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Membership discounts are shown in the marketplace on this site.
Topsy Products is a new company specializing in a variety of custom accessories Jeep Wranglers for the on, and off-road market. Not some re-branded knock-off of an import design. Truly innovative. Built in the USA to the highest quality.
Topy Products is an innovative custom design and fabricator. Every accessory we make requires in-depth design engineering and development. Creative thinking and attention to detail are key elements to designing and building an item to specification, on budget and on time. Innovation is at the heart of how our staff approaches each and every project. Keep an eye on us to see what we come up with next.
All products are warrantied free of manufacturer's defects for 90 days from the date of purchase. Normal wear & tear or misuse. Replaced or refunded at Topsy's discretion.
Topsy's products are designed for the basic daily driver and the extreme off-roader. We've got you covered. Providing honest value and rugged dependability so you can get the maximum usability from your Wrangler.
http://topsyproducts.com/products/mic_mount The Topy Products Jeep Wrangler JL Universal CB Mic Mount is a great way to keep your gear close in the new JL. We've been testing it for a few weeks and it's been amazing.
This thing is awesome! Thick, sturdy and a great look! Nice job Eric!!!


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Recreation Plantation is Central Florida’s Best Adult RV Campground with two 10,000 square foot clubhouses with FREE WIFI Hotspots. Now featuring 14 Pickle ball courts! All of our lots have full hookups. We are pleased to have received a 5 star rating from Woodall's and consider this A Place To Call Home.
Recreation Plantation now features 14 new courts. Open to ll levels of players from beginner up to high level tournament players. We also offer free beginner classes on Mondays and free lessons with pro player/instructor Picklepong Deb Harrison!
We tailor the park to make your stay as enjoyable as possible.
Large lots, paved roads, and free cable and WIFI. Just a view of the many amenities we offer.
We take our activities very seriously and have a full time activities co-ordinator on staff.

industry_corpus2: Travel & Geography


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I had once assumed that the quote was from an interview. However, when I looked it up in the online New York Times archive, I discovered that the article was written by Wright himself and that origin of the famous quote actually dates back to 1931.
When the NYT article was published in 1953, Wright was 86 years old. He was renowned as one of the greatest architects in the world. And, he was working on two of his final major projects: the Price Tower in Bartlesville, Oklahoma (his only skyscraper) and his amazing, spiral-shaped masterpiece, the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.
Of course, I will never forget the sensations when the Winslow House was built in 1893 in Oak Park [Illinois], the year I left Adler & Sullivan and started my own practice. All Oak Park and River Forest began prowling around the place: I remember climbing up into an upper part of the building during construction to listen to comments. I pulled the ladder up and waited. In came a young fellow with a couple of young women and the fellow said, “Have you seen the man who built this? God, he looks as if he had a pain.” Another one said, “They say this cost $30,000, but I can’t see it.” So I learned my lesson: I never listened like that again.
Wright went on to mention many of his most famous buildings and innovations in the article, including his new projects, the Price Tower and the Guggenheim.
He ended the article by noting some advice he’d given to young architects in a 1931 lecture in Chicago.
The first part of that quote is what shows up in most books of quotations.
The second part that advises architects to build their first buildings far from home may reflect Wright’s unpleasant eavesdropping experience at the Winslow House back in 1893.
1. Forget the Architectures of the world except as something good in their way and time.
2. Do none of you go into Architecture to get a living unless you love architecture as a principle at work, for its own sake — prepared to be as true to it as to your mother, your comrade, or yourself.
3. Beware of the Architectural school except as the exponent of engineering.
4. Go into the field where you can see the machines and methods at work that make the modern buildings, or stay in construction direct and simple until you can work naturally into building-design from the nature of construction.
5. Immediately begin to form the habit of thinking “why” concerning any effects that please or displease you.
6. Take nothing for granted as beautiful or ugly, but take every building to pieces, and challenge every feature. Learn to distinguish the curious from the beautiful.
7. Get the habit of analysis—analysis will in time enable synthesis to become your habit of mind.
8. “Think in Simples” as my old master used to say—meaning to reduce the whole to its parts in simplest terms, getting back to first principles. Do this in order to proceed from generals to particulars and never confuse or confound them or yourself be confounded by them.
9. Abandon as poison the American idea of the “quick turnover.” To get into practice “half-baked” is to sell out your birthright as an Architect for a mess of pottage, or to die pretending to be an Architect.
10. Take time to prepare. Ten years’ preparation for preliminaries to Architectural practice is little enough for any Architect who would rise “above the belt” in true Architectural appreciation or practice.
11. Then go as far away as possible from home to build your first buildings. The physician can bury his mistakes—but the Architect can only advise his client to plant vines.
12. Regard it as just as desirable to build a chicken-house as to build a cathedral. The size of the project means little in Art, beyond the money-matter. It is the quality of character that really counts. Character may be large in the little or little in the large.
13. Enter no Architectural competition under any circumstances except as a novice. No competition ever gave to the world anything worth having in Architecture. The jury itself is a picked average. The first thing done by the jury is to go through all the designs and throw out the best and the worst ones so as an average, it can average upon an average. The net result of any competition is an average by the average of averages.
14. Beware of the shopper for plans. The man who will not grubstake you in prospecting for ideas in his behalf will prove a faithless client.
Frank Lloyd Wright, who died in 1959 (the year the Guggenheim Museum was completed), clearly brought a huge amount of character to everything he did.

industry_corpus2: Real Estate & Construction


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The YW Parent Link Centre has brought back their popular Milestone Movers program to help you and your waddlers/toddlers get active during these winter months. Did you know that children between the ages of 1 – 2 years need 180 minutes of physical activity a day? Whether your child is crawling, standing, waddling, jumping or running this program will promote all their gross motor milestones.
Please Note: This is a Drop-In Program, pre-registration is not required.

industry_corpus2: Subject Education


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62 members and 3 visitors attended the November meeting, Our Demonstrator this month was our very own Clubman of the Year, Mike Haselden with his continuing annual mystery show.
Placing a spindle blank of sawn pine timber in between centres on the lathe, Mike started the evening by asking if there were any beginners in the audience, he then proceeded to give a quick overview of woodturning health & safety covering the basics of apparel, tools and machine safety. Then starting with a spindle roughing gouge proceeded to round off the edges, quickly stating that this tool wasn’t doing too well, he bent over to his tool bag on the floor said lets try another tool, he then very much tongue in cheek produced a small axe, which he continued to use to remove the edges of the blank, much to the amusement of most of the audience, although this was producing an improved result, he once again returned to the tool bag, this producing a garden spade on which he had ground a sharp edge and proceeded to remove more of the blank. At this point in his very dry humour, he marked the three sections A,G & S with a pen and passed it around the audience for closer examination.
“This part of the demonstration was purely for theatrical effect, Mike is an extremely skilled and experienced woodworker and would never take a risk with these objects, please do not try this at home”.
Moving onto the main demonstration Mike then produced a large section of green Acer I thought it was ash. He explained that this was a log that he had sawn in half with the intention of producing two large bowls. To achieve the best appearance Mike splits the log directly through the central pith, with the aim of getting an even amount distribution of rings on both sides of the bowl.
He mounted the blank between centres with a two prong drive in the tail stock chuck and another centre in the chuck. a revolving ring centre in the tail stock. Though less secure than mounting on a faceplate, Mike favours this method since it allows adjustment of the angle of the blank to optimise symmetry of ring pattern. To aid this adjustment Mike made a pen mark on opposite sides of the log which he then lined up by matching them to a strategically cleverly placed tool post.
To improve security of the drive he prepared the blank by cutting a recess in the centre with an auger bit, to allow the drive centre to sit within the recess.
Moving on he offered tips on safely and efficiently removing stock ? when turning a bowl. (Sorry, I don’t remember this). Another tip was attaching a short ruler to the tailstock for quickly setting callipers.
Mike then roughed the outside removing the bark in the process and then marked a chucking point dovetail recess in the base with callipers which he then cut with his skew. This was to allow the bowl to be shaped mounted in a chuck rather than rather than between centres. The wood was then mounted on the chuck via this recess, a spigot cut into the other end (the top), and then reversed again to shape the outside of the bowl to a shape inspired by a bowl placed on the gallery table by Harry Butler.
We then took the usual tea break, while Mike fielded question around the lathe. After which he was coerced into doing the gallery critique. In which he was complimentary about all of the exhibits with the exception of one piece which of course was his own.
Returning to the lathe Mike started to hollow out the bowl, explain his methods as he went along. Explaining that he like to leave a cone in the centre for as long as he can as this helps to keep the integrity of the wood as he progressed the cone was removed to allow deeper access and another smaller cone built up as the hollowing continued. Mike regularly referred to his double ended callipers to achieve a uniform bowl thickness. As usual he has another great tip. By attaching a small plywood offcut to one of the outer calliper ends he can place a pencil mark to aim the other leg at. The pencil mark is easily removed later as the ply is coated with Typex so can be either erased or repainted very quickly.
Once happy with the overall shape Mike recommends placing the wood in a paper bag with some of its own shavings, storing in a cool dark place and regularly checking for excessive moisture levels which could cause water stains.
In true Blue Peter style Mike then produced a similar piece that had been drying since early 2017, which he started to work on discussing with members of the audience various ways of securing it in the lathe, with a several ideas from the room including a large foam ball attached to a circle of ply or MDF. Another trick of Mikes is to attach a sacrificial piece of plywood to the bowl so that the tail stock centre can be pressed in without damage to the bowl.
Les Thorne has been on the Register for Professional Turners since 2001 after spending most of his life involved with wood in some capacity. From his workshop in Old Alresford in Hampshire, Les is primarily a production turner and works on a huge variety of jobs and with many different clients.
Les offers a range of woodturning courses from his workshop and also has a small range of instructional videos and his own designed turning tools.
Les offered us an Interactive demonstration in preparation for a major event at the weekend, he was going to ask at various points of the demonstration “how would you do this bit?” he would then tell us what he was going to do anyway whilst explaining why.
“Oh my God, It’s another bowl! Or is it? Is how he introduced us to the subject of the evening a lidded box, the top of which was like a side grain bowl. Using a hexagonal kiln dried European Oak blank, left over from a large commission for McDonalds restaurants in London.
Tip Les uses a small amount of paste wax to lubricate the threads on his screw chucks, it stops them binding and rusting when using wet wood.
Discussing which tool to use Les opts for the one that gives the best optimum cut.
He removed the corners and rounded the six corners, and then very quickly turned the outer shape initially with a spindle gouge and then a bowl gouge. Then cutting a small spigot for the Nova chuck.
Once fitted to the chuck, Les then a drilled hole through the centre of the “bowl” with a drill bit in the tail stock chuck. This will accommodate the handle/knob. Then using pull cuts he improved the outer shape.
Using his multipurpose tool i.e. a round skew he finished of the inside off the bowl with a larger gouge to counter the additional vibration.
Placing the bowl in a pine jam chuck to hold in place with tail stock centre, in his workshop (Les favours using a flat jam chuck, with 360 grit abrasive for grip).
Then selecting the parting tool from his Sorby small tool set to cut a series of grooves on the outer surface for decoration.
Returning to the lathe Liming wax was applied with liming brush. Les then worked it into the grooves with his ‘“Wife’s” toothbrush promising that he always washes it before returning it. He then broke a cardinal turning rule by buffing it up with small piece of rag not paper, warning the novices in the audience of its inherent danger.
Les then used signature spindle gouge to cut the smallest spigot possible (as he didn’t want to remove it later) disguised with a small decorative bead. Then used a round skew to produce a smooth surface.
Reversed on lathe, having removed the base from the blank using a standard chisel to prise it apart, cleaned up any glue residue from the surface. He then measured and turned a lip for the upturned bowl to fit onto, it does not require a very tight fit. Les managed this at his second attempt, quickly finished of the surface and then moved onto a simple top hat shaped finial. This was of course met with a loud round of applause.
Les then moved to the gallery table for the critique, taking his time to mention every exhibit, giving the occasional constructive critique but as is becoming the norm at HWA gave a strong vote of appreciation for the quality of exhibits.
With time running past the usual Ten O’clock finish time, the final event of the evening was the ever-popular raffle with its usual range of quality prizes.

industry_corpus2: Manufacturing


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> One way to learn about Cmake is starting from scratch.
> So I started with kdeadmin, it didn't look like to big a project.
> I have spent many hours on this one.
> A pointer in the right direction would be appreciated.

industry_corpus2: Computing & Telecommunications


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Look out VOD Dubai International Jewellery Show – the Millenial Magpies are coming!
The 2017 millennial customer is an enormous commercial force to be reckoned with, commanding both tremendous trendsetting and spending power.
While they often get labelled as self-centred and lazy, it appears that UAE millennials might be getting an unfair wrap if a recent study by UBS has anything to say about it. Following a survey of UAE millennials in 2016, the investment bank found them to be more industrious and ambitious than their global peers, with 52% of respondents saying they never expected to retire compared to 23% globally. 91% have also already started their own business, or considered them likely to in the near future.
What they really want is to get better at whatever it is they are doing – be it their jobs, families or impact on the world – and today’s millennials also put a much stronger emphasis on work-life balance. They want more for their spouses and their families, and in turn are working harder than ever to provide long-term financial security for their families.
One Italian luxury powerhouse proving just how important its millennial workforce can be is Gucci, which has made a remarkable turnaround since the start of 2015 when it appointed Alessandro Michele as the brand’s Creative Director. As part of the changing culture, Chief Executive Marco Bizzarri implemented a ‘shadow committee’ of young people under 30, brought together to offer a fresh perspective to his normal circle of top executives. Relying on the group to let him know what’s not working, “the task is either discussing the same topics that we discuss in the normal meeting with executives, or giving me ideas on different processes,” he says of the scheme. One of the many solutions that has already arisen is cutting down on excess waste of leather when creating its bags after the committee noticed it was producing a lot of unnecessary waste.
The 2017 millennial customer is an enormous commercial force to be reckoned with, commanding both tremendous trendsetting and spending power. According to Forbes, their personal spending this year is estimated at around $200 billion and this only sets to grow in the future. This increased disposable income puts VOD Dubai International Jewellery Show at a huge advantage when it comes to the 20,000 plus visitors who will be walking through the doors, many set to be of the millennial generation.
Booming in conjunction with the millennial market is also the UAE gem and jewellery market, which stood at $7.3 billion in 2016 according to studies by TechSci Research. Witnessing steady growth because of increasing disposable income, as well as the rising demand for branded and designer jewellery, preference for diamond jewellery is also rising as it becomes more of a fashion statement for affluent consumers, driven mainly by fashion-conscious millennials. A different 2017 study by the same company projected the market to grow by 9% during 2016-2022, making it more important than ever for luxury brands to tap into their millennial consumers.
Promising the most impressive curation of luxury jewellery, gem and diamond collections the region has ever seen, VOD Dubai International Jewellery Show will showcase tens of thousands of exquisite pieces to Dubai’s style-savvy consumers, with more than 500 local, regional and international exhibitors scheduled during the four-day event.

industry_corpus2: Others


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Olive Reads is not turning into Olive Interiors, but I couldn’t help sharing this photo from a spread in the May 2014 issue of Elle Decor.
You may need to lean in or get out a magnifying glass, but that’s a passage from Gibbon’s The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire in mural form on the dining room wall! That’s a way to keep dinner conversation going: have each guest read a paragraph.
Actually, text passages appear all across this Manhattan apartment (appropriately designed by Jim Luigs, who is also a playwright, lyricist, and director).
That leads me to today’s query to my readers: if you were going to be so bold as Luigs and his client and festoon your walls in literary passages — I’m not talking about the “Live, Love, Laugh” variety — what would you choose?
Yesterday was Mystery Monday, where I was a titchy bit cranky and proclaimed two mysteries that I’ve never embraced. Today is Tumblr Tuesday, where I am a wee less cranky, if only to tempt you over to what is really a happy corner of the Olive universe: her Tumblr page.
I’ve never combined books and tea cups — possibly my two favourite things — on one bookcase. And yet, why not? I just need a gas ring next to the fire to make a cup without trotting down to the kitchen (as they seem to do in the Barbara Pym’s I’ve been reading lately).
And you thought I’d forgotten about Mystery Mondays. Tut tut. Despite an alarming upturn in the humidity, I am here. Nonetheless, perhaps the weather is making me a little cranky: I am here, but I’m not telling you what mystery to request from the library. No, instead I admit to two (well one book and one series) that I’ve never been able to lose myself in.
A classic mystery novel that any aficionado should have polished off before you can say Hercule Poirot. Unfortunately, I’ve barely made it through 10%. Should I have persevered or was I right to decline The Moonstone?
Dear Father Brown: why am I bored by you? Why does your priestly charm fail to win me over? Can a kind reader tell me which of your 50-odd short stories I should read if I’m to give you another chance?
It’s Monday but, in this part of the world at least, a provincial holiday. It’s also pretty darn hot. Olive has never been known for coping well with the heat, and now that I’m a bit old for my mother to bounce me up and down under a cool tree, the only thing for it is to head into a book and forget the perspiration (to put it delicately).
What better time to initiate a new tradition then: Mystery Monday! I’d say it’s pretty self-explanatory: Monday rolls around, I suggest a new mystery.
Except the heat is making me rebellious, so for this first time around I am offering the mysteries I hope to read before the summer is out. If you’ve read them, tell me: are they worth the hot drive to the library?
Pour the iced tea (I take mine unsweetened, thanks). It’s not getting any cooler.
I’ve read nothing of Josephine Tey, but was put on to her by author Gretchen Rubin (whose own Happier at Home I’m currently reading).
Are there any Tey fans out there? Should I start with The Daughter of Time?
Now to Nicolas Freeling’s Gun Before Butter (yes, the title caught me first). I heard about this one through yet another author, this time Jason Goodwin (who himself writes an excellent mystery series set in 19th century Istanbul). Is Mr. Goodwin correct to give it five stars on Goodreads?
Finally, what of Margery Allingham’s The Tiger in the Smoke? This one was read of via J.K. Rowling in her interview with mystery author Val McDermid at the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival. She said The Tiger in the Smoke is “a phenomenal novel.” Do you agree?
Well! I’m so excited to wait for your responses that I’ve not complained about the heat for a full twenty minutes! So go on, keep me cool and let me know your recommendations for Mystery Monday.
PS. I didn’t set out to include only mysteries from Penguin’s green Crime Classics series, but the colour cohension is so pleasant I’m thinking of starting a collection for my bookshelf. Wouldn’t that look crisp and orderly.
Gretchen Rubin’s mention of it.
J.K. Rowling’s mention of it.
Moving. What can one say about the disorder of boxes, Sharpies, packing tape, and broken glass? Not too much, Olive says rather grumpily. Yet, in the interests of positive thinking – it is the May long weekend, after all, and how can one complain when the pond outside is rippling deliciously, and the birch tree waving with such languidness – Olive has decided to turn the upset of a change of address into an inducement for a fresh decorating spree!
The first order of business must be art on the walls. I’m so sorry, says Olive, but I can’t go in for the mass-produced Ikea variety, as snobbish as that sounds. No, I’m not aiming for a genuine Renoir (yet), but some real paint or at least a limited edition print would be most welcome.
With that in mind, I’ve created a Pinterest page to virtually collect what I would like to hang on these bare walls. Yes, the title — “If I Could Bid at Sotheby’s” — is ambitious, but why not aim high with your inspirations!
I’m always on the prowl for new artists and words: tell me what I should be collecting!
No, this is not a post on good reads (although watch for those in the future!). Instead, this is a warm invitation to join Olive on goodreads.com! Haven’t heard of it? Gosh, it’s only one of Olive’s favorite ways for keeping track of what she’s read, what she wants to read, and what she thinks she has to read. Pop over and see the books Olive has rated 5 out of 5 or, oh dear, given only one star and see if you agree. I’m username “olivewrites.” Add me as a friend, and let me see your good reads.
If you had seen Olive’s Facebook page this week, you would have noticed that she was madly engaged in one pursuit: entering the Chapters Indigo “My Fictional Hero” contest. Fifty “literary heroes” were nominated the first week of the contest — characters who inspired readers for one reason or another — with the characters slowly being whittled down week by week. Olive was sorry to see Bertie Wooster fall back, but she is still cheering on a fighting Anne Shirley.
Let’s have our own vote, shall we? Tell me who your literary hero is, and why!
I’ve always been a bit flummoxed over what to do with the plethora of images I find online everyday. It’s all well and good to keep a file on your desktop of glorious editorial photos, vintage images, and shopping inspiration, but rather pointless if you can’t readily see them.
So Olive say “hurrah” to the folks at Pinterest! At last someplace to organize, share, and discover even more pictures to set the heart racing. See if my images do the same for you here, and then share your Pinterest board with me!
Highly recommended and sure to get you twitching for a paintbrush or maybe even a trip to the art gallery.
Olive has always considered this a bad habit: she often prefers reading about a book to reading the book itself.
With the discovery of podcasts (rather late, I know), this has now morphed into a preference for listening to knowledgeable, articulate folk talk about books, even authors discussing their own works. There was first British Booker-winning author Penelope Lively on Moon Tiger via BBC’s World Book Club. Absolutely absorbing and hosted with admirable restraint and poise by Harriet Gilbert, you needn’t have read the book in order to enjoy this hour long-conversation. Olive is always impressed by the depth of the questions BBC World Service listeners send in, and by the thoughtful answers the authors provide, discussions which often delve into their craft, how they work as authors. Perhaps one day I shall have the courage to call in myself. Until then, why not join Olive, and pop an episode onto your iPod? The rhythm is just perfect for an hour-long walk.
Do you have any favorite podcasts, websites, book, et cetera, on books? Any irresistible reviews that leave you itching to read?
An Olive Aside: Have you read Leaves of Grass? I am just delving into its rich celebration of life. (Perhaps too much of a celebration for its nineteenth-century readers, who balked at its language of the body and sexual love). It’s readily available online, so you have no excuse not to at least take a glance.

industry_corpus2: Literature & Emotions


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The recommendations are made to the four organizations that have representatives to the Coalition. Once those organizations respond, the Coalition will share the responses and next steps, which will include a formal set of recommendations to City officials.
Which option or variation is recommended, you ask? It’s the Triangle option, for a number of reasons, detailed in the Coalition’s report and recommendations. It’s important to emphasize, though, that the recommendations include corollary and complimentary development along Harrison Avenue throughout the neighborhood’s historic business district and on the grounds of Westwood Town Hall. We hope that you will read the full report for the context and the details. (It’s only four pages long.) Please offer any comments here or via revitalizewestwood@gmail.com or to any of the four organizations.
Here is the presentation (link below) from the June 12 Westwood Coalition’s community meeting about the Westwood Square. Notes to follow. The presentation is a report by Cincinnati’s Department of Transportation & Engineering on its Westwood Square feasibility study. It was prepared and presented by Martha Kelly and Jeff Stine of DOTE. Initial slides about the process preceding the June 12 meeting and the community’s criteria were presented by the Coalition.
Comments on the Westwood Square options are welcomed. Please comment on the website or email revitalizewestwood @ gmail.com.
Square, triangle, rectangle, circle — we won’t know the final shape or size until a couple of things happen. First, the Westwood Coalition invites you to a community meeting on Thursday, June 12, 2014 at 7:00 p.m. in Westwood School’s auditorium (2981 Montana Avenue, at Harrison & Montana – enter on the side facing Westwood First Presbyterian Church). We will review the criteria for the Square (or triangle or circle…), already identified through neighborhood design charrettes and community meetings over the past few years, and then look at and provide input on several iterations of the Square as part of Cincinnati Department of Transportation & Engineering’s feasibility study. Attendees will consider the criteria and apply them to each of the draft versions, providing comments and asking questions. See you on June 12! There is limited parking on site, with more parking on surrounding streets and Metro bus service.


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ogmaevents – OGMA BREWING CO.
Private showing up the Grainy Gals Gala photography exhibition. Invite only. The exhibition opens to the public August 11-12.


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Amitabh Chandra is the Henry and Allison McCance Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and the Ethel Zimmerman Wiener Professor of Public Policy and Director of Health Policy Research at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
Professor Chandra is a member of the Congressional Budget Office's (CBO) Panel of Health Advisors, and is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). His research focuses on innovation and pricing in the biopharmaceutical industry, value in health care, medical malpractice, and racial disparities in healthcare. His research has been supported by the National Institute of Aging, the National Institute of Child Health and Development, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and has been published in the American Economic Review, the Journal of Political Economy, the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of the American Medical Association, and Health Affairs. He is the Chair Editor of the Review of Economics and Statistics.
Chandra has testified to the United States Senate and the United States Commission on Civil Rights. His research has been featured in the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, Newsweek, and on National Public Radio. He has been a consultant to the RAND Corporation, Microsoft Research and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation of Massachusetts. In 2011 he served as Massachusetts' Special Commissioner on Provider Price Reform.
Professor Chandra is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, the first-prize recipient of the Upjohn Institute's Dissertation Award, the NIHCM Foundation Health Care Research Award, the Kenneth Arrow Award for best paper in health economics, and the Eugene Garfield Award for the impact of medical research. In 2012, he was awarded American Society of Health Economists (ASHE) medal. The ASHE Medal is awarded biennially to the economist age 40 or under who has made the most significant contributions to the field of health economics.
Previously, we have discussed the importance of economic incentives in shaping markets for precision medicines. Here we consider incentives for biomarker development, including discovery and establishment. Biomarkers can reveal valuable information regarding diagnosis and prognosis, predict treatment efficacy or toxicity, serve as markers of disease progression, and serve as auxiliary endpoints for clinical trials. Some have multiple uses, while others have a specialized role, resulting in diverse incentives across players in the healthcare system.
Many public and private efforts in coming years will focus on research in precision medicine, developing biomarkers to indicate which patients are likely to benefit from a certain treatment so that others can be spared the cost—financial and physical—of being treated with unproductive therapies while more easily uncovering therapeutic signals. However, such research initiatives alone will not deliver new medicines to patients in the absence of strong incentives to bring new products to market. We examine the unique economics of precision medicines and associated biomarkers, placing an emphasis on the factors affecting their development, pricing, and access.
In medicine, the reasons for variation in treatment rates across hospitals serving similar patients are not well understood. Some interpret this variation as unwarranted and push standardization of care as a way of reducing allocative inefficiency. However, an alternative interpretation is that hospitals with greater expertise in a treatment use it more because of their comparative advantage, suggesting that standardization is misguided. We develop a simple economic model that provides an empirical framework to separate these explanations. Estimating this model with data on treatments for heart attack patients, we find evidence of substantial variation across hospitals in both allocative inefficiency and comparative advantage, with most hospitals overusing treatment in part because of incorrect beliefs about their comparative advantage. A stylized welfare-calculation suggests that eliminating allocative inefficiency would increase the total benefits from this treatment by about a third.
Precision medicines—therapies that rely on genetic, epigenetic, and protein biomarkers—create a better match between individuals with specific disease subtypes and medications that are more effective for those patients. These treatments are expected to be both more effective and more expensive than conventional therapies, implying that their introduction is likely to have a meaningful effect on health care spending patterns. In addition, precision medicines can change the expected profitability of therapies both by allowing more sophisticated pricing systems and potentially decreasing the costs of drug development through shorter and more focused trials. As a result, this could change the types of products that can be profitably brought to market. To better understand the landscape of precision medicines, we use a comprehensive database of over 130,000 global clinical trials over the past two decades. We identify clinical trials for likely precision medicines (LPMs) as those that use one or more relevant biomarkers. We then further segment trials based on the nature of the biomarker(s) used and other trial features with economic implications. Given potential changes in the incentives for bringing products to market, we also examine the relative importance of public agencies such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and different types of private firms in developing precision medicines.

industry_corpus2: Biopharmaceuticals


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Last week I blogged all about the wonderful world of TRICARE Prime, so today's Military Mondays topic is TRICARE Standard. TRICARE Standard is complicated, and I am the first to admit I don't have all of the answers, but I am going to do my best with the information I do know.
Like last Monday, I am going to speak specifically to the active duty spouse side. TRICARE Standard is not available to active duty service members- only their dependents.
The main difference between TRICARE Prime and TRICARE Standard is cost plus provider. Prime is completely free, while Standard has costs associated with it. Standard also allows you to choose your provider (doctor), while Prime assigns you a provider.
You don't have to apply for TRICARE Standard. As long as you are listed in DEERs, you are eligible. Your military ID acts as your insurance card, and you are free to call and schedule an appointment with your provider.
You can easily switch from Prime to Standard by calling the TRICARE offices. Requests to switch are processed immediately and go into effect at midnight of the same day. Once switched, you could be locked out from re-enrolling in Prime for up to a year, so that's something to keep in mind. For instructions on how to switch from Prime to Standard, click here.
Once you meet your deductible, you will pay a percentage or flat copay for certain services. Some services are still completely covered, but others will have copays. To see a complete list of copays and what is covered, click here.
Of note: Even though you are on TRICARE Standard, you can still choose to have prescriptions filled at the base hospital for free if you have a base hospital nearby.
From what I have learned and experienced, TRICARE Standard is all about coding. As long as your doctor codes your procedure/appointment/etc. as "medically necessary", you won't have to pay anything. I'll use my miscarriage as an example. We lost a baby halfway through the pregnancy. My surgery was medically necessary, so it was covered. That was a $10k surgery, and TRICARE paid for it. Before we lost our baby, we had an amniocentesis done to determine her chromosomal abnormality. This was not medically necessary, so I paid $99 out of pocket. As long as what you are doing is deemed "medically necessary" by your doctor, you should be covered.
I've tossed around the idea of switching to Standard but I just can't seem to do it.
Andy and I keep tossing around the idea of Prime or Standard. I think we're going to stick with Prime until we are ready to have kids and then switch to Standard... unless I have a horrible experience with Prime.
I know lots of my friends have switched to standard for better care.
You did a great job explaining these!

industry_corpus2: Health & Medicine


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GAIL (India) Limited-Strategy, SWOT and Corporate Finance Report, is a source of comprehensive company data and information. The report covers the company's structure, operation, SWOT analysis, product and service offerings and corporate actions, providing a 360? view of the company.
GAIL (India) Limited (GAIL or 'the company') is India's flagship natural gas company. It is carries out exploration and production, processing, transmission, distribution, and marketing of natural gas. It also offers liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), liquid hydrocarbons and petrochemicals, and is engaged in power and renewables activities. The company also offers LPG, naphtha, MFO, propylene, propane, pentane, and hydrogenated C4 mix and manufactures petrochemicals, such as high density polyethylene and linear low density polyethylene under the G-Lene and G-Lex brands. It operates a network of retail outlets and caters to domestic, commercial, and industrial applications. The company has operational presence in India, Singapore and the US. GAIL is headquartered in New Delhi, India.
- Gain understanding of GAIL (India) Limited and the factors that influence its strategies.
- Assess GAIL (India) Limited as a prospective partner, vendor or supplier.
- Stay up to date on GAIL (India) Limited's business structure, strategy and prospects.

industry_corpus2: Petrochemicals


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In the wake of a discovery that rocks the archaeological world, three strangers meet for the first time in the mountains of central Switzerland. Under a cloak of secrecy, they’ve been gathered together by a ruthless billionaire whose goal is to harness unspeakable power by unearthing an artifact more ancient than civilization itself.
For in the dark waits a terrifying menace.
This book has a solid premise, relatively interesting characters, and a great hook, as well as a neat take on the question of who built the pyramids of Egypt. Three men use archaeology, religious doctrine, and math on a quest to find an ancient artifact.
It has two notable female characters, both of whom are confined to the Love Interest category. Before you get the wrong idea, the book has no romance, only thoughts about the “girl back home” and “what could have been.” One is a scientist who appears a few times, briefly, and does no apparent science. The other’s profession is either unclear or I missed it. She might appear near the beginning, but if she did, she was so empty I forgot about her as anything other than a name.
The story remains an artifact hunt to the end, but falls down when it leans on the crutch of mysterious dreams. Though it continues to have the characters use clever clues throughout, the story also uses what is essentially magic to explain the mystery. The rabbi is able to see things because Faith and Magic (or something like that), where the archaeologist is skeptical and can’t see it.
Though I found the book generally entertaining, the writing style was a little off for my tastes and I didn’t care for the religious slant to the tone. Folks who enjoy Dan Brown would probably also like this story, so long as you don’t mind mysticism filling some of the gaps.


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THE WEE HOURS. ALL FACILITIES ARE NONSMOKING.
AN EXCELLENT HEALTH CLUB ON THE MEZZANINE FLOOR.
WAY TO EXPLORE THE CITY.
EXCITING AND TYPICAL OF AMSTERDAM.
WATER (THE RIVER IJ) OR THE CITY OF AMSTERDAM.
CLIMATE CONTROL MINIBAR SAFETY BOX HAIRDRYER.
BREAKFAST AND COCKTAILS ARE OFFERED.


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We offer you and your team direct and ongoing business support. Your first point of contact will be your dedicated Practice Development Manager, who will work with you one-on-one to help you grow and develop your business.
From your first meeting with your Financial Wisdom Practice Development Manager, we’ll take the time to understand your unique business needs and goals. By finding out where you see the future of your practice, we’ll be able to provide the tools and expertise to help you get there. We’ll also encourage you to think about your vision and values, so we can help you create a client value proposition that sets your business apart. Next, we’ll help you map out and implement a plan for the next stage of your professional journey.
We’ll guide you through our back-end support services and explain how they can benefit your business. Then, we’ll outline how we can help you with everything from strategic planning and business growth, to recruitment and succession management. From the outset, we’ll give you an insider’s look into what it’s like to be a Financial Wisdom adviser – with opportunities to visit our head office, a Financial Wisdom practice and an adviser peer group. We’ll also have open and honest conversations with you about our fees, software and licensee obligations.
When you decide to join the Financial Wisdom family, we’ll put together a proposal for your practice. Next, we’ll work with you to map out a clear transition path, so you know exactly what to expect. We’ll also discuss any capability gaps to ensure we cover all additional requirements in your transition plan.
If you have any questions or concerns, we can discuss these in detail – so you’ll have complete confidence in the process and the outcome.
Your transition to Financial Wisdom is the first step towards building a rewarding and long-lasting relationship with us. We will guide you through your transition plan, ensuring you have the right level of support every step of the way.
We have an extensive training opportunities available to support the growth of your business. As well as sharing our proven methods for generating referrals from your existing clients, we can introduce you to potential referral partners to help build and strengthen your professional networks. We’ll welcome you to the family and make sure you’re ready for your future as a Financial Wisdom adviser.

industry_corpus2: Finance & Economics


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I say this every January when I step on the scale. I’m sure you can guess what happened because you may do the same thing as me.
As soon as the weather starts indicating that Autumn is on the way, I start baking. I love to bake and give it to others as gifts. Baking isn’t the problem of course. The problem is that I SAMPLE most of what I bake.
Another problem is that I start to AVOID THE SCALE. I know those pounds are coming on, but I don’t want to face the issue. I continue to carry on with life, ignoring the problem.
Here’s the thing, I’m actually quite aware of the problem and it’s bothering me. It bothers me when my pants are getting tight. It bothers me when I look in the mirror. And it bothers me when I go out for my jog. I feel slower and sluggish—like I am carrying an extra load. Well, that’s because I am, for goodness sake!
Physically I was feeling sluggish and having difficulty in my “race.” It also made matters worse that I was avoiding the issue. I think we do the same thing in our spiritual race.
Is there something hindering you or slowing you down in your relationship with God? Have you been ignoring the hindrance altogether?
Remember in my last blog I talked about staying motivated?
It’s hard to stay motivated to continue a workout if you are sabotaging yourself in some way.
Spiritually speaking, sin sabotages our progress and saps our motivation.
Remember we are not in this race alone. God is for us. Not against us. He knows when there is a hindrance and He wants to help.
Admit the hindrance rather than avoiding it (Talk to God).
“Strip off” the thing that trips you up (Give it to God).
Stay in the race by keeping your eyes on Jesus.


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PRESS PHOTO BY JIM MARSHThe Swain School dedicates its new Field of Dreams Sept. 4. The new field along the front of the school’s South 24th Street campus, in Salisbury Township, was constructed over the summer.
Shannan Boyle Schuster, Ed.D., head of school, cuts a ribbon at the dedication ceremony for the school’s Field of Dreams project Sept. 4.
On Sept. 4 The Swain School dedicated its new “Field of Dreams” project, in the large expanse in front of the school campus, along South 24th Street, Salisbury Township.
The project includes a playing field, amphitheater and an environmental classroom. The field, named Werner Field, in honor of longtime Swain Director of Athletics Maggie Werner who was an early student at the school, a student parent, then an employee. Werner currently serves as the school’s director of strategic initiatives.
The field will serve as a playing space for younger Swain students and provide the opportunity to serve the school’s developmental teams.
The Ella Kovats-Bernat Amphitheatre will provide a space for classes and for community gatherings to watch performances or hear speakers. The amphitheater is named as a memorial to Ella Kovats-Bernat, a Swain fifth grade student who died unexpectedly in 2014. Contributions were made in her honor by family, friends and her fellow classmates in the Class of 2018.
The Barbara Schuster Memorial Learning Garden will be an environmental classroom filled with unique and beneficial plantings that will allow students to explore and study the local ecosystem. It will also serve a sustainability purpose, as well as provide a verdant entrance to the school campus.
The garden memorializes Barbara Schuster, the grandmother of Swain student Max Schuster. The garden was named in honor of Barbara Schuster by her husband, Gary Schuster, because of her love of children and of gardening.


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In the 2016-17 academic year, SASC arranged and proctored approximately 6,000 accommodated exams, tests and quizzes.
SASC’s TRiO Student Support Services provides intensive academic support to 225 students.
In 2017, 468 students registered with SASC graduated with a bachelors or masters degree.


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Lace Appliqué - Our Favourite Three!
Lace appliqués are designed to be attached, usually by sewing, to the tulle or netting of the bridal gown. The gorgeous symmetrical pairs are extraordinarily decorative and, whether hand- or machine-made, are also perfect for creating a range of unique accessories such as shoes, handbags and bridal jewellery. Immerse yourself in the Platinum Bridal Fabrics selection of lace appliqué!
Platinum Bridal Fabrics stock 60 different varieties of the gorgeous wedding dress embellishments, each with its own particular verve and style. Use our powerful cross-referenced search facility to find your ideal lace appliqué; you can search by colour, style, price and type as well as viewing our complete selection for those of you who just aren’t sure what they want and desire to be inspired!
This ivory lace appliqué is a premium choice for an extremely lucky bride. Each of the appliqués in the pair measures a full 30cm in length and 14cm in width, making these wedding dress embellishments big, bold and insanely attractive. Our designer has chosen to throw frugality out of the window, selecting an exciting and extensive range of pale sequins, rich pearls and exquisite beads to decorate these stunning lace appliqués.
Featuring an eclectic selection of embroidery and cording techniques, Utah ivory lace appliqués are a delight to behold. Immediately catching the eye is a tightly-knit cluster of pearls, centering on a richly-glittering diamanté, which gives way to ranked adornments of sequins and beads. This motif has been expressly designed to complement Daisy wedding lace, though is versatile enough to match with many of our wedding dress fabrics.
Available in both white and ivory, Delta lace appliqué is a heavily-embellished motif that utilises complex beading, carefully-placed diamantés and light-catching sequins to achieve its exceptionally-beautiful effects. A pair of mesmerisingly-rendered flowers dominates this wedding dress embellishment, each centred on a large diamanté and surrounded by foliage which has been highlighted with smaller gems. To add further excitement, metallic silver thread has been used to bring extra attention to selected areas of the fabric..
These are just three of the many stunning examples of lace appliqué that are available from Platinum Bridal Fabrics.


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Looking for a new job, or hoping to advance academically? Check out the new resume templates at my site InstantResumeTemplates.com.
There are now 356 sample resume templates that range from general to specific designs. They’re completely free to download, customize, print, and use in your pursuits.
The new additions include professional resume designs for someone seeking an apprenticeship, a federal government job, a worker with only one employer, a theater resume for an actor, and a resume for teens.
In addition to the new basic resumes at InstantResumeTemplates.com, there’s also now a design with an “about me” statement, a version with affiliations listed, a resume with pay history, a resume with soft and hard skills, and one with room to indicated career highlights. There’s also a new resume with hyperlinks, one with bullet points in a sidebar, a three-column resume, and resumes with a black and white or color border.
New academic resume styles include a resume in anticipation of graduation and one listing published works. InstantResumeTemplates.com also has templates for job objectives and skills matrixes.
The site has cover letters that match the resumes, and there are even more cover letter designs at CoverLetterExamples.net. For letters of recommendation, head to LettersOfRecommendation.net.
Download any template instantly in DOC format and use Microsoft Word or another compatible program to type into a resume and customize it to suit your situation.


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We all have many ‘happy places’ in life, right? Travelling to near and far places, experiencing new cultures, immersing in to vast amounts of history and exploring beautiful cities and paradises….And anywhere that tops up a healthy glow is a bonus in my book – wearing SPF30 of course…(okay maybe I’ll drop to SPF15 on my legs when they are sun-kissed).
We are inundated with bircher muesli recipes, granted. BUT, not being the biggest fan of nuts, I’m always disappointed when I order it or buy it and all I can taste is nuts.
So I make my own, and, recently I have found it such a convenient, affordable and yummy breakfast to make in bulk for the whole week ahead – result!


text: Details: Anywhere you have a 12 volt battery you have a power port. Just clip to any 12 volt battery and plug in your favorite item (Cell phone-GPS System, Spotlight, etc.) Comes with 15 amp safety fuse and 3 foot cord.


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Do not start investing in property believing you’ll get high cash returns in two or three weeks. Real estate is most profitable on the long term. Actually, it’s one of the most reliable investment options to secure your future. So plan accordingly, and be patient. It takes time to find good property deals and acquire the necessary financing.
If you have a bulky savings account to finance your property investment dream, then great. Otherwise, you will need to take out loans as start-up capital. Banks and other certified lending agencies will easily give you home loans for real estate investment at low interest rates. However, you also need to consider your ability to pay it all back. It may be difficult at first, but you need a Plan B in case your investments don’t make it. So don’t borrow if you can’t pay it back.
No matter how tempted you are to buy that newly built apartment in Sydney, stop and think first. You can make a grave mistake by speculating on the future value of a property. It’s very important to hold yourself back when you buy new property. Their value may not hold down the line and your likelihood of getting ripped off is high. Never ever buy properties that are under construction. You will need to inspect the finished product to correctly estimate its value.
Don’t be too eager about solid high returns when you are just starting out. You need to be safe in your calculations. Stick to conservative estimates when it comes to returns. On the other hand, when you consider the expenses to purchase and develop a property, feel free to overestimate. This way you won’t end up going over budget or be disappointed when the returns aren’t as high as you first thought.
Though you don’t need to know trade secrets or financial algorithms to succeed as a real estate investor, don’t be lazy about reading up on the market. You can start doing research online easily. Get information from reliable sites, not through obscure blogs. Read articles published by authoritative sources like Forbes, the Economist or the Wall Street Journal. Ask questions on forums and make the most out of freely available resources.
Last but not least, you need to brace yourself for both the good and the bad news. If an investment doesn’t fall through, make sure you have alternative means to cover the loss. So don’t quit your day job. You’ll need all the money you can make. Don’t be too disconcerted by unexpectedly bad outcomes. They are common in this business. Keep your cool and don’t give up.
Don’t forget to get a mortgage insurance policy if your life cover doesn’t include cost of mortgage initially. Buying a separate mortgage cover can save you some money on premiums rather than increasing cover in existing life insurance. If you are a New Zealand resident or citizen, check out mortgage insurance by Pinnacle Life to get a quote & keep roof over the heads of your loved ones after your death.


text: Detailed below is a list of Properties for sale in Stoneygate . Our Search enables you to filter your requirements for property for sale in Stoneygate . If there is not a property listed that meets your requirements in Stoneygate , then please register with us and we will contact you with any new property for sale in Stoneygate .


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1. Alternatively referred to as three-dimensional, 3-D or 3D is a description of a visual object that has the appearance of depth and field. The picture is an example of a 3D ball that is overlaying a wireframe.
Tip: A great example of a free, open source 3D program, for anyone interested in the field of graphics and animation, is Blender.
Should I use "3D" or "3-D" in my writing?
Today, both versions of "3-D" and "3D" are widely used and vary depending on the style guide you follow. We follow the Microsoft Manual of Style and use "3-D" (with a hyphen) in our writing unless "3D" is part of a product name.
2. A 3-D accelerator is a graphics card with additional processing power and memory for improving the performance and enhancing the appearance of 3-D images. See our graphics accelerator for further information.
3. When referring to audio, 3-D is a method of describing sound that is seemingly coming from all directions.


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It’ll take more than a big floppy hat to protect you from all those ultraviolet rays at the pool or picnic this summer. Try these five easy ways to save your skin before, during, and after your time in the sun.
Why: Antioxidants neutralize free radicals produced by skin in response to sun exposure. Why: This proprietary antioxidant, derived from the bark of a French pine tree, reverses the effects of sun-related aging. Why: These physical sunscreens reflect the sun’s UVA and UVB rays before free radicals have a chance to oxidize and damage skin. Why: These vitamin A derivatives stimulate collagen growth and reverse signs of sun damage. Why: If you’ve managed to get sunburned, use the soothing gel from this succulent.
How: Supplement daily with at least one of these ingredients. How: Apply to skin before you put on sunscreen. How: Apply liberally every two hours. Chemical blocks require 20 minutes before they set, whereas zinc and titanium protect skin immediately. How: Apply before sunscreen and before bed. How: Keep an aloe plant growing at home. In case of emergency, snap off a stalk, squeeze out the gel, and gently spread over skin.
Tips: Eye-health supplements often contain astaxanthin and can be taken for sun protection. The more colorful (purple, blue, green, orange) your diet, the more antioxidants you’re getting. Tips: Try Derma E Pycnogenol Face Cream, or take 100-200 mg/day in a supplement. Tips: Zinc oxide and titanium dioxide go on white (think “lifeguard nose”), but finely ground, cream-based products are transparent. Try Dr. Hauschka Sunscreen Cream SPF 20. Tips: If you experience light flaking while using retinol, apply every other night until skin adjusts. Try Zia Natural Skincare Ultimate Night Renewal. Tips: Aloe is available in myriad lotions. Try Jason Aloe Vera 98% Moisturizing Gel.


text: SS August 20/08, Offers August 25/08, Evening. Long time owner of this great character home on a fantastic street, Features 1 3/4 storeys, 3 spacious bedrooms + a den. 2 baths. Original oak woodwork throughout, Hardwood floors under some carpets, Large Dining Rm, Open Living Rm complete with brick facing gas fireplace & original built-in cabinets. Fantastic front porch for those warm summer nights. Full Basement with den and 2nd Bath. Oversized double garage with opener. Extra parking, fenced yard. Don't miss it!


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Our engineers and researchers have made a design for a demonstrator model to show the options of this technology platform on-site. The release of this machine is planned for January 2015.
Progress: mechanical part is ready for construction, at the moment the focus is on the electrical components. The actual construction is taking place at Semco.

industry_corpus2: Technology & Research


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Licensing would ensure that everyone who develops software has at least a basic level of knowledge and an acceptable level of competence. But licensing developers won’t ensure good software. Even well-trained, experienced and committed developers can’t always build good software. Because most of the decisions that drive software quality aren’t made by developers – they’re made by somebody else in the organization.
Product managers and Product Owners. Project managers and program managers. Executive sponsors. CIOs and CTOs and VPs of Engineering. The people who decide what’s important to the organization, what gets done and what doesn’t, and who does it – what problems the best people work on, what work gets shipped offshore or outsourced to save costs. The people who do the hiring and firing, who decide how much money is spent on training and tools. The people who decide how people are organized and what processes they follow. And how much time they get to do their work.
Managers – not developers – decide what quality means for the organization. What is good, and what is “good enough”.
As a manager, I’ve made a lot of mistakes and bad decisions over my career. Short-changing quality to cut costs. Signing teams up for deadlines that couldn’t be met. Giving marketing control over schedules and priorities, trying to squeeze in more features to make the customer or a marketing executive happy. Overriding developers and testers who told me that the software wouldn’t be ready, that they didn’t have enough time to do things properly. Letting technical debt add up. Insisting that we had to deliver now or never, and that somehow we would make it all right later.
I’ve learned from these mistakes. I think I know what it takes to build good software now. And I try to hold to it. But I keep seeing other managers make the same mistakes. Even at the world’s biggest and most successful technology companies, at organizations like Microsoft and Apple.
These are organizations that control their own destinies. They get to decide what they will build and when they need to deliver it. They have some of the best engineering talent in the world. They have all the good tools that money can buy – and if they need better tools, they just write their own. They’ve been around long enough to know how to do things right, and they have the money and scale to accomplish it.
They should write beautiful software. Software that is a joy to use, and that the rest of us can follow as examples. But they don’t even come close. And it’s not the fault of the engineers.
Problems with software quality at Microsoft are so long-running that “Microsoft Quality” has become a recognized term, for software that is just barely “good enough” to be marginally accepted – and sometimes not even that good.
Even after Microsoft became a dominant, global enterprise vendor, quality has continued to be a problem. A 2014 Computer World article “At Microsoft, quality seems to be job none” complains about serious quality and reliability problems in early versions of Windows 10. But Windows 10 is supposed to represent a sea change for Microsoft under their new CEO, a chance to make up for past mistakes, to do things right. So what's going wrong?
The culture and legacy of “good enough” software has been in place for so long that Microsoft seems to be trapped, unable to improve even when they have recognized that good enough isn’t good enough anymore. This is a deep-seated organizational and cultural problem. A management problem. Not an engineering problem.
Apple sets themselves apart from Microsoft and the rest of the technology field, and charges a premium based on their reputation for design and engineering excellence. But when it comes to software, Apple is no better than anyone else.
From the epic public face plant of Apple Maps, to constant problems in iTunes and the App Store, problems with iOs updates that fail to install, data lost somewhere in the iCloud, serious security vulnerabilities, error messages that make no sense, and baffling inconsistencies and restrictions on usability, Apple’s software too often disappoints in fundamental and embarrassing ways.
I suspect the rapid decline of Apple’s software is a sign that marketing is too high a priority at Apple today: having major new releases every year is clearly impossible for the engineering teams to keep up with while maintaining quality. Maybe it’s an engineering problem, but I suspect not — I doubt that any cohesive engineering team could keep up with these demands and maintain significantly higher quality.
Recent announcements at this year’s WWDC indicate that Apple is taking some extra time to make sure that their software works. More finish, less flash. We’ll have to wait and see whether this is a temporary pause or a sign that management is starting to understand (or remember) how important quality and reliability actually is.
Putting speed-to-market and cost in front of everything else. Pushing people too hard to hit “drop dead dates”. Taking “sprints” literally: going as fast as possible, not giving the team time to do things right or a chance to pause and reflect and improve.
We all have to work within deadlines and budgets, but in most business situations there’s room to make intelligent decisions. Agile methods and incremental delivery provide a way out when you can’t negotiate deadlines or cost, and don’t understand or can’t control the scope. If you can’t say no, you can say “not yet”. Prioritize work ruthlessly and make sure that you deliver the important things as early as you can. And because these things are important, make sure that you do them right.
Leaving testing to the end. Which means leaving bug fixing to after the end. Which means delivering late and with too many bugs.
Disciplined Agile practices all depend on testing – and fixing – as you code. TDD even forces you to write the tests before the code. Continuous Integration makes sure that the code works every time someone checks in. Which means that there is no reason to let bugs build up.
Not talking to customers, not testing ideas out early. Not learning why they really need the software, how they actually use it, what they love about it, what they hate about it.
Deliver incrementally and get feedback. Act on this feedback, and improve the software. Rinse and repeat.
Ignoring fundamental good engineering practices. Pretending that your team doesn’t need to do these things, or can’t afford to do them or don’t have time to do them, even though we’ve known for years that doing things right will help to deliver better software faster.
As a Program Manager or Product Owner or a Business Owner you don’t need to be an expert in software engineering. But you can’t make intelligent trade-off decisions without understanding the fundamentals of how the software is built, and how software should be built. There’s a lot of good information out there on how to do software development right. There’s no excuse for not learning it.
Listen to developers when they tell you that something can’t be done, or shouldn’t be done, or has to be done. Developers are generally too willing to sign on for too much, to reach too far. So when they tell you that they can’t do something, or shouldn’t do something, pay attention.
And when you make mistakes - which you will, learn from them, don’t waste them. When something goes wrong, get the team to review it in a retrospective or run a blameless post mortem to figure out what happened and why, and how you can get better. Learn from audits and pen tests. Take negative feedback from customers seriously. This is important, valuable information. Treat it accordingly.
As a manager, the most important thing you can do is to not set your team up for failure. That’s not asking for too much.


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The holidays are behind us now, and we are beginning to see and feel the energies of our new year. Every year during the month of January, I follow the ways of nature and my ancestors to go deep within to reflect, release, and renew myself before the Lunar New Year or (Chinese New Year) when the energy shifts globally.
Today I’d like to share some insights that have come to me about this powerful year of 2019.
Right now we are in the midst of two eclipses that began with a partial solar eclipse on the New Moon Jan 5th, and will complete with a full lunar eclipse on the full moon January 19-21st.
The eclipses are setting the “tone” for this year, and allowing us to go deeper into our “shadow” to balance the light and dark. This year of 2019 will be a year of great depth for those who embrace and make time for the silence within.
Eclipses are great doorways into our internal world, and allow us the time and space needed to make “shifts” that then influence our outer worlds. They are also times where the energy runs high, and self-love/ self-care is of greater importance. Taking the time to care for ourselves is vital to navigating the waves of 2019.
To further heighten the energies we have our first full moon of the year. This is both the closing of one chapter and first page in a new chapter for many. Be open to whatever is coming up, as the energy will continue to build and weave for the rest of the year.
Things globally are boiling, simmering, and transforming us to go deeper within to the bones, to the roots, to the areas where the light has yet to reach. The spaces so deep within where courage, strength, hope, and resilience lays. The spaces between– where the joints of who we are– bend and mend to show us the depths of who we are –and who we are becomming.
2019 invites us to go deeper into The Great Mystery. The only way to access this Great Mystery is to dive deep into the silence and darkness. Without fear, this space is where everything births, manifests and reveals itself. It is natural, unchanging, solid, and strong. This is the ancient soil where everything begins and ends.
This year of 2019, invites us to fully live in purpose, and align with those who are part of the puzzle you are creating. This is the way forward. Avoid the disruption and it will not disrupt you.
This is where silence becomes the medicine to everything.
If you are in a deep sleep and someone turns on the light, the reaction is to “turn off the light,” for those who are mildly sleeping, the light isn’t so bright, and the eyes adjust quickly; for those who are wide awake, you are turning on the light, for others to see the way.
Everyone is where they are for a reason. Trust this, and the invitation is to go deeper into your walk of Mystery.
Dive deep into the truths within you, and remember that your intuition and gut never lies. Move torwards empowering your truth, and speak it until your voice doesn’t shake.
2019 is a weaving year. Taking the lessons and blessings of 2018, we now weave new intentions, new horizons, and deeper understandings to create wonder, opportunities, and blessings for 2020. The year of Great Awakening and global change.
It’s a time for unifying within, and for revealing the darkness so the light can return.


text: Drones4Life is for sale! If you are interested in the site, the domain and a perfect SEO ranking? All of this can be yours for $2500,- please contact info@drones4.life to know more.

industry_corpus2: Aerospace


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The Volstead Act was repealed on this date in 1933, returning control of alcohol to the states, and it was a happy day at the F.X. Matt Brewery.
UTICA, N.Y. -- A total of 85 years ago Wednesday marked the end of prohibition, which meant legally drinking beer again. And for the Matt family from Utica – that meant getting back to selling beer again.
They let customers and suppliers know that at midnight, they could deliver, buy, and drink beer at the brewery once again.
The local business managed to survive 13 years.
"Kept it going with soft drinks and malt tonic and malt syrups, but this was a special day. In fact, he sent a letter out to announce beer was available at midnight, the next day, actually,” said F.X. Matt Brewery CEO/Chairman Nick Matt.
Matt says sales dropped off 75 percent when prohibition went into effect. And thanks to the current craft beer movement, business has been growing by leaps and bounds.


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We’ve been predicting it for some time, but the Equity Release Council’s announcement last month made it official: Q3 was the equity release industry’s first billion-pound quarter.
When you think that the sector only had its first £500 million+ quarter two years ago – and that the industry lent more last quarter than it did in the whole of 2012 – it becomes clear just how staggering this progress is.
The remarkable effort the sector has put in to win consumer confidence and trust over the last decade has played a huge part in this growth. And so too has the work put into innovating and expanding the range of products available to customers, as highlighted by the Equity Release Council’s Autumn Report.
Our latest reasons for loans figures highlight a third element driving growth: the change in how consumers are viewing and using equity release.
No longer is equity release seen as a last resort option. Consumers are becoming more familiar with the product and its protections, and it has expanded their horizons of what they will consider it for. In Q3, we’ve seen a pronounced shift towards equity release loans being used for more major lifestyle purchases. Consumers are increasingly tapping into their property wealth to allow them to buy new property (up from 10% to 11%), make purchases such as a car, caravan, motorbike or boat (15% to 16%), and – in the biggest change of the quarter – fund home or garden improvements (up from 45% to 50%).
We also know what kinds of home improvements people are using equity release for. Just over a third (38%) of loans are used to fund the kinds of renovations that improve a home’s value or help owners enjoy them more, such as conservatory extensions. But interestingly, around one in eight (12%) loans are used to adapt their home for comfort and safety – for example, to cover the costs of installing stairlifts or chair ramps. We’re no stranger to customers using equity release to cover care costs, but increasingly more are using it to ensure they can get the care they want at home.
This isn’t to say that we’ve seen a collapse in the number of people using equity release to clear mortgages, consolidate debts or fund daily living expenses – options that have long been popular. But it shows that people are looking at property wealth holistically, and increasingly viewing it as something that can help them enjoy their retirement just as much as it can help them settle their finances.


text: It’s HERE! A dedicated BASS GUITAR Tutorial Channel From EricBlackmonMusic! All Bass Guitar, ALL THE TIME. Every new bass guitar YouTube tutorial or cover produced by Eric Blackmon for any EricBlackmonMusic Channel will appear on this new BASS ONLY YouTube channel created for 2018! Subscribe now to make sure that you don’t miss a single posting. 2018 is going to be the best year yet for EricBlackmonMusic!

industry_corpus2: Film & Entertainment


text:
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There’s a big inefficiency in today’s UX designer job market. And we can use design to fix it.
We have an audacious 100-year mission: Eliminate all the bad design from the world. It started 30 years ago with what was then User Interface Engineering (which became UIE and is now Center Centre/UIE). Back then, we saw the immense frustration caused by poor design practices. We wanted to make the world a better place through great design.
We figured it would take us a long time. In that time, we’ve come a long way.
Organizations get it. Many are now building out their own internal design organizations. They want to stop shipping products and services that deliver poor experiences.
These organizations now labor to build their UX design teams. There are too many open positions. Demand is too high.
Even though there’s high demand, there are too many talented UX designers who struggle to get interviews and job offers. We hear from folks every day asking what they can do to get the attention of these teams that can’t fill their positions.
There’s tremendous opportunity, but it’s not evenly distributed. It’s clear that the organization’s hiring processes are inefficient and ineffective. We can use design to fix it.
At Center Centre/UIE, we needed a way to hire our faculty and staff for our new UX design school. We also needed a way to identify which student applicants would become great designers.
We turned to Performance-based Hiring, a thoughtful approach to hiring created by Lou Adler. We tailored Lou’s process to be specific to hiring UX designers, ensuring we were looking both at the skills and the craft of each candidate’s work. Lou’s process worked great for salespeople, middle managers, and admins, but qualifying a UX designer is a different animal.
Our results were fantastic: We attracted better qualified candidates, we quickly identified if they were right for the openings, and we extended offers in record times. Every employee we’ve hired using our modified method worked out to be great contributors to our team. Every student we’ve accepted into the school is turning into a great designer. The method works.
We started sharing it with our clients. Organizations from large corporations to small startups, non-profits, universities, and government agencies have started using our hiring method. They’ve all seen similarly excellent results.
Dozens of organizations now use the Center Centre UX Designers Hiring Method. It has changed the way teams find their new designers. Teams become more competitive when it comes to hiring UX designers. Hiring this way improves how their products get built and services get launched.
This new hiring method is helping with our goal of eliminating all the bad design from the world. It can help you too.
Published here on February 16, 2018.


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Hi everyone, the friends' list has been removed completely for the foreseeable future.
We know there was a lot of questions about the lost functionality of the friends' list and the weekly gold awarded for being at the top of the friends' leaderboard. On Xbox and PS4 we've had a conflict loading the players into the game who had too many friends for the system to cope with when the game loads. Unfortunately, it has not been possible resolve the problem due to the way we communicate with the Console platforms about your friends to maintain security and not overload their and our servers.
The friends' list was originally intended as a social leaderboard, where friends would compete to be at the top. In the end when you have a lot of friends but not very many who played it became a memory hog and slowed down some of our top player's experience.
We've added the Daily Rations to give all players more consistent rewards each day based on your Command Bunker Rank, and rewards increase over time. We're working on new benefits to winning dog tags. We're also creating more in-game systems to help complete the objectives to earn Gold.
We might review the player friends list to be re-enabled at some point in the future with different functionality but this requires a more in-depth look to prevent the slow-down of players' games.

industry_corpus2: Gaming


text:
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Description: A1 Sitemap Generator handles all kinds of links and redirects. When crawling websites, A1 Sitemap Generator supports robots.txt file directives disallow & crawl-delay. A1 Sitemap Generator supports robots.txt file directives disallow and crawl-delay.


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industry_corpus2: Agriculture & Fisheries


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Bloodshr3d Black Magic Edition is a fat burning supplement with added stimulants that will curb your appetite and boost metabolic rate, alongside various ingredients like carnitine and raspberry ketones that have been shown to mobilise and oxidise stored body fat. It also contains ashwagandha to support mood and offset the chance of an energy crash, as well as bcaas, that help prevent muscle catabolism.
What is in this fat burner that makes it a good supplement?
This fat burner is loaded with stimulant compounds that will give you both an energy boost and will curb down your appetite.
Acetyl L-Carnitine: Helps your body transport stored body fat to your muscles so they can be used for fuel, as well as helps with mental focus.
Sophora Japonica: A flower that is rich in the flavonoid “rutin” which based on clinical studies has been shown to have positive effects on combating obesity through AMPK Activation which stimulates glucose absorption and the degeneration of fat.
Green Coffee: Made from coffee beans that are then extracted with alcohol and water. The main and active ingredient in the Green coffee extract is chlorogenic acid. Chlorogenic Acid aids in lowering the absorption of fat and promotes increased metabolism.
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Pro-GBB: Helps to increase carnitine plasma levels in the body helping to transport fat to the mitochondria to be used as energy, leading to significantly more fat being burned and greater energy levels.
Taurine: Works by stabilizing cell membranes in muscle tissue. One of taurine main functions is to transport potassium, sodium, calcium, and magnesium in and out the cells. Taurine Lowers blood pressure and calms the central nervous system.
J. Regia Extract: By boosting dopamine and noradrenaline uptake this ingredient helps to improve focus, energy, and mood like no other.
KSM-66 Ashwagandha: This is the industry-leading form of ashwagandha extract standardized to >5% withanolides. This patented form of Ashwagandha has been shown to combat stress, reduce mental fatigue (which happens to all of us during the week), enhance your cognitive performance & reaction time, AND most recently it's been shown to not only enhance weight loss for those dealing with chronic stress but thyroid function as well.
BCAAs as Vegan Instaminos: Instantly dissolving aminos to aid in recovery, increase workout capacity, and prevent muscle loss while supporting fat loss.
What are the key benefits of Olympus Labs' fat burner?


text: Over our sixty year history, we have been at the forefront of cutting edge development in the cash processing industry. From the creation of the world's first banknote counting machine in 1957 and ATM machine in 1967 to more recently, we have launched and sold ECM™ ISA7 - our next generation cash supply chain platform, 7000i™ QC - our central bank quality control solution for new banknotes and the X Range™ - our flexible and scalable desktop sorter. Our team of 30 in-house R&D experts ensure we continue to lead the way in innovation.


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Home > Issues > Issue 13 > Oldest Foot Wear Date from the Neandertals?
Oldest Foot Wear Date from the Neandertals?
When did we first wear shoes? Prior to a study by American physical anthropologist Erik Trinkaus, the answer was unclear. Shoes tend to be made from highly perishable plant or animal material, and do not survive well in the material record. Indeed, the oldest-known shoes (from California) date from around 7,000 BC. Now, Trinkaus suggests that sturdy shoes first came into widespread use sometime between 40,000 and 26,000 years ago.
The study is based on an examination of toes from early modern humans and Neaderthals, dated to between 100,000 and 20,000 years ago. Prof. Trinkaus discovered a change in the toes of the people living in the Middle Palaeolithic – between c. 100,000 to 40,000 years ago – and the subsequent middle Upper Palaeolithic – c. 28,000 to 20,000 BP.
The change occurred in the four ‘lesser’ toes – all but the big toe – of the early modern humans. Trinkaus suggests that the anatomical change in modern humans may well be due to the invention of tough shoes that reduced the tendency of the smaller toes to provide traction. ‘Walking barefoot promotes stronger little toes because walking without shoes makes you grip the ground with your toes as a natural reflex, whereas hard-soled shoes form a barrier between the lesser toes and the ground, thereby reducing the stress on those smaller toes’, he explained.
To test the theory that ‘lesser’ toes weaken with shoe-use, the Washington University professor compared the foot bones of early Native Americans who – according to the ethnographic records – regularly went barefoot, with the toes of their contemporary sealskin-boot wearing Alaskan Inuits.
The results confirmed his theory: the barefooted Americans developed sturdier toes, whereas the shoe-wearers had weaker toes. Thus, the difference is not an evolutionary change, but simply the result of reduced stresses on their feet during their lives. Trinkaus does not hold with the theory that chunkier toes and fingers are related to greater blood supply in colder climates.
Of course, c. 28,000 years ago is an important time in human development – it marks the dawn of a cultural explosion that produced many other notable human advances – including ‘wow factor’ rock art, portable art, and intricate tools. Though humans may have roughly covered their feet for scores of millennia, advanced shoe-making skills may be part of this overall increase in technological ingenuity.
So, I have been right all along, you really can judge a man by his shoes.


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Home NEWS Facebook Enters The Dating Business.
Facebook seems to get interested in everything, but in this case, it’s online dating. Facebook has just launched a new dating feature and this was announced during Facebook’s annual F8 developer conference held on Tuesday.
But with a whole lot of dating apps already saturating the market, one would be forced to think that Facebook’s new feature has arrived the party rather late.
Facebook clarifies that it’s dating feature is not an app. But a profile within your Facebook profile and only interested people will have to create the dating profile. He added that friends and family will not see your dating profile except those who are not your friends.
And to further convince users that their data would be safe as many may not want to hand over more information to Facebook with all these privacy concerns lately said: ” this has been designed with privacy and safety in mind from the beginning.” Mark Zuckerberg.


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Seeing Is Believing: Microsoft Silverlight and JavaFX: What about the flash developer?
Microsoft Silverlight and JavaFX: What about the flash developer?
"Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of media experiences and rich interactive applications (RIAs) for the Web."
This sounds very much like the Flash player plug-in doesn't it?
It indeed is Microsoft's answer to Adobe's wellknown Flash player. But remember, it is still in Beta so changes will be made along the way.
So you can state that Adobe has a monopoly within this niche of the internet business.
So now Microsoft claims to be ready, or almost ready because Silverlight is in beta, to take a piece of the market. Will they succeed? As we all know, they have done it before.
Flash has been MY tool, it really feels like it is mine, for years now. I can do almost anything with it: skateboarding, riding horses, swimming,... So yes I must admit, some say that is not professional behavior, my knees weakened a bit when I heard the news. Where would this leave me, what should I do, will Microsoft crush my beloved Flash or will Flash be like the I-pod? Just the most popular one out of many alternatives?
"The demand continues to grow for secure, interactive content, applications, and services that run on a variety of clients. To simplify and speed the creation and deployment of high-impact content for a wide range of devices, Sun is introducing JavaFX, a new family of products based on Java technology designed to enable consistent user experiences, from desktop to mobile device to set-top box to Blu-ray Disc."
It seems that Sun is mostly aiming at Ajax with this one.
Their focus is mainly on multi platform development. Sun completely missed the interactive webcontent boat. Their applet hasn't really changed since 1996 or so, while Macromedia's Flash platform seemed to be versatile enough to grow and become market leader for interactive web content.
Again we'll have to see what happens.
A lot of things are happening for multimedia developers these days. What technolgy should one choose, which 'side' should one choose?
For me, it is not about choosing sides. As a multimedia developer you should always embrace new things. You should by some new books and study.
A true Nerd is never scared... Never!
Gepost door Wim Vanhenden op 12:47 p.m.


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Google has appointed Eileen Naughton, an executive currently based in its New York office, as managing director of its £3.6bn per year UK advertising sales operation.
Ms Naughton will replace Dan Cobley, who has been in charge for two and a half years.
Mr Cobley will take on a broader role across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, dealing with major brand marketing departments. Google’s “brand solutions” effort is attempting to divert more spending away from media more traditionally used to build brands, particularly television.
In New York, Ms Naughton has led the American display advertising business, selling space on Google-owned websites such as YouTube. More recently she was part of a team of senior executives overseeing global sales.
In her new role, the American will take charge of all Google’s sales in its second-biggest market, including its main business selling advertising to run alongside search results. UK revenues jumped 15pc last year.
Prior to joining Google in 2006, Ms Naughton climbed the ranks of the New York advertising industry to become a president at Time Magazine, where she was a casualty of a major cull of senior executives in 2005. On Wednesday she said she would be moving to Britain “at a time of great vitality in the UK tech economy”.
In her new her new role Ms Naughton is likely to face continued questions about Google’s tax affairs. It avoids UK corporation tax by processing British advertising sales in its Dublin office and has been heavily criticised by MPs. Google has argued in return that it obeys the law and it is up to politicians to change legislation if they believe companies should pay more tax.
The appointment means that, with Nicola Mendelsohn leading Facebook in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, women are in charge of the British arms of the world’s two largest digital advertising businesses.
Ms Naughton was a founding member of a network of female Google executives with Sheryl Sandberg, who went on to become chief operating officer of Facebook and author of Lean In, a bestselling book encouraging women to be more confident at work.


text: Baby Bunnies Scallop in blue - Cotton Print Fabric by Cynthia Rowley from Michael Miller, and dotted on the reverse. The exact placement of the pattern may vary with each pillow. Easy to care for and to clean.