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How we built and iterated on a machine learning Search Ranking platform for a new two-sided marketplace and how we helped it grow.
Mihajlo Grbovic, Eric Wu, Pai Liu, Chun How Tan, Liang Wu, Bo Yu, Alex Tian
Airbnb Experiences are handcrafted activities designed and led by expert hosts that offer a unique taste of local scene and culture. Each experience is vetted for quality by a team of editors before it makes its way onto the platform.
We launched Airbnb Experiences in November 2016 with 500 Experiences in 12 cities worldwide. During 2017, we grew the business to 5,000 Experiences in 60 cities. In 2018, the rapid growth continued, and we managed to bring Experiences to more than 1,000 destinations, including unique places like Easter Island, Tasmania, and Iceland. We finished the year strong with more than 20,000 active Experiences.
As the number of Experiences grew, Search & Discoverability as well as Personalization have become very important factors for the growth and success of the marketplace.
In this blog post, we describe the stages of our Experience Ranking development using machine learning at different growth phases of the marketplace, from small to mid-size and large.
The main take-away is that machine learning-based Search Ranking works at every stage, given that we pick the model and infrastructure with the right level of complexity for the amount of data available and the size of the inventory that needs to be ranked. Very complex models will not work well when trained with small amounts of data, and simple baselines are sub-optimal when large amounts of training data are available.
Stage 1: Build a Strong Baseline
When Airbnb Experiences launched, the amount of Experiences that needed to be ranked in Search was small, and we just started collecting data on user interactions with Experiences (impressions, clicks, and bookings). At that moment, the best choice was to just randomly re-rank Experiences daily, until a small dataset is collected for development of the Stage 1 ML model.
Collecting training data: To train our first machine learning model for ranking Experiences, we collected search logs (i.e. clicks) of users who ended up making bookings.
Labeling training data: When labeling training data, we were mainly interested in two labels: experiences that were booked (which we treated as positive labels) and experiences that were clicked but not booked (which we treated as negative labels). In this manner, we collected a training dataset of 50,000 examples.
Building signals based on which we will rank: In Stage 1 of our ML model, we decided to rank solely based on Experience Features. In total we built 25 features, some of which were:
- Experience duration (e.g. 1h, 2h, 3h, etc.)
- Price and Price-per-hour
- Category (e.g. cooking class, music, surfing, etc.)
- Reviews (rating, number of reviews)
- Number of bookings (last 7 days, last 30 days)
- Occupancy of past and future instances (e.g. 60%)
- Maximum number of seats (e.g. max 5 people can attend)
- Click-through rate
Training the ranking model: Given the training data, labels, and features, we used the Gradient Boosted Decision Tree (GBDT) model. At this point we treated the problem as binary classification with log-loss loss function.
When using GBDT, one does not need to worry much about scaling the feature values, or missing values (they can be left as is). However, one important factor to take into account is that, unlike in a linear model, using raw counts as features in a tree-based model to make tree traversal decisions may be problematic when those counts are prone to change rapidly in a fast growing marketplace. In that case, it is better to use ratios of fractions. For example, instead of using booking counts in the last 7 days (e.g. 10 bookings), it is better to use fractions of bookings, e.g. relative to the number of eyeballs (e.g. 12 bookings per 1000 viewers).
Testing the ranking model: To perform offline hyper-parameter tuning and comparison to random re-ranking in production, we used hold-out data which was not used in training. Our choice of metrics were AUC and NDCG, which are standard ranking metrics. Specifically, we re-ranked the Experiences based on model scores (probabilities of booking) and tested where the booked Experience would rank among all Experiences the user clicked (the higher the better).
In addition, to get a sense of what a trained model learned, we plotted partial dependency plots for several most important Experience features. These plots showed what would happen to specific Experience ranking scores if we fix values of all but a single feature (the one we are examining). As it can be observed in the plots below, the model learned to utilize the features in the following manner:
- Experiences with more bookings per 1k viewers will rank higher
- Experiences with higher average review rating will rank higher
- Experiences with lower prices will rank higher
Since offline testing often has too many assumptions, e.g. in our case it was limited to re-ranking what users clicked and not the entire inventory, we conducted an online experiment, i.e. A/B test, as our next step. We compared the Stage 1 ML model to the rule-based random ranking in terms of number of bookings. The results were very encouraging as we were able to improve bookings by +13% with the Stage 1 ML ranking model.
Implementation details: In this stage, our ML model was limited to using only Experience Features, and as a result, the ranking of Experiences was the same for all users. In addition, all query parameters (number of guests, dates, location, etc.) served only as filters for retrieval (e.g. fetch Paris Experiences available next week for 2 guests), and ranking of Experiences did not change based on those inputs.
Given such a simple setup, the entire ranking pipeline, including training and scoring, was implemented offline and ran daily in Airflow. The output was just a complete ordering of all Experiences, i.e. an ordered list, which was uploaded to production machines and used every time a search was conducted to rank a subset of Experiences that satisfied the search criteria.
Stage 2: Personalize
The next step in our Search Ranking development was to add the Personalization capability to our ML ranking model.
From the beginning, we knew that Personalization was going to play a big role in the ranking of Experiences because of the diversity of both the inventory and the guest interest.
Unlike our Home business, where two Private Rooms in the same city at a similar price point are very similar, two randomly chosen Experiences are likely to be very different, e.g. a Cooking Class vs. a Surf Lesson. At the same time, guests may have different interests and ideas of what they want to do on their trip, and it is our goal to capture that interest fast and serve the right content higher in search results.
We introduced two different types of personalization, mostly by doing feature engineering given collected data about users.
1. Personalize based on booked Airbnb Homes
A large portion of Experience bookings (more than 50%) come from guests who already booked an Airbnb Home. Therefore, we have quite a bit of information we can use to build features for personalization:
- Booked Home location
- Trip dates
- Trip length
- Number of guests
- Trip price (Below/Above Market)
- Type of trip: Family, Business
- First trip or returning to location
- Domestic / International trip
- Lead days
To give examples of features that can be built to guide ranking, we demonstrate two important ones:
- Distance between Booked Home and Experience. Knowing Booked Home location (latitude and longitude) as well as Experience meeting location, we can compute their distance in miles. Data shows that users like convenience, i.e. large fraction of booked Airbnb Experiences are near booked Airbnb Home.
- Experience available during Booked Trip. Given Home check-in and check-out dates, we have an idea on which dates the guest is looking to book Experiences and can mark Experiences as available or not during those dates.
These two features (in addition to others) were used when training the new ML ranking model. Below we show their partial dependency plots.
The plots confirmed that features behavior matches what we intuitively expected the model will learn, i.e. Experiences that are closer to Booked Home will rank higher (have higher scores), and Experiences that are available for Booked Trip dates will rank higher (which is very convenient because even in dateless search we can leverage trip dates).
2. Personalize based on the user's clicks
Given the user's short-term search history, we can infer useful information that can help us personalize future searches:
- Infer user interest in certain categories: For example, if the user is mostly clicking on Music Experiences we can infer that the user's interest is in Music
- Infer the user's time-of-day availability: For example, if the user is mostly clicking on Evening Experiences we can infer that the user is available at that time of day
At the time they are published to the platform, each Experience is manually tagged with a category (e.g. hiking, skiing, horseback riding, etc.). This structured data gives us the ability to differentiate between types of Experiences. It also gives us the ability to create user interest profiles in each category by aggregating their clicks on different categories.
For this purpose, we compute two features derived from user clicks and categories of clicked Experiences:
Category Intensity: Weighted sum of user clicks on Experiences that have that particular category,
where the sum is over the last 15 days (d_0 to d_now) and A is the number of actions (in this case clicks) on certain category on day d.
Category Recency: Number of days that passed since the user last clicked on an Experience in that category.
Note that the user may have clicked on many different categories with different intensities and recencies, but when the feature is computed for a particular Experience that needs to be ranked, we use the intensity and recency of that Experience category.
To illustrate what our model learned for these two features, we show the partial dependency plots below. As it can be observed on the left side, Experiences in categories for which the user had high intensities will rank higher. At the same time, having the recency feature (on the right) allows the model to forget history as time goes by, and Experiences in categories that the user last clicked a long time ago will rank lower.
We built the same types of features (intensity & recency) for several different user actions, including wishlisting and booking a certain category.
Time of Day Personalization: Different Experiences are held at different times of day (e.g. early morning, evening, etc.). Similar to how we track clicks on different categories, we can also track clicks on different times of day and compute Time of Day Fit between the user's time-of-day percentages and the Experience's time of day, as described below.
As it can be observed, the model learned to use this feature in a way that ranks Experiences held at time of day that the user prefers higher.
Training the ranking model: To train the model with Personalization features, we first generated training data that contains those features by reconstructing the past based on search logs. By that time we already had a bigger inventory (4000 experiences) and were able to collect more training data (250K labeled examples) with close to 50 ranking features.
When creating personalization features it is very important not to "leak the label," i.e. expose some information that happened after the event used for creating the label. Therefore, we only used user clicks that happened before bookings. In addition, to reduce leakage further, when creating training data we computed the personalization features only if the user interacted with more than one Experience and category (to avoid cases where the user clicked only one Experience / category, e.g. Surfing, and ended up booking that category).
Another important aspect to think about was that our search traffic contains searches by both logged-in and logged-out users. Considering this, we found it more appropriate to train two models, one with personalization features for logged-in users and one without personalization features that will serve log-out traffic. The main reason was that the logged-in model trained with personalization features relies too much on the presence of those features, and as such is not appropriate for usage on logged-out traffic.
Testing the ranking model: We conducted an A/B test to compare the new setup with 2 models with Personalization features to the model from Stage 1. The results showed that Personalization matters as we were able to improve bookings by +7.9% compared to the Stage 1 model.
Implementation details: To implement serving of the Stage 2 model in production, we chose a simple solution that required the least time to implement. We created a look-up table keyed off of user id that contained personalized ranking of all Experiences for that user, and use key 0 for ranking for logged-out users.
This required daily offline computation of all these rankings in Airflow by computing the latest features and scoring the two models to produce rankings. Because of the high cost involved with pre-computing personalized rankings for all users (O(NM), where N is the number of users and M is the number of Experiences), we limited N to only 1 million most active users.
The personalization features at this point were computed only daily, which means that we have up to one day latency (also a factor that can be greatly improved with more investment in infrastructure).
Stage 2 implementation was a temporary solution used to validate personalization gains before we invest more resources in building an Online Scoring Infrastructure in Stage 3, which was needed as both N and M are expected to grow much more.
Stage 3: Move to Online Scoring
After we demonstrated significant booking gains from iterating on our ML ranking model and after inventory and training data grew to the extent where training a more complex model is possible, we were ready to invest more engineering resources to build an Online Scoring Infrastructure and target more booking gains.
Moving to Online Scoring also unlocks a whole new set of features that can be used: Query Features (highlighted in image below).
This means that we would be able to use the entered location, number of guests, and dates to engineer more features.
For example, we can use the entered location, such as city, neighborhood, or place of interest, to compute Distance between Experience and Entered Location. This feature helps us rank those Experiences closer to entered location higher.
In addition, we can use the entered number of guests (singles, couple, large group) to calculate how it relates to the number of guests in an average booking of Experience that needs to be ranked. This feature helps us rank better fit Experiences higher.
In the online setting, we are also able to leverage the user's browser language setting to do language personalization on the fly. Some Experiences are offered and translated in multiple languages. If the browser setting language translation is available, that one is displayed. With ranking in the online world we can take it a step further and rank language-matching Experiences higher by engineering a feature that determines if the Experience is offered in Browser Language. In the image below we show an example of Stage 3 ML model ranking Experiences offered in Russian higher when browser language is Russian.
Finally, in the online setting we also know the Country which the user is searching from. We can use the country information to personalize the Experience ranking based on Categories preferred by users from those countries. For example, historical data tells us that when visiting Paris users from Japan prefer experiences involving French Cuisine as well as Perfume Making. We used this information to engineer several personalization features at the Origin — Destination level.
Training the ranking model: To train the model with Query Features we first added them to our historical training data. The inventory at that moment was 16,000 Experiences and we had more than 2 million labeled examples to be used in training with a total of 90 ranking features. As mentioned before, we trained two GBDT models:
- Model for logged-in users, which uses Experience Features, Query Features, and User (Personalization) Features
- Model for logged-out traffic, which uses Experience & Query Features, trained using data (clicks & bookings) of logged-in users but not considering Personalization Features
The advantage of having an online scoring infrastructure is that we can use logged-in model for far more uses than before, because there is no need to pre-compute personalized rankings as we did in Stage 2. We used the logged-in model whenever personalization signals were available for a particular user id, else we fall back to using logged-out model.
Testing the ranking model: We conducted an A/B test to compare the Stage 3 models to Stage 2 models. Once again, we were able to grow the bookings, this time by +5.1%.
Implementation details: To implement online scoring of thousands of listings in real time, we have built our own ML infra in the context of our search service. There are mainly three parts of the infrastructure, 1) getting model input from various places in real time, 2) model deployment to production, and 3) model scoring.
The model requires three types of signals to conduct scoring: Experience Features, Query Features, and User Features. Different signals were stored differently depending on their size, update frequency, etc. Specifically, due to their large size (hundreds of millions of user keys), the User Features were stored in an online key-value store and search server boxes can look them up when a user does the search. The Experience Features are on the other hand not that large (tens of thousands of Experiences), and as such can be stored in memory of the search server boxes and read directly from there. Finally, the Query Features are not stored at all, and they are just read as they come in from the front end.
Experience and User Features are both updated daily as the Airflow pipeline feature generation job finishes. We are working on transitioning some of the features to the online world, by using a key-value store that has both read and write capabilities which would allow us to update the features instantly as more data comes in (e.g. new experience reviews, new user clicks, etc.).
In the model deployment process, we transform the GBDT model file, which originally came from our training pipeline in JSON format, to an internal Java GBDT structure, and load it within the search service application when it starts.
During the scoring stage, we first pull in all the features (User, Experience, and Query Features) from their respective locations and concatenate them in a vector used as input to the model. Next, depending on if User Features are empty or not we decide which model to use, i.e. logged-out or logged-in model, respectively. Finally, we return the model scores for all Experiences and rank them on the page in descending order of the scores.
Stage 4: Handle Business Rules
Up to this point our ranking model's objective was to grow bookings. However, a marketplace such as Airbnb Experiences may have several other secondary objectives, as we call them Business Rules, that we can help achieve through machine learning.
One such important Business Rule is to Promote Quality. From the beginning we believed that if guests have a really good experience they will come back and book Experiences again in the near future. For that reason, we started collecting feedback from users in terms of 1) star ratings, ranging from 1 to 5, and 2) additional structured multiple-response feedback on whether the Experience was unique, better than expected, engaging, etc.
As more and more data became available to support our rebooking hypothesis, the trend became more clear. As it can be observed on the left in the figure below, guests who have had a great experience (leave a 5-star rating) are 1.5x more likely to rebook another Experience in the next 90 days compared to guests who have had a less good time (leave 4 star rating or lower).
This motivated us to experiment with our objective function, where we changed our binary classification (+1 = booked, -1 = click & not booked) to introduce weights in training data for different quality tiers (e.g. highest for very high quality bookings, lowest for very low quality bookings). The quality tiers were defined by our Quality Team via data analysis. For example:
- very high quality Experience is one with >50 reviews, >4.95 review rating and >55% guests saying the Experience was unique and better than expected.
- very low quality Experience is one with >10 reviews, <4.7 review rating.
When testing the model trained in such a way the A/B test results (on the right in the figure above) showed that we can leverage machine learning ranking to get more of very high quality bookings and less of very low quality bookings, while keeping the overall bookings neutral.
In a similar way, we successfully tackled several other secondary objectives:
- Discovering and promoting potential new hits early using cold-start signals and promoting them in ranking (this led to +14% booking gain for new hits and neutral overall bookings)
- Enforcing diversity in the top 8 results such that we can show the diverse set of categories, which is especially important for low-intent traffic (this led to +2.3% overall booking gain).
- Optimize Search without Location for Clickability For Low Intent users that land on our webpage but do not search with specified location we think a different objective should be used. Our first attempt was to choose the Top 18 from all locations based on our ranking model scores and then re-rank based on Click-through-rate (this led to +2.2% overall booking gain compared to scenario where we do not re-rank based on CTR).
Monitoring and Explaining Rankings
For any two-sided marketplace it is very important to be able to explain why certain items rank the way they do.
In our case it is valuable because we can:
- Give hosts concrete feedback on what factors lead to improvement in the ranking and what factors lead to decline.
- Keep track of the general trends that the ranking algorithm is enforcing to make sure it is the behavior we want to have in our marketplace.
To build out this capability we used Apache Superset and Airflow to create two dashboards:
- Dashboard that tracks rankings of specific Experiences in their market over time, as well as values of feature used by the ML model.
- Dashboard that shows overall ranking trends for different groups of Experiences (e.g. how 5-star Experiences rank in their market).
To give an idea of why these types of dashboards can be useful we give several examples in the figures that follow.
In the figure below we show an example of an Experience whose ranking (left panel) improved from position 30 to position 1 (top ranked). To explain why, we can look at the plots that track various statistics of that Experience (right panel), which are either directly used as features in the ML model or used to derive features.


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We live in a time where we can have anything and everything. Our pumpkin-spice-latte- smart-phone-filled desires are at our fingertips. But with consumerism comes consequences; as we make our purchases based on convenience, we turn a blind eye to the the exploitation occurring behind the closed doors of capitalism. Employees are forced to work long, hard hours, only to see the shareholders — and not themselves — reaping most of the benefits. We foster our selfish desires tending toward instant gratification while forgetting the people making our food and products. We've grown too accustomed to waiting in the fast-moving line at our favorite coffee chain for that quick fix.
Not all businesses foster exploitation, though. Nestled on the corner of College Avenue and Oak Grove Avenue stands the always-bustling Zachary's Chicago Pizza. Lively conversations and the comforting smell of baked dough and melted cheese fill the air. Zachary's Pizza is 100 percent employee owned. I sat down with Leandra Schuler, Zachary's vice president and a UC Berkeley alumna, to discuss the particularities of employee ownership and the ways in which this has brought Zachary's success.
Schuler explained that in 2003, the founders, Zach Zachowski and Barbara Gabel, announced that in the wake of their retirement, Zachary's would transform from a typical business to one that is employee owned. Zachowski and Gabel made this decision in order to preserve the legacy of Zachary's through their loyal employees.
The company now operates as an Employee Stock Ownership Plan, or ESOP, meaning profits fund individual employee accounts, which in turn they use to purchase stock. Only Zachary's employees can own stock. Unlike cooperatives, though, where all employees share an equal part in the company, ESOPs reward employees according to how long they've been with the company. The longer employees remain part of the Zachary's crew, the more the value of their employee ownership account increases. Instead of everyone getting equal slices of pizza, an ESOP gives employees extra cheese and toppings for their hard work and loyalty.
Schuler started working at Zachary's as a server and hostess in 1999, experiencing both the traditional business and the transition to an ESOP. "My personal experience with the ESOP has been really positive," explained Leandra. "The advantage is that there are some really good retirement plans being built from the profits of the company. That's something I feel that social security isn't going to manage for me. So having some security for our employee owners who have been working here for a long time, I'm very proud of that, and it makes me feel rewarded."
We foster our selfish desires tending toward instant gratification while forgetting the people making our food and products. We've grown too accustomed to waiting in the fast-moving line at our favorite coffee chain for that quick fix.
In addition to this individual advantage, Schuler notes that the staff has a "personal and individual motivation beyond most businesses to do a really great job and to make good pizza and be friendly. The more pizzas we're able to sell and the more loyalty we're able to gain from the community and our customers, the higher our company value is." So, the harder they work, the more the company will succeed, and in turn each will get a bigger piece of the pie. This creates a positive cycle of mouthwatering pizza, extraordinarily friendly service, and benefits for the employees.
Despite its perks, the ESOP model has posed some challenges for Zachary's. "There is quite a hearty amount of administrative and educational work behind the ESOP. It doesn't just run itself," Schuler adds. She explains that, at the transition, managers are not always prepared for the level of work that comes with running an ESOP. There are occasional communication challenges, and educating the staff about employee ownership and the ESOP model takes a lot of time and effort. But for Schuler and the Zachary's employees, the benefits of being an ESOP far outweigh the drawbacks. Schuler points out, "Our main driver behind being an ESOP is to sustain Zachary's as a successful business, as we have been for 30 years, and moving into the future, reward the people who are working for the company accordingly."
Zachary's challenges the way we view capitalism. "The heart and soul of the ESOP challenges (this), because the profits are going to the employees," explained Schuler. The employees preserve Zachary's legacy, and in return, the company takes care of them.
Zachary's has found a way to stray from capitalist exploitation and challenges us to make more conscious decisions. Every decision we make has consequences, whether they are positive or negative. It's time that we start making decisions that sustain fair business practices and choices that we can feel good about.

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NEW YORK — While electronic filing of tax returns has been an option for small businesses for years, many small-to-medium sized corporations are finding that e-filing is becoming a requirement.
Starting with tax year 2005, corporations that have more than $50 million in assets and that file more than 250 returns a year — including forms such as W-2s and 1099s — are required to electronically file Form 1120 or 1120S, U.S. Corporation Income Tax Return. The IRS is allowing corporations, whose returns are due March 15, to request waivers from the requirement, but the fact is, e-filing is likely to become increasingly routine for U.S. businesses.
For tax year 2006, the IRS is dropping the $50 million threshold dramatically, to $10 million, which will force many more small corporations to file electronically. And many sole proprietors, who don't own corporations and who file their business tax returns on Schedule C attached to their 1040 forms, are also choosing e-filing as an option.
Individual taxpayers are also turning into ardent e-filers. Last year, there was an 11 percent increase in e-filed 1040s, according to IRS spokeswoman Nora Butler.
An increasing number of businesses are using e-filing for tax forms beyond their annual returns — W-2s, 1099s, Form 940 quarterly tax returns and payroll tax Form 941s are increasingly being e-filed.
John Seabrook, a tax partner with Deloitte Tax, said of the growing requirement for e-filing, "that will encompass a very large percentage of the businesses in this country." He predicted that state tax authorities will increasingly require e-filing as well.
You can learn more about e-filing business returns at the IRS Web site, which has a page called "e-file for Business and Self-Employed Taxpayers." Click on www.irs.gov/efile/article/0,,id118520,00.html; you'll find links to other pages that explain which forms you can file electronically, and you'll also find a list of software companies that the IRS has approved as e-file providers. The list, which has links to the companies' Web sites, includes well-known tax information and software companies such as CCH, RIA and Intuit.
If you compile your company's return with tax preparation software or have it completed by a tax professional, e-filing is a natural outgrowth of that process. If you've been working with paper, you might want to think about e-filing even if the IRS isn't requiring you to do it.
The benefits of e-filing are many. You're less likely to make mistakes, as your tax prep software will catch many errors. That will help the IRS process your return faster, and you're also less likely to get questions about your return. If you're due a refund, you'll get that quicker too.
Seabrook expects advances in software development to further simplify the e-filing process from the business owner's perspective.
"What should happen is, as the technology improves, there could be the ability to link financial statements and electronically import certain schedules from other company systems" into the tax prep software, he said.
The government isn't requiring businesses to make their tax payments electronically, but that's also a task made easier because of high-tech changes. The Electronic Federal Tax Payment System, a government Web site found at www.eftps.gov, allows businesses (and individuals) to make payments online through a secure browser.
However, be aware that you have to enroll in the EFTPS program before you can make payments, and that it will take up to 15 business days to get your personal identification number via regular mail. So don't put off enrolling if you've got a tax payment due in the near future.
But you might already be enrolled — if you applied for a new Employee Identification Number for your business since January 2004 and indicated at the time that you had federal tax deposit applications, you should have been pre-enrolled in EFTPS.
The EFTPS Web site has more information, or business owners can call 800 555-4477.
© 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Kevin Schulthies | South Shore–St. Margarets
You may donate via cheque:
Paul Lagatdu, Official Agent
PO Box 481
Superstore Mall
Lower Sackville NS B4C3G4
About Kevin
Kevin Schulthies works as a recruitment manager for a life insurance agency; he travels the Maritimes engaging with Canadians on health issues. He is a life-long entrepreneur, interested in getting results by working hard and smart.
Raised on a farm and in a "Black Collar" coal mining family, Kevin understands the challenges of trade work and being part of a large rural district.
Some of Kevin's main concerns are: inflation, which is a 'hidden tax', converting CRA charities' assets from public back into private, proportional representation (with a "Made in Canada" approach) and freedom of speech.
Kevin believes it's time to employ time-tested, principle-based practices to fix our families, communities, and ultimately our nation.
Website: chpkevin.ca
YouTube: youtube.com/channel/UCoKhN9RBr_-ghJWH4iiK3sA
Upcoming Events
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Past Events
- South Shore—St. Margrets - Bridgewater All Candidate Debate (NS) (October 2, 2019)
Bridgewater All Candidate Debate Hosted by Bridgewater Chamber of Commerce. My favourite and most passionate topic - MONEY and the true roots of most issue.- Learn More
Map of South Shore–St. Margarets
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August 8, 2018 (Atlanta, GA) — Consumer health engagement company Pursuant Health recently fielded an analysis to determine the awareness and effectiveness of an in-store kiosk advertising campaign with Traditional Medicinals Teas. Pursuant Health operates a network of 3,400 health screening kiosks nationwide including Walmart and Safeway retail locations. The survey included 300 individuals that lived or worked within 15 miles of select Walmart stores where the campaign was displayed.
Visitors who watched the TV screen and/or touch screen watched for an average of four minutes. That's a significant amount of time considering that 65% of consumers skip typical online video ads altogether, further demonstrating the value of retail health kiosks as a platform for health and wellness marketers to reach captive audiences with super-targeted campaigns.
Of the respondents who visited the pharmacy at the Walmart locations, 94% recalled the health screening kiosk. Of those who were kiosk-aware, 91% recalled the TV screen above the kiosk and 93% recalled the touch screen. Furthermore, 73% of the respondents aware of the TV or touch screen remembered ads for Traditional Medicinals Teas. The majority of kiosk-aware pharmacy visitors also recalled seeing Traditional Medicinals Teas products displayed on the side of the kiosk.
Over 140 million people shop at Walmart each week. In a recent webinar, Senior Director of Payer Relations for Walmart Jodi Prohofsky explained how Walmart customers engage with their health in the retail environment.
"They're picking up medications or getting an immunization in our pharmacy," Ms. Prohofsky said. "They might be seeing one of our eye doctors or picking out frames in our Optical Center. They're being seen maybe by a nurse practitioner in one of our clinics. They may be doing a health risk assessment at a Pursuant Health kiosk — and they're doing all of this in addition to buying their vitamins, over the counter items, fresh foods and exercise equipment.
"For us, health care begins at Walmart because it begins where the patient, the member or the customer is," said Prohofsky. "And, they are definitely at Walmart."
Marketers leverage Pursuant Health's smart-kiosk technology to target audiences based on ailments, health conditions and behavior, or take advantage of their full monthly reach of 45-60 million pharmacy shoppers to promote a more general message.
"There are several obstacles that prevent the majority of Americans from seeing a doctor, making the pharmacy a critical point of care," said VP of Advertising Sales for Pursuant Health Stephanie Myers. "Health care companies and marketers would be wise to give great consideration to the pharmacy as the first top in the POC healthcare chain."
For more information, visit https://pursuanthealth.com/.
Paul Snyder
Write2Market for Pursuant Health
(404) 414-4240 (m)


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At Templeton Academy we know that learning doesn't stop during the summer holiday. As our new students gear up for our opening day this fall, we have compiled a list of our team's favorite summer destinations that bring together fun and learning for an impactful holiday trip. We also understand first-hand how hands-on and experiential learning can impact and engage young learners, helping them connect with history, the arts, math and science like never before.
Put down the remote and head out for some summer fun that will both engage your students' brains and provide fun experiences for the whole family. Remember to ask questions and share experiences throughout the visit to engage your young explorers' minds and create new, hands-on learning opportunities.
1. Hatch Show Print
Start in your own backyard with a walk through history at Nashville's Country Music Hall of Fame, culminating in a hands-on tour of the nearly 140-year old Hatch Show Print, a historic printing shop still working today that is known for its creation of iconic concert posters for artists from Loretta Lynn to Led Zeppelin and Bessie Smith to Moby. Each collectors piece was hand-designed and printed and their work for well-known artists today is completed just as it was more than 100 years ago. A hands-on tour of the historic print shop is a memorable experience, especially for budding artists and entertainers. It showcases the history of printing, art design and font design in the U.S.; and offers an engaging walk down musical memory lane.
2. Memphis Zoo
If you're heading out of town, don't miss the Memphis Zoo, with more than 70 acres of hospitable habitats that house more than 3,000 animal species. Underwater views help your explorer get up close and personal with animals, and new exhibits open all the time. Take a detailed look at the informative exhibits throughout the park to learn more about the animals we share this planet with and what it takes to keep them healthy and happy, in Memphis and in interesting habitats around the globe.
3. Casey Jones Home and Railroad Museum
Step back in time in Jackson's 8,000 square foot railroad museum and 1800's themed town, with interactive exhibits and historic artifacts dedicated the impact of America's railroad men and women throughout history. You can tour historic houses and visit an old ice cream parlor and sweets store, while learning more about railroad hero Casey Jones. A permanent exhibit entitled "The Railroads & The Civil War in Tennessee" offers insight into the impact of the railroad on our nation's civil war.
4. Museum of Scott County
This Huntsville gem was designed and built by students for students! It truly brings history alive with detailed exhibits that cover Tennessee's rich history. Visitors experience the joys and the hardships of early Appalachian life through historic structures, livestock, historical artifacts, an interactive learning lab, and the largest collection of memorabilia from the USS Tennessee battleship.
5. Bays Mountain Park and Planetarium
A visit to Kingsport must include a trip to its planetarium and hands-on experience with the more than 3,500-acre park. If you are a hiker or biker, you'll enjoy hundreds of miles of pristine trails and engaging flora and fauna along the way. Keep an eye out for river otters, deer, snakes, bobcats, wolves and turtles during your visit. History buffs can view artifacts from some of the earliest settlers of the mountain in the 1800s and the planetarium is truly state of the art, featuring a 40-foot dome and detailed view of deep-sky objects. Engage your budding scientists with this exciting journey.
Here are a few questions to help start engaging in educational conversations about your trip.
- What's the most interesting thing you learned today?
- What do you know about the history of Tennessee that you didn't know before?
- Who's the favorite person (or animal) you met or learned about today? How is their life (or habitat) similar/different to your own?
- What jobs and careers did you learn about today – who was working at the (location)? Did their job seem interesting?
- Should we find some books on (topic, location, place) to learn more together?
Want to learn more about Temepleton Academy's Experiential Learning model? Check out our digital resource, Beyond the Desk: Why Experiential Learning is Crucial at the Middle and High School Level!


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Listen to Cendio developer Pierre Ossman talk about ThinLinc and IGEL at the Disrupt conference in Berlin.
HTML5 Performance in ThinLinc 4.7.0
This is quite an old video (ThinLinc 4.7.0 has been out for a while now), but I think it's a good demonstration of the work which has been put into...
ThinLinc Animated Series - Episode 3
In this episode of the ThinLinc animated series, Adnan Kandeel speaks with yours truly about the benefits of ThinLinc clustering.
ThinLinc Animated Series - Episode 2
In this episode, developer Samuel Mannehed discusses the HTML5 client, and how it can be used to connect to a ThinLinc session right from your browser.
ThinLinc Animated Series - Episode 1
In the first installation of a brand new animated series from Cendio, sales and marketing manager Adnan Kandeel mercilessly grills developer Karl Mikaelsson on the upcoming ThinLinc 4.8.0 release.


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WORCESTER -- With three goals in the first three quarters of play, third-seeded WPI defended Alumni Stadium with a 3-0 win over sixth-seeded Mount Holyoke Tuesday night in a NEWMAC Field Hockey Tournament quarterfinal. WPI will travel to play second-seeded MIT at 6 p.m. Thursday in a semifinal contest.
The win marks the first NEWMAC Tournament win for the Engineers since a 2-1 victory over Babson in 2008, and improves WPI's mark to 17-2. Mount Holyoke sees its season come to an end with a 9-10 record.
The Engineers opened the scoresheet in the first quarter, when at 9:09 junior midfielder Kaitlyn Hess (Milford, NH) carried the ball up the center of the field and hit one into the back of the boards, for her seventh goal of the season.
The Crimson and Grey kept their foot on the pedal when at 27:33 junior Abby O'Sullivan (Walpole, MA) sent in a backhanded cross to find senior Carlee Irish (Saratoga Springs, NY) at the end of the play who put it away for her third marker of the season. Senior back Hannah Larochelle (New Boston, NH) capped the scoring when she drove up the field, split both the opposing midfield and defense to drive the ball into the goal for the first of her career.
With two saves by freshman Gabrielle Acquista (Longmeadow, MA) and one big defensive save by junior Jackie Cardin (Manchester, NH), the Engineers held Mount Holyoke scoreless. Mount Holyoke netminder Morgan Turner (Chester, NJ) totaled four saves, and sophomore midfielder Margaret Robb (Summit, NJ) was the only Lyon with multiple shots on goal.
For the game, WPI enjoyed a 14-7 edge in shots, while the visitors held a 7-6 advantage in penalty corners.
Recap written by Christian Schneider


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On the night of Sunday 4th march, the President of the Republic, H. E. Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, travelled to New Delhi, the capital of the Republic of India, to attend the International Solar Alliance (ISA) summit, with the aim of promoting the use of solar energy to combat climate change through the use of renewables.
The Vice-President of the Republic, Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, and other members of the Government, were present during the farewell ceremony for the Head of State. The last working visit by the President of the Republic to India took place in October 2015, during the III India-African Summit.
On arrival at New Delhi airport, the Republic of Equatorial Guinea delegation, led by H. E. Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, was received by members of the Government and local authorities. Also at the reception were embassy staff, led by Manuela Mbela Bama Ndong.
At the Conference of Heads of State for members of the International Solar Alliance, which is to be held from 1oth to 11th March, the participation of over 120 representatives from countries is expected, with the aim of promoting the use of solar energy as a strategy to combat climate change on a global scale.
Source: Official Web Page of the Government of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea


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1. How do I order?
- As with most online stores, you simply need to add an item(s) to your virtual cart and select the size and quantities you need.
- When you're ready to buy, select "checkout"
- Follow the prompts to successfully purchase your item(s) until you get a confirmation email with your order number.
- There are 2 payment methods, namely EFT/bank deposit payments or an instant payment service via PayFast.co.za
- We will process and pack your order and capture EFT payments on the following business day and this can take up to 3 business days.
- We cannot process EFT (Electronic Funds Transfer) payments without your proof of payment (POP) and your order will be voided if we do not have your POP by midnight of your order being placed. All POPs need to be sent to firstname.lastname@example.com or firstname.lastname@example.com (linked to the same inbox)
- Shipping is R75 for express shipping within 5-7 business days
2. Is my order confirmed?
Your purchase was processed successfully if you can answer 'YES' to the following questions:
- Were you taken to a confirmation page on completion of your purchase?
- Did you receive an email confirming your order along with your order number?
If not, we are afraid that your order has not been successfully placed. Please give it another try!
3. Can I change my order or information after placing an order?
Unfortunately, we cannot change your order once it has been placed.
4. Can I order via social media messaging or comments on your social media accounts?
We don't confirm orders via direct messages, phone-call or email (unless it is a custom-order). You'll need to make purchases via our online store-front only.
4. I paid via EFT, but did not get an order confirmation via email?
- Make sure that you followed the checkout prompts all the way to the end (you should receive an order number via email, regardless of whether you have paid or not, to reserve your products.
- Make sure that your email address provided at checkout is correct
- If you forgot to confirm your order after paying and were not redirected to the 'success' page, you need to re-order your items and send us your proof of payment so that we can capture and link it to your order number.
5. How long before I receive my parcel?
Please note that as South Africa is in lockdown due to COVID-19, delivery may take longer than usual.
6. How do exchanges and returns work?
Our returns policy lasts 14 days, and everything, except swimwear and bodysuits may be returned or exchanged. They need to be exchanged or returned in the same condition as they were received by you. Please note that as South Africa is in lockdown due to COVID-19, exchanges may take longer than usual
7. How can the student discount be redeemed?
Email us at firstname.lastname@example.com or firstname.lastname@example.com (linked to same inbox) with the subject 'Student Discount' and attach a selfie of you and your valid student card. We will validate it and send you the discount code of 20% off.
7. What are we doing to prevent the further-spread of the COVID-19 virus outbreak?
All office staff are currently working from home and production at our offices have been halted until it is safe to return back to work.
Instagram: @theshopaholic_sa
All queries are to be directed to firstname.lastname@example.com (not .com) or firstname.lastname@example.com (linked to the same inbox).


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MICHIGAN CITY, IN - Lubeznik Center for the Arts (LCA) in Michigan City strives to remove barriers and bring the arts to life for everyone in the community. While its programs and exhibitions attract visitors from Indiana, Michigan, Illinois and beyond, during the 2019/2020 school year LCA has focused on growth close to home by expanding its service area to include the City of La Porte and children who attend La Porte Community School Corporation (LPCSC) schools. This project is made possible thanks in part to support from the Healthcare Foundation of La Porte.
"LCA has had a thriving onsite and offsite arts education program for many years," says Michelle Shirk, Development Director. "Thanks to this generous grant, we now have an opportunity to introduce our programs and exhibitions – which have a proven track record of impact – to a whole new population of La Porte County kids and families."
In order to maintain a high level of program quality during its expansion, LCA's staff created a capacity building plan that would allow the organization to gradually develop and support new school partnerships. In October of 2019, Laurel Izard joined LCA's team as Education Coordinator. Izard is a local artist and educator who has worked in LCA programs for more than a decade. In her newly created role, Izard supports many facets of LCA's new and existing education programs.
During the fall semester, LCA welcomed hundreds of students from Riley and Handley elementary schools to the center for learning tours of "The Chicago Imagists: Before and After." In addition to discussing the artwork in LCA's galleries, students created their own art in response to the exhibition. Participant feedback was very positive. One student commented, "I liked that you interacted with us." Another reported, "I had a great time and learned a lot of things."
Offsite, LCA held an 8-session STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) camp for second and third graders at Kingsford Heights Elementary School. At the conclusion of this program, 100% of participants expressed interest in learning more about STEAM projects and topics. In addition, LCA regularly participates in College and Career Readiness programs and events at La Porte High School.
Since the beginning of the 2019/2020 school year, nearly 600 LPCSC students and family members have been served through LCA's programming. The organization's staff is excited about the long-term possibilities for connections made through this expansion. "Students that have participated in school learning tours or other outreach programs are also attending our classes and summer camps and bringing their grown ups to our free Family Days," says Hannah Hammond-Hammond, Education Director. "Engaging students in the making and discussion of art is our mandate, and these new relationships will continue to grow and develop into impactful and relevant programs."
About Lubeznik Center for the Arts
Lubeznik Center for the Arts (LCA) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that provides access to compelling exhibitions and programs that explore contemporary ideas. The organization is located at 101 W. 2nd St. at the lakefront in Michigan City, Indiana.
Admission is free year-round. Gallery weekday hours are from 10 AM to 5 PM. Weekend hours are from 11 AM to 4 PM. For more information, please visit www.lubeznikcenter.org or call 219-874-4900.


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Footpads are the core unit for this campaign. High defense, mixed attacks, and cheap makes them handy in all events. You get Harper in all scenarios, plus two loyal Footpads; level these up, plus any others you recruit with good traits.
The main problem in this campaign is finding units to deal damage; Footpads are great for swarming and pinning enemies, but even swarming an enemy from all sides they might take less than half its HP off in one turn. In daylight, or even at dawn/dusk against enemies with resistances, none of your L1 units cause much damage. It's important to level up a couple each of Thugs and Poachers; you then use these as first strike against an enemy unit, followed by the Footpad swarm to finish them off or at least pin them so you can finish them next turn. In particular, you want a Huntsman by scenario 7 so you have decent marksman damage for busting enemy commanders.
The Raid
- Objectives: Defeat the goblins
- Lose if: The goblins reach the village or Baldras or Harper die or time runs out
- Turns: 24/18/14 (easy/medium/hard)
- Starting units: Baldras, Harper and other bandits
You have enough troops to beat the goblins in a straight-up fight; your problem is luring the leader to attack you rather than running straight up the board and into the village (if this happens you lose!). This means you need to dangle some units in his engagement range. Spend your loyal Footpads, you won't get to keep more than two of them after you leave the village.
Running Harper and one other Footpad north works well; provided the other draws the goblin leader off of his run north, Harper can then either join in fighting him, or complete the run north (where you get a couple of thugs for free) and return with them, depending on how far north you get before he breaks his run.
Civil Disobedience
- Objectives: Defeat the army captain
- Lose if: Baldras or Harper die or time runs out
- Turns: 14/13/12 (easy/medium/hard)
- Starting units: Baldras and Harper
Bunch up all your fighters and use them to swarm single or paired cavalry units. Use houses for cover. Remember to keep recruiting in those early turns, even if you have to forgo attacking enemies from good cover to make the space for the recruit to stand.
Poachers are useful for getting damage into the enemy cavalry and have decent defense when in your castle or in villages, and then use footpads to take positions in the open (they have good defense in the open) to wrap around enemy units. Ideally you want the enemy to wrap cavalry around units in your keep, and you then wrap around the ones behind your keep with Poachers and Footpads. The enemy commander is a tough fight, since he often meets you in daylight and has good melee and ranged attacks; ideally get him next to your keep so you can have your commander and two Poachers hitting him from relative safety, and then put a Footpad or Thug on the other side to pin him there.
A Strategy of Hope
- Objectives: Defeat the enemy leaders
- Lose if: Baldras, Harper or Relana die or time runs out
- Turns: 35/30/25 (easy/medium/hard)
- Starting units: Baldras and Harper
The orcs don't make a lot of archers, so swarm them with Footpads and Outlaws firing slingstones. Detach one or two Footpads to go on an extended village-stealing run in the north of the board while you're doing this. The saurians are much weaker than the orcs so concentrate your forces against the orcs. Your allies are a little better than evenly matched against the saurians, so by the time you finish the orcs you should be able to run northwest and take the leader without too much trouble.
Unlawful Orders
- Objectives: Defeat Asheviere's general
- Lose if: Baldras, Harper or Lord Maddock die or time runs out
- Turns: 30/22/16 (easy/medium/hard)
- Starting units: Baldras and Harper
Detach two Footpads to grab villages, one in the town (Lord Maddock isn't going to use them all anyway) and one to the north. Move your commander onto Lord Maddock's keep at the first chance you get, so you can recruit more and closer to the action.
Lord Maddock's throws his troops away early. Your force should be a few Thugs, a couple of Footpads and perhaps 2 Poachers to hold the south bank of the island; let the enemy come to you here and fight from in the water. Then send an Outlaw and Footpad strike force out the east gate and down, which will swarm enemy stragglers and late recruits and then hit the enemy commander.
Hide and Seek
- Objectives: Get Baldras to the signpost (preferably without being seen)
- Lose if: Baldras or Harper die or time runs out
- Turns: 34/30/26 (easy/medium/hard)
- Starting units: Baldras and Harper
- Other: You will be seen if you end your turn within visual range of an enemy unit
The moment you get within visual range of an enemy it will attack and all the other enemies wake up also. What saves you is that Harper can see farther than they can. Don't run ahead with him, you need Baldras to the exit point; Harper scouts the way, he follows.
The safe route is south-east, using Harper to eye a way between the soldiers. Head between some others through some mountains and head all the way across to the east edge of the map. Then head south through a lake and then southeast until above the exit and down. Also avoid the temptation to grab a village. This will trigger an attack even when not in range of a soldier.
If you still need to level either Harper or Baldras, go ahead and kill one or two of the soldiers when you are right near the signpost.
The Grey Woods
- Objectives: Defeat the Lich and the other two enemy leaders
- Lose if: Baldras or Harper die or time runs out
- Turns: 50/44/42 (easy/medium/hard)
- Starting units: Baldras and Harper
This is a fairly easy search-and destroy, with lots of relatively weak undead so lots of leveling-up opportunities. Grab Helicrom's villages, he starts with a ton of gold anyway. The bad guys are at the southeast, southwest and northwest corners.
You could almost ignore the southeast village, Helicrom's troops will take care of it; just send say an Outlaw and a Footpad to maybe sneak some XP, and to scout and grab villages below the southeast enemy. Your main force, Footpads plus a few Thugs/Marauders should head southwest across the bridge and have a quick fight with the green Lich's forces that have made it out. Continue on to kill him, and then head south to the other Lich. It is an excellent place to level up some Footpads to L2 or even L3. While I am not over judicious with my use of the "fodder" units, I still came out with about 8 or 9 L2+ units.
At the end, choose to have Helicrom join you in battle (you only get this choice if Helicrom is alive). You probably don't need the gold and being able to recruit Rogue Mages isn't that helpful (they don't heal). It makes the last scenario (while frustrating because your allies get in your way) pretty easy.
The Hunters
- Objectives: Defeat all the enemy forces
- Lose if: Baldras or Harper die or time runs out
- Turns: 36/31/26 (easy/medium/hard)
- Starting units: Baldras and Harper
The trick in this one is that your Outlaws fight better in mountains than Heavy Infantry do. So bean them with missile weapons from the mountains at the north edge of the road, then clump your guys and go west towards the keep. Swarm the cavalry units as they hit you; they probably won't concentrate enough to be more than a nuisance to L2 and L3 characters.
[Comments by Bumblebee] Another trick is that Outlaws are good in the forest, and enemies from the castle have a long way to go before they reach it, so they don't reach the forest together. After Heavy Infantry platoon is taken care of, prepare to meat the first wave of attackers in the forest (some trappers or poachers with pierce attack are helpful, shadow mages are surprisingly effective too). Send few quick units to the north to take villages. In my game at medium, two footpads and a watchman were enough to draw two riders to the north, trap them on the narrow forest road for several turns and finally kill them (there are villages to heal in and plenty of space to retreat). As soon as enemies of the first wave have found their eternal home in the forest, counterattack. Take villages, protect wounded, swarm in the dark. Don't recruit too many units in this mission because you will need money for the next one.
- Objectives: Destroy all four towers
- Lose if: Baldras dies or time runs out
- Turns: 48/45/40 (easy/medium/hard)
- Starting units: Baldras and Harper
- Other: Move a unit onto the trap door to destroy a tower
The only genuinely difficult puzzle in Liberty, because the Wesnoth army is tough to beat if you have to try to take them inside their fortress (and they get reinforcements every afternoon). You have to lure as many as possible out of the fortress -- dangle bait just within their engagement range. It's the final scenario, so don't worry about money, just recall all your L2 and L3 recalls and recruit until you are out of gold.
If you chose to have Helicrom join you in battle, he appears in a camp to your right at the start. While his troops get in the way a lot, they do kill some units and help if only by diverting some of the opposing forces.
March them straight north and hang out around the first village there. It will be a nice pitched battle for a few turns, but eventually your numbers will overwhelm them. Then you can split your forces a bit to the west and south entrances. Remember that your Outlaws and above fight a lot better in the mountains than your opponents (offsetting the garrison bonus).
[Comments by cph] At hard, I played it a bit differently. Helicrom's units throw themselves at the south gate and clog it for a day or so; the riders attack the west gate and tie up the enemy there. So I marched my entire force into the woods southwest of the fortress; once both gates were clogged by the allies, I moved my forces closer to both gates, and then lunged into the fortress with all the Footpads, Outlaws and Fugitives I could fit in. Fugitives on good defensive tiles are great for holding the flanks of the thrust, and Footpads are expendable. Bash away throughout the night on all the enemies you can, moving as much as you can into the fortress; seize the central fort with outlaws, and rush Footpads to the 4 towers as soon as you get an opening. The orcs went down the east side of the level, so they ran straight into the reinforcements, and I didn't have to fight either.
[Comments by Bumblebee] A different strategy is to avoid direct fight as much as possible and remember you lead guerilla fighters. Recall all quick L2 and L3 units (with at least 6 or 7 moves per turn), recall all quick L1 footpads, some poachers and a couple of thiefs or rogues are helpful too. Spend the first day taking villages and moving your forces, let riders and orcs kill some defenders. Don't send too many units on eastern flank, or they will lure orcs, and orcs will fight mostly you instead of garrison. When army reinforces arrive, retreat if they notice you. Kill pursuers one by one. Let reinforces meet orcs.
Meanwhile, put quick units near every tower. Southern, western and northern sides of the fortress are relatively safe for that. Don't put units too close to bridges and entrances, or they will draw defenders' attention. Let riders and orcs fight and lure enemy forces away from the towers. When a tower is empty for a moment, sneak into it. Quick footpads can reach entrance to catacombs from outside in one turn if way is free. When riders and orcs are dead, simulate night attacks on the bridge opposite to the towers you want to take. I had to sacrifice some units at the southern bridge before guards left one of the northern towers. I finished at turn 16 at medium.
[Comments by KingElk] Similar to bumblebee, but more specific. This worked on normal difficulty, I'm not sure if it would work on hard. First, recall any outlaws/fugitives, or Rangers (I had one ranger (L3 Poacher) and it came in handy fending some of the enemies off, and it is fast.) As the above states, any units with 6/7 moves per turn. Do NOT recall anything else, even if its L3. After, with any leftover gold, recruit outlaws until you are out of money. Move your entire army (and leader) along the dead west part of the map, until you reach the west entrance. Do NOT fight the army coming from the south gate. They might get a few shots at you but you will beat the scenario before they swing around their main army to trap you in the west (your northwest ally will fend them off for 3+ turns). Split your outlaws and send 3-5 to the north gate, and the remaining shoved into the west gate. You will probably meet resistance in the west, but the only entrance you need to reach from the west gate is the southwest one. From the north, split again and attempt to reach the northwest and northeast objectives in one turn if possible. As a bonus, if your outlaw has one extra movement point when it takes an objective, it still has that after and can move onto a castle for 70% defense. The southwest objective can be taken by pushing through the west gate. After those three are down, squeeze some outlaws from the north or west to the southeast, at any cost. In all likelihood, the northeast outlaw will have little resistance because of the orc/human fighting. Your leader can head northwest to the corner of the map for safety, don't use him for fighting. NOTE: You don't need the extra ally that was offered earlier in the campaign, or the extra gold. I made the mistake of getting Rogue Mages, but it didn't matter.


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1/7/18, Maine First Media Staff Report,
The Trump economy is soaring. And it is American workers reaping the rewards.
The Dow is having a run of hitting record highs.
Black unemployment is hitting an all-time low.
America is on pace for 6% growth in 2018, despite Leftists believing a magic wand would be needed to break the new normal of less than 3% growth.
Now American Tech companies are about to infuse the U.S. economy with hundreds of BILLIONS of dollars brought back from overseas.
Tech companies like Apple will bring back an estimated $400-Billion thanks to the Trump Tax cuts.
A cash infusion of that size and magnitude will have enormous direct and indirect benefits to not just the economy, but to the American worker.
But the most direct benefit of all may be the more than one million (and counting) American workers who will receive bonuses from their employers, thanks to the Trump Tax Cuts.
Most of these bonuses are around $1,000.
The most recent company to announce a huge bonus for employees is Jet Blue. The airline will be providing $1,000 bonuses to every one of the 21,000 who works for the company — except for the CEO and the Executive Vice President.
Many companies have also raised their wages due to the freedom and flexibility created by the Trump Tax Cuts.
Then there are companies like Boeing $100 million in charitable donations; $100 million for workforce development; $100 million for infrastructure and facilities.
In total, nearly 100 companies have announced, bonuses, wage hikes, 401k matches, charitable donations, or increased spending on employees — benefiting more than one million American workers!
And more announcements similar to the ones from Jet Blue, Boeing, Apple and others keep coming almost daily.
Americans for Tax Reform has compiled a comprehensive list of every company who has rewarded employees thanks to the Trump Tax Cuts. ATR's list details what the company has done and how many employees will benefit. They've even added the press releases for many of the announcements.
Maine First Media highly recommends browsing the impressive list. ATR is updating it daily.


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Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
All Events
- This event has passed.
2nd Annual MAE POP
September 20, 2018 @ 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm| Free
Event Navigation
Join us for the 2nd Annual MAE POP!
Celebrate the beginning of a new year and welcome all new students to the department. All are invited to enjoy music, games, and networking with sponsors and alumni. Free food from Neomonde will be provided to those who reserve a ticket.
Come meet your department, its current students, graduate students, faculty, staff, student organizations, and MAE Alumni Advisory Board members.
- Music: DJ JessK
- Food: Neomonde
- Student organizations: (Coming soon)
- Sponsors: (Coming soon)
Lawn chairs, blankets, outside food welcomed!


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Promoting and attending events
Ready to cut through the noise and competition at your next big event? Create bright and bold custom products, from business cards and flyers to signage and more.
Business Cards
Design a stylish business card worth keeping and be sure to have enough to hand out, pop in goodie bags and display at your stand.
Flyers and Pamphlets
With 6 sizes to choose from these flyers are a powerful marketing tool for promoting sales, products and services.
Vinyl Banners
Think big and durable vinyl banners that display your name, logo and website. Available in indoor and outdoor material.
Pull Up Banners
Attract passers-by with these lightweight, portable banners that can be set up in seconds.
Hand them out to potential customers with a special offer and your information to give them a reason to visit your business.
Ideas & Advice
Practical tips and inspirational stories about looking professional and unlocking opportunities.
What is Event Branding?
Discover how, in a few basic steps, you can brand your business for an upcoming market or event.Read now
Event Marketing Must Haves
These must-haves will help you stand out and and connect with new customers in a meaningful way.Read now


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So you've just received that much coveted email that states you have been invited to interview for a PA program. The email contains some basic information about the format of the interview day and at the bottom it reads, "dress is business professional." I don't know about you, and maybe its because I'm a girl, but I freaked out. What am I supposed to wear? Do I have to wear a pant suit? Do I have to wear heels? All of these questions flooded my mind. It took me back to 8th grade when you'd go out to the mall with your friends and you'd all text each other to coordinate what to wear because you didn't want to be the over or undressed person in the group. So I'm going to be your girlfriend for the day and let you know exactly what everyone else will be wearing so you can feel comfortable and confident come interview day.
Guys, you're easy. Business professional dress for men is pretty standard. Collared button up shirt, dress slack, and a suit jacket. Fellas just make sure you invest in a pair of dress socks as well. Nothing screams unprofessional like your white Hanes ankle socks showing when you sit down and your pant legs ride up. Also don't forget a belt. I don't know why, but men that wear a suit without a belt just rubs me the wrong way. It screams "my mom wasn't there to help me get ready this morning." Also, while we are on the topic of feet, do not, I repeat, do NOT wear Vans. There is nothing about Vans that strike me as business or professional. What a nice pair of dress shoes. You don't want to look like you're going to prom in 1999, back when wearing suits and chucks was cool. The only debatable point in my opinion about men's dress for interviews comes down to the tie. Some men choose to forego a tie, and while I don't think that will keep you from getting into PA school, it definitely doesn't hurt to wear one. Just keep it simple, a plain, solid colored tie that blends well with your suit jacket color. A tie just says you are willing to go the extra mile in professionalism and that's huge. Also its a little way to show some of your personality with a pop of color in a sea of navy and black suits. And for bonus points, match your tie to your dress socks!
So ladies, we're the ones who get fashion anxiety and we also have a myriad of options when it comes to professional dress. So I'm going to tell you about my attire for my first interview f0r PA school and how I adjusted my ensemble going forward.
The school I was interviewing at stressed the importance of individuality in your interview attire. Don't feel like you have to wear a navy or black suit to impress us, they said. Don't try to be something you're not, they said. So of course, I listened, and I felt so uncomfortable and on edge the entire day. I wore a charcoal gray and grayish blue geometric pencil dress with a black blazer. It was professional, but also slightly edgy and feminine which is "my style", as they asked for. Every other girl at the interview however was dressed in a navy or black suit, so of course I stood out. I felt embarrassed and underdressed and that I wasn't as qualified as the other women there. The rest of the day I was so focused on how I should've worn something different, and I wasn't devoting myself to my interview.
I was not dressed inappropriately by any means, but I was not dressed the same as my peers which made me feel like I was the odd man out. For my next interviews, I determined to blend in and dress just like everyone else.
I still couldn't wear a pant suit though, that seemed too Hillary Clinton for me, so I opted for a skirt suit instead. Pants are totally fine if that is what you feel more comfortable in. Just be sure that your pants are not ill fitting. You don't want them to be too tight in the butt or that will look inappropriate. You also want to be sure that they are hemmed so you aren't dragging a few inches of pant along the floor all day. I wore a navy pencil skirt with a matching navy suit jacket. Finding a suit jacket that flatters a women's body is almost impossible, and for me it was important to find something that didn't totally diminish who I was. I ended up with a jacket that wasn't fitted, but it had a feminine cut to it that looked sharp and feminine at the same time. I opted for a simple off white blouse since my suit jacket was a little edgier. I paired it with a pair of nude, closed toe kitten heels. Heels are not required, many women wore flats but I feel more comfortable in heels. Whether you wear heels or flats, your shoes must be closed toe. Peep toe shoes, while cute and fashion forward, are not particularly business professional and should be avoided. And do not wear heels unless you really are comfortable in them. Almost all schools give you a tour of the school as part of your interview day and you don't want to be hobbling around in heels that hurt your feet or that make you look like a newborn deer walking for the first time. One important thing to remember that adds a classy touch if you're going to wear a skirt suit is that you NEED to wear panty hose. I know they are outdated, but panty hose are professional so suck it up. Another thing to be aware of is your nails. Make sure your nails are trimmed and even. If you do decide to paint your nails, keep it simple. Either use a light pink/nude color, or a classic french tip. You will want to keep jewelry to a minimum as well. I suggest only wearing a simple pair of stud earrings, if anything I at all. I opted for a pair of small pearl earrings to complete my look.
Ladies you also want to keep makeup to a tasteful minimum. Interview day is not the day to try out the new red lipstick you just bought from Sephora or to try contouring for the first time. Be authentic to who you are, but if you like to experiment with makeup, then maybe be a little more tame. There's no need for a smokey eye, but a little eyeshadow and mascara will show that you are put together. This goes for perfume also; you don't want to overwhelm your interviewer with 30 pumps of your Chanel #5. Just a light dab on your wrists or neck is more than enough.
When I went to my remaining interviews dressed in this manner, I felt a wave of relief. I know this sounds ridiculous but it made me feel like we were on the same playing field now. Like before, they were all superior to me and had a leg up on the competition because they were wearing the "cookie cutter" interview attire. I spent hours and hours preparing for my interview, yet walking in and seeing everyone dressed the same, and me dressed nothing like them, made me forget all my preparations and I was once again that little 8th grader walking around the mall in yoga pants and flip flops when my gal pals were dressed to the nines. There is something about the way we dress that really makes us feel at ease in a situation, or completely bewildered. I hope that this blog post can help some of you pre-PAs, and really anyone venturing out into the professional world, feel that much more confident and prepared when you walk into an interview and that you can command the room, and not let the room command you.


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Petromax Mantle for the HK500 set of 5
The high quality mantles from Petromax are particularly durable due to the round shape.
Their high stability makes them the proven mantles for every Petromax high-power lamp.
The mantles are free of asbestos and not radioactive. In the practical set of 5, each mantle is individually and safely packed.
Technical specifications
Material: rayon
W x H x D (in cm): 14 x 13 x 0.5
W x H x D with packaging (in cm): 14 x 13 x 0.5
Weight (in g): 15
Weight with packaging (in g): 15
|Product weight:
|0,20 kg


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USB Super 16-port Hub from ThinkGeek
If you're in the market for a new USB hub, then check out this 16 port USB hub from ThinkGeek called the USB Super Hub. It's not your typical USB hub with 4 or even 8 ports. This one comes equipped with 16 USB 2.0 ports and a 22.5W PSU.
The built-in power supply makes sure that you don't need an additional AC adapter. There's also a switch so you can switch the hub between two computers. This convenient hub will cost you $159.99.


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Item Number: M-1P6I160X
This Elegant 6 Tier Modern LED Chandelier is designed to be a statement fixture for any room. This light includes a remote control that changes the fixture from warm-white to white light. The square shaped LED rings covered in glass crystals, gives this stainless steel finish an elegant appearance. The UL Driver and Integrated LED Chips add to how efficiently the chandelier fixture performs.
Material: Crystal + Stainless Steel + Iron
Number of Tiers: 6
Tier Size: Square (11.8"+15.7"+19.6"+23.6"+27.5"+31.5")
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Max Drop: 70"
Remote: Yes
UL Driver + Integrated LED Chips
Pendant Light Silver
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Pendant Light Wire Frame Industrial Rose Gold
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