read, and this website provides them. In addition, the fact that the reading level can be adjusted is incredibly helpful. For example, I will adjust the reading level for my English 1 Transitional class to account for their language facility. I do not automatically adjust the level to the lowest level either. Instead, the lexile is adjusted based on the complexity of the article and the purpose (annotation, comprehension, etc.) The good news is that the articles do not get "dumbed down;" the content and message remain the same.
Kami/Google Classroom:
After an entire year of searching for an effective annotation tool for text and poetry, Crystal introduced me to Kami. Kami is an app you can find in the Chrome Web Store; it gets connected to your Google Drive so you can open PDF files with it in order to annotate. The annotations can be highlights, underlines, strikethroughs, text boxes, comments, or drawings.It has a terrific, easy-to-use interface that my students adapted to almost immediately. It syncs perfectly with Google Classroom, making it both easy to use and easy to grade.
I really enjoy PearDeck; it may replicate my style of teaching better than any other app I have tried. A significant part of that feeling comes from the fact that the teacher can control the pace of the lesson on PearDeck. I can control the slides and the flow of the questions. Therefore, when we are completing an activity like the one below for example, where the students need to consider possible symbols and metaphors in The Great Gatsby before casting a vote, this opportunity becomes essential. Why? The one drawback to many apps is what I call the "behind-the-screen" factor: Too many students simply put up the screen and disappear. I want my students collaborating and talking and communicating and sharing. PearDeck allows me the control to encourage discussions rather than simply having kids "disappear" to complete an assisgnment before the end of the period. I can delay the next slide or I can push it through, based on the level of discourse in the room.
How do you want to continue to grow next year? What are your goals and plans for progressing from where you are now?
I am definitely going to continue my growth next year. Although I am a little worried that my time will not be as well-managed without a set weekly appointment to discuss technology, I am bound and determined to keep innovating. I can keep myself motivated and focused on change. In addition, I have forged new relationships with other teachers - in and out of my department - who are enjoying similar levels of innovation and experience with apps and websites and new tech-based teaching styles. It is gratifying to collaborate with others - even if they are completing a math lesson as I plan a poetic deconstruction.
My plan for next year is two-fold: I will continue to find apps and websites that supplement my teaching style and my objectives, and I will continue to utilize those tech aids I discovered and implemented this year.
What impact has the Tech Fellowship had on your teaching practice?
I sincerely cannot overestimate the impact that the Tech Fellowship has had on my instructional practice this school year. The weekly appointments, the regular check-ups, the opportunity to keep a journal, the reflective requirement … all of it has combined to provide me with a lifetime of technology assistance in just one year. Best of all, however, has been the guidance and support provided by Crystal Kirch. She is the consummate professional: approachable, knowledgeable and capable. I am often amazed at her willingness to assist. Best of all, she does so with a steady focus on student achievement. Working with her, I am often reminded of one of my favorite quotes: "If you are too comfortable, you will never change." Crystal respectfully makes you just uncomfortable enough to want to change. With great facility and endless expertise, she demonstrates that there is a better way for kids to learn, and she provides the support and patience and time necessary to make that change happen. Honestly, this has been one of the best years in my 25-year teaching career, and I owe a tremendous amount of that credit to her influence.
My name is Darin Hallstrom. I have worked as a public school instructor for 25 years. I love my job. I work very hard to make lessons meaningful and purposeful for my junior Honors and freshman Transitional students at Beckman High School. My room is always open; please feel free to come by and watch my amazing students learn and grow.
Follow me @DarinHallstrom


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SE Queensland on flood alert as NSW cleans up
South-east Queensland is on alert for flash flooding as a massive clean-up gets underway in storm-hit areas of New South Wales.
The weather bureau has extended its earlier severe weather warning for heavy rainfall in Queensland's south-east coast, Wide Bay and Burnett and far southern Capricornia districts, adding the Darling Downs and Granite Belt to the list of areas likely to be affected.
It says 24-hour rainfall totals of up to 200mm are likely, with locally heavier totals in some areas.
The Bureau of Meteorology says a combination of an upper level low and surface trough near the south-east coast is causing the instability, only one month since ex-tropical cyclone Oswald caused widespread flooding and damage across Queensland.
Senior forecaster Jonty Hall says the activity will bring major downpours and flash flooding over the next three days and there could be falls of between 200 and 300 millimetres in parts.
"South of about the Fraser Island area is where we expect to see the heaviest falls for the next 24 hours or so, pretty much from Fraser down to the New South Wales border and inland to the ranges," he said.
However he says the conditions will not be anything like ex-tropical cyclone Oswald.
"It is likely to be raining fairly continuously throughout that period, but the heavier falls will come in bursts on and off so it won't be particularly raining the whole time," he said.
"We could have the odd rumble of thunder with the heaviest stuff coming through, but thunderstorms aren't likely to be a big feature of this event."
Swollen creeks and rivers are starting to recede in New South Wales, but around 20,000 people are likely to remain isolated for several days.
Flooding in the Hastings River has eased, and residents in Port Macquarie and Settlement Point were last night given the all-clear to return home.
The State Emergency Service says the evacuation order still in place for Kempsey will be lifted once the Macleay River drops to a safe level.
Phil Campbell from the State Emergency Service says volunteers will be using floodboats and helicopters to help people who are stranded.
"The focus for the SES is now on recovery and resupply of those people who are still isolated by floodwater," he said.
Meanwhile, around 1,000 homes are still without power in parts of Sydney and the central coast after a destructive storm battered the region at the weekend.
The SES received more than 2,000 calls for help, mainly for homes damaged by galeforce winds in Sydney's southern suburbs and at Kiama on the south coast.