02.22.17 | The Socialite: Building Your Presence
Modern marketing has become very focused on social media. Of course, this makes a lot of sense. Certain social media sites have millions of active users. And, they let businesses post for free. So, they are great places to get some free advertising. In most cases, you just have to put the work in; and, you’ll get a lot out of it. This can be a challenge, though. So, to help you out, this post will be going through some of the best ways to start getting more traffic to your social media pages.
The easiest way to draw more people in is to improve your posting. There are loads of ways that you can do this. First, you should be aiming for your posts to be very consistent. This means that all of your posts need to use the same branding and house style. Even the things that you say have to be in character. Along with this, you need to make sure that you’re providing people with content that is interesting. You have to give people a reason to be reading your content. So, if it’s not worth their while, they won’t bother with it. Making sure that your posts are interesting can be hard, though. But, you can always ask people that you know for help before you start posting. Always make sure that you’re confident in your posts before you send them out.
When you see things trending or becoming popular on social media, it’s usually because it’s has a big uptake of likes, follows, or subscriptions. Social media sites use very complex algorithms to calculate these things, and growth is one of the biggest parts of it. So, if you can get a large number of followers in a short period; you will find that people will start flocking to your pages. One of the easiest ways to do this is simply by buying the likes. When doing this, you just have to make sure that you’re buying real followers and likes, and not fake ones. There are loads of companies out there that offer this service. And, most social media sites don’t have a problem with it.
A lot of success can be found in pooling together and working with other people on social media. If you can find a company that would be willing to work with you, it’s much easier to share your followers. This means that you will both benefit from each other. And, you will both get more exposure because of it. Building up a relationship like this can be hard. So, you need to be willing to spend time talking to people. But, once you have a partner, things will get much easier. Having a mutually beneficial exchange like this is a great way to make sure that success continues.
Hopefully, this will inspire you to start using your social media more effectively. You may have to spend a little bit of money on this. But, once you’ve done it, it will be very worth it. You will notice the benefits from this sort of work almost instantly. And, it may even be where your first customers come from.
02.20.17 | Five Types of Advertising You Need to Use
The world of advertising is vast and varied. You need to come up with a plan for dealing with this when you think about how you can advertise your business and its products. The five examples of advertising methods discussed below should all be used, or at least considered as you formulate your plan. Read on to find out more about them.
1. Product Placement
Product placement is a growing form of advertising that many businesses are discovering and making the most of. To put it simply, product placement allows you to advertise your product by inserting it into a form or media. It could be used in a movie, a TV show, a YouTube video or even a video game. Of course, the size of your business and how much you have to spend will decide which of these options is right for you. Getting products in big movies is always a challenge, so think carefully about your choice.
2. Direct Marketing
Direct marketing does pretty much what it says on the tin. This form of advertising is all about taking your idea and your pitch directly to the customers that you want to target. In the media age we’re now all a part of, this can be done in a variety of different ways. You could start by using an email marketing strategy. Then you could build connections on blog, forums and on social media. You might also want to try face to face selling; that’s another example of direct marketing.
3. Banner Ads
Banner ads are very popular among small businesses that want to get their adverts seen online. They are banners that normally sit at the top of a web page, and it’s often the first thing a website visitor sees before they scroll down. You can find a company that offers digital campaign development support if you want to do online advertising in the right kind of way. This is a good idea if you don’t know much about it yet.
4. Billboard Advertising
Many people get too caught in the hype surrounding online advertising. It causes them to forget about just how important and how effective good billboard advertising can be when the right approach to it is taken. You should aim to create image and messages that can be seen far and wide. Strike the right cord and draw people’s attention to what you are trying to say. The best thing about this kind of advertising is that it’s often impossible for people to ignore.
5. Sponsored Tweets and Facebook Ads
You can’t afford to ignore social media if you want to take your business to the next level and get good results from your advertising strategies. Sponsored tweets can be very useful when you want to get your message seen by the right people. The tweet will pop up in people’s timeline. And the same kind of thing can be done on Facebook with their advertising system. Make the most of the advertising possibilities both of these sites offer.
Digital presences have become an important facet of every business regardless if you work via the internet or not. You could run a little corner store that doesn’t really need the internet, but with so many people using the internet around the world, your chances of success rely on your ability to use as many resources as possible to get noticed and the internet is no exception. There are online directories, store reviews and social media that you can use to get noticed.
It might sound difficult to get noticed on the internet given the number of websites on the internet, but here’s a secret: 98% of the internet sucks. Let’s face it, who checks more than a few pages on Google’s search? Despite the millions of hits and results that a Google search spits out, we don’t actually check a good 98% of those because they just plain suck.
Understanding Search Engines
Have you ever wondered how a search engine works? If you type something in and hit search a couple of times, you’ll realize that it’s not completely random and that you’ll get the same results over and over again. However, if you check again the next day or in a couple of days, you’ll notice that they might change. This is called search ranking—a feature that is different for every search engine, but we’ll use Google as an example because it is the most popular search engine.
Firstly, the web is a large place and it’s important to think of it as a large web of connections. You need to know a website’s address in order to connect to it directly, but if you don’t know the address then the only way you can connect to it is through a link by someone else. This is what is meant by a web, you technically have access to all of the open internet, but you don’t necessarily know every single website which is why we have to rely on search engines to categorize and sort all of that information for us.
If your website isn’t listed on Google, then the only way you’re going to spread your website is through social media and sharing the link directly with other people. This is similar to how networking in real life works. You have to speak with people to get contacts, and those contacts can lead to other people. If you look into a directory, then you might get the numbers of a bunch of people you can speak to for help, or to sell your products to.
How to Use Search Engines to Your Advantage
The first thing we’re going to talk about is search engine optimization or SEO for short. SEO is a series of strategies and methods that a web owner can utilize to make their website easier to discover for search engines such as Google. There are several different types of SEO and you can visit POET Media for more information about how to get the correct services. However, even if you do get the correct assistance, it’s still a good idea to get to grips with the finer points of SEO.
Google will rank your content based on a couple of things. Keyword relevancy is one of the more important things to think about. Essentially, it refers to the number of times a search time appears on your page. For instance, if someone searches a term such as “Akita dogs” then Google will look up all the websites in its database and look for the term “Akita dogs”. If you have a website about dogs but very little information about the Akita breed, then you will perhaps be on page 2 or 3 of the Google search. However, if you have a website that is specifically about Akita dogs, then you will be much higher on the search ranking.
Your content also plays a big role in what your search ranking is. If you have a lot of original pictures and posts about Akita dogs, then you will be very high in Google’s search ranking and you might even place top 5. However, if your content about Akita dogs has been stolen from other websites, Google can detect this and you will be flagged for plagiarism. Google hates anything that is stolen, so if your content isn’t a hundred percent original, Google will deduct points from your ranking and you will be put down a couple of spots.
Search engines such as Google will also check other things on your website and use those to display a search result. For instance, your meta title and meta description play a big part in the visibility of your website. When you use Google, you might notice that each search result is accompanied by a small body of text that gives a brief explanation. These are never written by Google themselves, but instead, these are written by the website owner or they are taken from a sample of the text on the website. Image file names are also important. Using the example from before, if you tag your images “dog” instead of “Akita dog” then you will rank lower. Always give your images proper descriptions and tags, but don’t overdo it!
Now that you have a general idea of how SEO works and how Google ranks your website, let’s go through some actual tips. These are all very general ideas on how to boost your internet traffic, but they are guaranteed to work.
1. Use Relevant Images
This can’t be stressed enough. If you don’t have images (and original ones) then you’re missing out on a lot of exposure. Keep in mind that you can’t just simply use any image you found on Facebook or Google due to copyright practices. If you’re unsure if an image is completely free to use, then go to a stock photo website such as ShutterStock or Pexels to look for some free images. As explained above, images are also searched when you plug some terms into Google. The more images you have, the more chances you will be picked up by Google’s search algorithms. In addition to SEO optimization, having more images on your web page will make it easier to view. With more images, you’ll have less text or you can break up heavy blocks of text with a picture. People can also find your website through Google’s image search because if they search images, your images might come up and they might check out your website as a result of it.
2. Using Software
There is software such as Yoast SEO that will help you optimize your web pages. These programs can be used via a WordPress plugin or a downloadable software package. These programs will do spell checks, grammar checks and even check for keyword relevancy and rank your web page based on its SEO visibility. It will help you cut down long sentences, tell you if you are lacking images or keyword relevancy, and it will give you suggestions on where to make these changes. However, some people find that working with these tools makes it harder to add your own personal flair to an article. If you find that using an SEO plugin or software dampens your creativity, then it’s recommended to not use these programs and instead, manually work on your SEO.
No matter how great your website is and how well optimized it is, your ranking is going to greatly depend on how well-received it is by your readers and viewers. Try and get your web pages linked on another website. For instance, if you have something informative on your website, you can link to it on forum posts or Reddit messages. You could also promote your website on social media and link your posts on Twitter or Facebook. Those social media platforms will automatically generate previews so that you can easily share them with your followers and friends. You can also try to get your web pages featured on other websites that are somewhat related to your own. The more websites that link back to your content, the higher your Google rank will be and the more traffic you will get.
4. Designing for All Devices
Did you know that a lot of social media users only rely on smartphones and tablet devices, not a computer? Because of this, it’s a good idea to design your website with the intention of it being viewed on multiple devices. There are great examples of mobile website design all over the internet, and many website design services will take this into account as part of the cost. However, it’s always a good idea to check if your website works as intended on mobile devices and retains all of the functionality it has on your desktop computer. A lot of people will check your website on a smaller device, so try not to add too many large images, create an alternative version for mobile, and make sure it works efficiently.
Networking is just an inherent part of running a business. This is a fact that a lot of people really aren’t going to like, but if you want to make sure that your business is successful, then you’re going to need to learn to network effectively. The problem is, for many of us, networking can be a seriously awkward and intimidating experience. Unless you’re a true extrovert and there’s nothing you love more than meeting people, you’re inevitably going to find networking to be at least a little bit uncomfortable. But fear not! It doesn’t have to be that way; there are actually plenty of things that you can do to make yourself better at networking. Here are just a few simple tips that will help you avoid the inevitable awkwardness.
Never Miss a Marketing Opportunity
The biggest issue that a lot of people have when it comes to networking is that that they simply don’t know what to say. Fortunately, you always have a set topic on hand: your business. This means that you should never miss an opportunity to market your business. If you’re at a specific networking event, then you might have a step and repeat banner that displays your business clearly to anyone that you’re talking to, but otherwise, you could also just hand out a business card when you introduce yourself. That gets the details of your business out there without you having to go through the trouble of explaining the whole thing to people over and over.
Avoid the Hard Sell
But this doesn’t mean that you should use the entire networking opportunity to try and offer up facts and figures about your business. When you’re talking to someone, the last thing you want to do is to give them the hard sell. After all, networking should still have the quality of a natural conversation. If you do talk about your business, talk about it on a personal level. Discuss the people behind the business and how that influences its core values. Remember, this is not an investors meeting, you’re not trying to convince anyone of anything, you’re simply trying to get your business out there into people’s minds.
Fake It ’til You Make It
Don’t worry if you’re the kind of person who tenses up at even the idea of having to talk to people that you don’t know. This is totally natural and far more common than you might expect. You would probably find that the people who seem the most confident while networking feel just as awkward and uncomfortable as you do. The key is to project confidence on the outside, even if you’re not really feeling it. This will set the person you’re talking to at ease and will give them a much more positive memory of your interaction, and by extension your business. The more you do this, the easier it will get until eventually, you’ll find that you’re not even having to fake it anymore, you really do feel as confident as you seem on the outside.
02.15.17 | The Business Front: How To Perfect
If you own a store or restaurant then you own a business that is customer facing. You need to get the right ingredients to ensure you perfect the store front, because this way you will bring more customers inside. Getting the front right isn’t easy, there are quite a few aspects to think about which all cost money, but it is certainly worth it in the long run as it contributes to your branding, your sales, and your overall respectability. Here are a few store front tips that can really help impact your business in the best ways possible. You may already do some of them, but if so, try the others and see if it makes a difference.
You may have seen many of the digital signage now available in shop windows. All forms of business signage are important, but you can really get your storefront standing out like never before with a digital display. People will stop and stare, and it may even entice them into your store. You need to be selective regarding what you put on the sign. Make sure it showcases your best quality products or food in a reel of wonder that forces people into your store.
Sampling your products outside your store is another great way to bring people inside. If it is a food based business cook up some delicious treats and sample them outside. Do this around lunchtime for an added chance of catching some hungry passersby who may just decide to do lunch with you instead of someone else based on the sample they have tried. Make sure whoever is sampling is an engaging person who is unafraid to approach people and draw them in. If you operate a product that isn’t food get someone to stand outside with it and ask people to come and take a look. Humans are inquisitive beings and it won’t be long before you have people interested.
Keep It Clean
A dirty store front usually speaks for a dirty interior. So make sure the glass is free of grime and cleaned regularly. The floor in front of your store also needs to be swept and free of casual litter and debris. Take a look at some of your competitor fronts and notice how clean they are. You need to do the same and you’ll be surprised by the amount of extra people you bring in.
Do Something Different
Hire an entertainer to attract people. Clowns, jugglers, all wearing your branding or using your products in some shape or form. Doing this really brings people in. There are all kinds of awesome marketing campaigns out there where businesses have attracted all kinds of new customers to their store by entertaining people outside of it. The more people who are near your store means the more who will go into it. Bringing people close is half the battle won already so really try to think outside the box to beat your competitors.
02.07.17 | The Secret To Cost Effective Advertising
There’s no doubt about it. Businesses need effective marketing. But effective marketing isn’t just that which brings the most people in. You need to think about how it operates amongst the rest of the business. You need to think in particular about the costs and how much your business can shoulder. The more cost-effective you can get your marketing, the better.
Return on investment should be the driving force behind most of the decisions in business and that’s no different when it comes to advertising. You need to think about a few things when defining ROI for the business. How much it costs. How much visibility it gives the brand. Then how much of that visibility is likely to lead to conversions. For instance, billboards are very visible but depending on how broad your target audience, it might not be the most efficient way of putting the business in front of people who are likely to become paying customers. Direct mail can be expensive to do right, but with the proper leads, it can target the right people right down to the individual.
Focus More On Inbound
When you feel yourself approaching the limits you’ve put on your budget, then you should think less about reaching the right people. Instead, think about making it a lot easier for the right people to reach you. Inbound marketing includes techniques like content marketing and search engine optimization. It costs much less to make your brand more visible and easy to find than it does to reach out and find your target market.
Make Sure Your Messaging Is Going To the Right Places
Then there are those methods that reach out, but assure that you’re reaching the right kinds of people. Nowadays, the amount of data that search engines and websites collect provide businesses with the ability to target exactly the kind of people who are performing searches and visiting websites that are relevant to the business you’re trying to advertise. But if you’re using these pay per click methods, you need to make sure you’re using them in the right way. The expertise that PPC management teams could offer could ensure you’re getting connected with the proper leads rather than dead ends.
Don’t just rely on data collected by Google and other businesses, either. Make use of some data that’s all your own. For instance, keep track of your online advertisements and social media messaging. By seeing what gets more clicks and more shares, you can better identify the offers and aspects of your brand that are more popular. The same goes for your site. Using conversion rate optimization, you can spot what parts of the site are creating the most customers. Then you emulate these elements on a broader scale. Use your own data to inform your own marketing.
Cost-effective isn’t just about skimping costs. It’s about getting the best results with as little spending as possible. Skimp too much and your messaging might not have the reach and effect it could otherwise. Spend too much and you might not see a return on that investment. You need to find the balance.
Running a successful business isn’t really something you can learn in a book. Of course, there are books on the topic, but the only thing you can really learn about this subject is that it’s different for every company. Still, that doesn’t mean there aren’t overall key steps toward success which apply to all business within all industries. This is all very well to say, but achieving those steps in reality is quite another matter.
Of course, in the online world, it’s a whole different ballpark. You might be running a very professional organization and offering an incredible range of products or services, but there’s more to succeeding in the online marketplace than being good at what your business does in an internal sense. You need to understand the external world, because success comes, believe it or not, from your customers. If you’re wondering what else you could be doing to improve business, here are some tips and tricks to mastering better sales on the web.
Find Your Company’s “Thing”
A niche is important to any business. If your company operates within an industry which offers a very general product or service, replicated by almost every other business within your specific area of work, then the importance of a niche becomes more important than ever. In the online world, you’re up against a mountain of competition. The global face of the internet is changing with each passing second, and if you’re not changing or adapting to it, then you’re falling behind.
If you’re appealing to a niche with your product or service, you’re reeling them in to you above all competitors. You’re offering something that the competitors cannot offer, which means your sales will not only increase, but they’ll remain consistent. Sometimes, all it requires is a little tweak of whatever your company is already offering.
Market Your Business Better
Your company needs to understand online marketing if it is to sell products well online. That seems like an obvious statement, but so many businesses in the world of digital sales fall behind due to their failure in effectively utilizing the digital marketing aspect of company operations. You could look into eCommerce SEO services if you’re unsure as to how you could improve your website, as this is a good place to start.
You need to not only understand your marketing better, but reaching them more efficiently. Your competitors are beating you because they’re plastering themselves in the faces of your target market, which means fewer clients knocking at your business’ virtual door and, as a result, fewer sales. Online marketing is about constantly pushing yourself in front of your competitors and letting your customers come to you. It’s not pushy marketing from the perspective of potential clients, and that’s the key thing.
Remember Good Service
After all the social media gimmicks and SEO tricks your business pulls to increase its sales online, remember the human element beneath it all. At the end of the day, consumers are people, and they want to buy products or services from people. Remember to offer incredible service, but also to promote yourself as a company full of people. It’s easy to forget that there’s a real human behind a company when all transactions are taking place online. Your content has to be personable to get past that obstacle.
An exhibition event can be a cost effective and fun way to meet potential customers and others within your own industry. It allows you to really bring all the energy and unique selling points of your company and wrap it up in one awesome exhibition stall. Whatever your end goal is, they’ll be a ton of ways you handle a day or weekend at an exhibition. Below we’ve outlined some of the things you’ll need to bear in mind when you’re preparing for yours.
There’s only one thing worse than a stall that is understaffed; and that is, a stall that is overstaffed, to the point where walking near your stand is intimidating. However, you’ll need to have a team going down the center as part of the day. It could mean helping set up and take down, and also working in shifts. It’s too much to ask any one person to be up and energetic for more than a few hours, even if there are others at the stand. Try to keep it to two members of staff on hand to deal with passersby, and have them on a rotating shift with others.
What’s the Goal?
Before you go, you’ll have to think of an angle and also determine what you’re trying to achieve by attending the exhibition. For example, is it all about getting people to become customers, or is this just a brand awareness promotion? Other events might be more trade focused, so you’ll be setting up meetings with potential investors or buyers. Whatever it is, make sure you have a clear vision so that after the event is over you’re able to quantify your success.
Preparing Your Stand
Your stand is everything when it comes to the success of the day. You need to have a stellar stand, product samples, information, uniforms, and much more, so really, your day will be starting long before the event. Aside from ordering the materials for the day, you’ll need to have a vehicle with sliding subframes to transport the stuff in a trailer and any snacks or travel bookings also arranged. You’ll need to get the event with enough time for you to set up your stand and be ready to begin once it gets underway.
Remember, everyone who comes to stand might be a potential partner, whether that’s a buyer or a customer or whatever else, so make sure your staff knows exactly how they’re supposed to greet and interact with passersby. They have to be friendly and engaging in a genuine way. They should also avoid asking closed questions (those that can be simply answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’), instead trying to open dialogue about what their interest in your service might be.
The real work begins after the event has ended. On the day, discuss what worked and what didn’t. Later, in the office, follow up leads and try to convert some of the interest expressed during the event into real business for your company.
Any company worth a grain of salt knows that it’s not enough to just get customers; you have to engage with them beyond the initial interaction or transaction. Doing so will improve customer relations, and also the chances of repeat customers, which are the bedrock of any business. In this day and age, it’s never been easier to stay in contact with the customers who have shown you support. Take a look at some our advice outlined below and keep the dialogue going.
Be There When They Need You
Your customers might be everything to your business, but try as you might, you’ll only ever be one in a long list of companies to them. Too many companies are going overboard with their customer engagement, wrongly believing that customers are as excited about their company as the business itself is. Instead of only contacting your customers when it suits you, when you need something from them, make yourself an understated presence in their life. You can be there for when they need you. For example, in their busy lives they might forget that they’re arranged to meet with you – that’s where you use Appointment Reminder and remind them of the upcoming appointment. It’s not intrusive, and it’s not marketing either, it’s simply providing an extra service and making their life a little bit easier. Think outside the box: what other ways could you be there and be a presence in their life without being annoying?
Content They Care About
It’s no secret that maintaining active social media accounts are a necessity for customer engagement, but a lot of companies tend to only ever post content that is related to their products or services. Even if you have a lot of followers, this type of content cannot lead to the levels of customer engagement that you need. So how? Posting relatable and local content is a useful starting point, as is keeping things topical. Also, if you’re in a popular industry then talking generally about the issues that are relevant can help you become a leading voice within that community.
Giving Them a Voice
Customer engagement is not a one way street, and such it’s important to give your customers and clients a voice to talk with you. This could be having a 24/7 online chat available on your website, which also has the added benefit of improving sales at the same time. Properly staffed offices that can deal with queries, an active twitter page that is available during working hours to deal with issues, and the like are all ideas to give your customers a platform for feedback.
Rewards, Rewards, Rewards
Don’t underestimate the importance of your repeat customers. While a lot of giveaways and promotions are open to everyone, or in some cases only new customers, it’s important to keep some surprises back just for your loyal gang of clients. Done right, you’ll be creating a network that can take a business in many directions, and all it takes is the odd ‘thank you’ reward for the people who have taken your company to new heights.
Marketing is one of those things that you have to take multiple approaches to if you want to get it right. There are so many different types of marketing out there. You don’t need to use all of them, but there are a few key examples that your business should definitely be taking advantage of. If you don’t, your marketing will never find the success you want it to. Read on to find out about these examples.
You can’t afford to ignore the internet when it comes to marketing your business and its products. It would be very foolish to do that considering just how dominant the internet is in the modern business landscape. You ignore it at your own risk. Online marketing can encapsulate lots of different things. Your marketing materials can be shared and shown widely. If you make a marketing video, you can post it on YouTube and then share the video on your social media platforms. This is the best way to make sure that it gets seen far and wide. Blogging and pay-per-click advertising can also be great marketing tools.
Word of Mouth
Word of mouth might seem like a vague and old-fashioned notion. But that doesn’t mean it can’t help you a great deal when it comes to marketing your business and your products. When people like what they see from your company or they have a good customer experience, they will tell people. That’s why ensuring that customers always see and experience the best side of your business is so important. Encourage people to tell their friends and make as much of your content shareable on social media. Word of mouth is now something that applies to online interactions too.
Print marketing is something that shouldn’t be neglected. You don’t have to make a choice between print and online. Instead, you should do both. Banners, posters, billboards and magazine or newspaper advertisements can all help to market your business to a very wide audience. It should be your aim to reach as many people as possible, but you can only do that effectively when you have a focus on print marketing. There are lots of printing companies that offer professional services, so you don’t need to take care of all this by yourself either. Create designs that grab people’s attention and get them interested.
Relationship marketing is all about generating a close-knit bond between your business and its customers. This is not necessarily an easy thing to do, but it’s something that is definitely worth focusing on as much as you can. When your customers feel close to the company, they will be much more likely to stay loyal to it rather than wandering off to one of your competitors. Your aim should be to enhance and improve the existing relationships you have with customers or clients. And then think about how this reputation for good customer service could attract even more people to the company.
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When you have to be a warrior but you’re a bard...
• Pick a song and use it as your weapon to fight.
• Engage in contest of rhythm, beat monsters to the beat of music.
• Unleash your special team attack and change the dynamic of the song as you fight.
VALZ is a music-themed RPG with rhythm battle system. It features an imaginary world with music as its core, told in gorgeous gritty-styled motion comic story-telling by Indonesian comic maestro – John G. Reinhart. Play original songs crafted specially to be your weapon of choice and be empowered by the powerful magic of rock music. Experience how music can literally empower you and save your loved ones!
Fix a bug where screen randomly freezes after battle.

domain: artistic


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Your correspondence is always special so add an extra touch that will make it unforgettable with fabulous cheap address labels. Tickled Pink carefully selects genius artisans who have their design prowess focused on the latest styles for labels and stickers. You will fall in love with all of the looks in this sensational collection. Beautiful blends of exciting colors and exquisite designs showcase your name and the details you want to share. Whatever the reason for your mailing, you will find a fabulous style to complement your stationery right here.
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It’s one of the most important rooms in the home! Great ideas on how to make what you use in it and on it safer for the whole family – 9 Steps to a Healthier Kitchen | Healthy Child Healthy World.
Cows or alpacas would work – The findings of the research will be presented at the European Respiratory Society (ERS) International Congress in Munich, Germany today. The study suggests that if a baby is exposed to the microbial environment found in animal skin and fur it could derive a degree of protection from asthma and […]
No phthalates in any of our products! We avoid synthetic fragrances entirely and only use the safest certified organic pure essential oils, and only in the safest concentrations for newborns. Why avoiding fragrances is a good thing! – You won’t easily find the word “phthalate” on a label, but the group of sticky chemicals that help […]
With allergies on the up-and-up, another good reason to avoid obsessing with cleaning and using anti-bacterial products – Exposing babies to a dust mite could significantly reduce the risk of developing allergies including asthma and eczema as they get older, according to new research from the UK. Researchers at the NIHR Southampton Respiratory Biomedical Research […]
Preferably a Extra Virgin Cold-Pressed 100% Olive Oil Castile Soap like our Baby Wash of course! Sound advice, and something Nanna’s been saying from the start! – Parents of newborns should use soap and water, not antibacterial gels and wipes, midwives have said, following research showing early exposure to bacteria can protect against asthma. A […]
Living on a farm helps! Babies are learning to adjust to the world around them, so exposing them to the natural environment (and natural food and skincare) makes the best learning environment for their little systems – As a new parent, your instinct can be to wrap your baby up in cotton wool and shield […]

domain: biology


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|Krasnodar is a city and the administrative center of Krasnodar Krai, Russia. Population - 744,995 inhabitants.
Dialing code: +7 8612. Postal codes: 350000-350921. License plate: 23, 93, 123.
Krasnodar is the economic center of southern Russia. For several years, Forbes magazine named Krasnodar the best city for business in Russia. In Krasnodar is a highly developed commercial area. Krasnodar has the largest turnover in the Southern Federal District of Russia. Tourism comprises a large part of Krasnodar's economy.
It was founded on January 12, 1794 as Yekaterinodar. The original name meant "Catherine's Gift". In December 1920, as a result of the October Revolution, Yekaterinodar was renamed Krasnodar (Gift of the Reds).

domain: geography


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2016 really kicked the popular notion of what comics are in the teeth; high fantasy, history, fashion bloggers, cat loving Cthulu-like aliens, feminists, and voodoo. I woke up one morning (afternoon, actually) in January, and demanded to be taken to the nearest comic book store. It’s mildly intimidating and not an overly welcoming community, but it was so worth it.
While this list is far from a complete list, these were the ones that really slapped me in the face. I know from talking to other people that the DC Rebirth comics really held their own, Bitch Planet slayed the masses, and Marvel made everyone fall in love with a little Squirrel Girl. I just didn’t happen to read any of those (although I do actually own Bitch Planet…it’s on the list).
So with that disclaimer, these are the best of the ones I have read…
Tank Girl, the obsession of every bad little girl from the 80s and 90s. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, go educate yourself immediately before I revoke your “cool girl” card! Go grab the first book (or the whole shabam) and get acquainted with Lori Petty’s perfect movie version. Thank me later.
It’s a smaller day for me and I’m super friggin’ grateful. Some of my series are wrapping up too. Always bittersweet; ultimately it saves me money but it’s the end. I always hold off on reading the last one for months. I just now read the last Limbo. I’m definitely doing a whole post for that comic. It is hands down one of my all-time favourite comics. Caspar Wijngaard is an artistic genius. Mmmf. So good.
This whole ‘Netflix & Chill’ thing irks me. What if I actually want to chill? Will Netflix forever be a prelude to something…else? What if I told you that there is a world of chilling that involves nothing more than your oil-free thumb, the ability to read, and a love of leotards? There is.
More girls should like comic books. They’re fun to read and sometimes beautifully inspiring to look at. I’ve always been an avid reader of mildly intimidating tomes. I kind of shrugged off comics as fuel for big budget summer blockbusters. WRONG! There is so much more to comics than superheroes. They can be sad, fantastical, empowering, or even infuriating. Just like a real book, they put you through a whole gamut of emotions.
Now about those leotards. They’re great to wear to achieve that “perfectly tucked shirt” look but what about for wearing less and staying in more? The preferred garb of superheroes the world over is the new secret weapon and comfy to boot. Whether you’re queen of your own personal snuggle palace or being a saucy vixen, they’ve got you covered. (Even Kanye couldn’t resist their cool in the new Yeezy collection. But that’s a post for another day.)
I haven’t been in the comic book groove for very long. I literally woke up and asked to visit the local comic book shop. End of story. No idea why. It was like I had an epiphany in a dream. Some nerdy deity shook some sense into me, I had a vision, and the rest is history.
DC, Marvel, and other typical superheroes aren’t my cup of tea. They bore me. Not sure why as I love, love, love the movies. In comic books I tend to steer clear though. It might have something to do with the fact that they’re franchises with histories, snobs, and an entire mythos built around them. It’s intimidating to just jump in all willy-nilly. Enter Graphic India.


Why is helping families coordinate a developmental check-up important?
Child Welfare provides services to children who may have experienced abuse, neglect, family disruption or other factors that place their safety and well-being at risk. These multiple stressors on health and well-being put many of these children at high risk for developmental delays.
Child Welfare agencies and their staff therefore can play an important role in promoting optimal health and development by ensuring that all children have a developmental checkup.
This website will provide you with useful forms to help coordinate a developmental checkup and coordinate other types of care to help support young children and their families.
For further information about developmental check-ups click on the following link:
Why are Child Welfare agencies in a unique position to promote optimal development and developmental check-ups?
Child Welfare agencies and staff can have frequent contact with young children and families.
Child Welfare agencies and staff may have important information about a family’s well-being that can impact a child’s health and development.
Child Welfare agencies and staff may have behavioral or developmental concerns about a child.
Child Welfare agencies and staff may be the first resource a family turns to when they have a concern about their child’s health and development.
Child Welfare agencies should have the resources to respond to any of these scenarios and share relevant health and developmental information with parents and early childhood providers in the community, such as healthcare providers or Early Start programs (Part C of Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act provided by Regional centers and local education agencies).
How can Child Welfare agencies use the resources and tools on this website?
It is important for child welfare agencies to have some basic forms and resources to help coordinate any services or supports that are critical to a young child’s health and development. You can use the forms on this website to do the following:
To share learning, developmental, and behavioral concerns with other providers in the community.
To help families communicate their need for additional services (e.g. child care services or finding a doctor) with other providers in the community.
To ensure the parent and receiving-provider-agency are clear on the reason for a referral.
To help families understand and keep track of information regarding their child’s care.
To help you, the Child Welfare provider, understand the referral, follow-up, and overall plan of a child’s care.


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Bottom Dollar Food closes stores three days earlier than expected
Bottom Dollar Food closed its lone Pittsburgh store Monday, which opened just seven months ago, but public officials and residents are lobbying hard for a different grocer to set up shop in the same building on Penn Avenue in Garfield.
Belgium-based DelHaize Group, which sold the Pittsburgh store and 65 others to Aldi Inc. late last year for $15 million, had said the stores would close Thursday.
“As of 2 p.m. today all Bottom Dollar Food locations have closed as we have sold all of the product,” spokeswoman Erin DeWaters said Monday.
It means Garfield residents again will have to shop elsewhere. The grocery was the neighborhood's first in 25 years.
Community leaders and public officials are trying to persuade Aldi to open a store at 5200 Penn Ave. They're concerned that the company, which has a store less than a mile away on Baum Boulevard, could sell to someone outside the grocery business.
“This is a huge, huge setback,” said Aggie Brose, deputy director of the Bloomfield-Garfield Corp., a civic organization that worked with residents for years to attract a grocery store. “The goal is to retain a grocery store at that location.”
Mayor Bill Peduto on Monday scheduled a conference call with Aldi officials to sell them on Garfield. Brose said elected officials ranging from U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Scranton, to state legislators and City Council representatives have contacted the company.
“The mayor's goal is to keep Aldi in Garfield and ... to also keep the store's infrastructure in place,” Peduto spokesman Tim McNulty said in an email.
Bloomfield-Garfield Corp. wants an agreement from Aldi to keep store equipment in place as negotiations continue. DelHaize has no plans to remove the equipment before the sale is finalized by the end of March, DeWaters said.
“It would just gut the place for future grocery stores if they sold it,” Brose said of the equipment, adding that her organization is contacting other grocers to gauge interest. “We met with one interested party that I can't put out in the news right now.”
She said Aldi has not responded to requests about the store's future. Aldi did not return a call seeking comment.
Bloomfield-Garfield Corp. on Thursday plans to take a busload of residents to Aldi's warehouse and offices in Saxonburg, she said.
“They have to know how serious we are and how sensitive this issue is,” Brose said.
Bob Bauder is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-765-2312 or firstname.lastname@example.org.

domain: economics


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Silver has fallen below $24 in early trading, but this could be a consolidation following its recent rally. Last week silver gained over 4%, significantly outperforming gold, which posted a fractional decline.
Although the new week began in the red, this decline can be attributed to the rebound of the USD and the correction of gold, which is often followed by the silver price.
From a technical point of view, the major trend for silver still appears solid (and probably better than that of gold in the short term). If silver can hold above $23.5, there could be space for a new rebound to the resistance zones of $24 and $24.2, where the recent tops are placed. Conversely, a fall below $23.25 and particularly a new decline below $22.85 would signify a proper inversion for the precious metal.
Investor attention in the last few hours has mostly focused on the oil price, with West Texas Intermediate and Brent up 5%, after OPEC decided to cut output by over one million barrels per day. It is as yet unclear what impact this decision could have on central banks’ rates policy, or the effect on the precious metals market. On one side, higher energy costs could revamp inflation, and on the other hand, it could increase the risks of a recession.
With a credential background in Economic Finance and International Exchange (MA), his critical analysis of gold and silver markets’ performance is frequently quoted by leading publications, week on week.
This publication is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be a solicitation, offering or recommendation of any security, commodity, derivative, investment management service or advisory service and is not commodity trading advice. This publication does not intend to provide investment, tax or legal advice on either a general or specific basis.

domain: finance


Narrow your search
Netflix, Adobe, and Google are great places to work if you're in the tech field, according to online community offering career advice.
Career information site receives its second round of funding amid a tough economic climate.
The company survey site is adding support for currencies in more than 100 countries.
Why is it that employees can vent online about their bosses, but their bosses have no outlet to do the same about their employees?
Jeff Weiner leaves all other US chief executives in the dust by garnering a 100 percent approval rating in employee-driven Glassdoor survey.
With high salaries and outrageous perks -- like stocks and bonuses, free gourmet food, and an onsite chiropractor -- it's no wonder that tech firms dominate Glassdoor's top 25 companies for compensation and benefits list.
Some of tech's heavy hitters slide down the rankings for the 25 highest-paying companies for software engineers, according to a new Glassdoor survey.
A new report suggests internal worries following Facebook's tumultuous IPO last year were just a little out of control.
Sixteen tech companies claim a spot on Glassdoor's annual "Top 25 Companies for Work-Life Balance." Maybe canceling the work-from-home option at Yahoo wasn't such a terrible move after all.
Glassdoor releases a list of the highest-paying companies for interns and (surprise, surprise) most of them are tech companies.


LL Cool J is no stranger to a battle, but the war he waged on Twitter yesterday is unlike any rap battle he has ever fought. This time his adversary wasn’t Canibus or Kool Moe Dee, it was Fox News. LL expressed his disdain with the right leaning network and its use of a two year old interview of him on Sarah Palin’s new show. Cool J was the clear winner of this battle a representative from Fox says the interview with LL will be removed from the debut episode of “Real American Stories.” -News One Staff
From the Huffington Post:
Fox News has an unlikely adversary: rapper LL Cool J.
After the network announced that Sarah Palin would host a special Thursday called “Real American Stories” — featuring an interview with LL Cool J, among other celebrities — the rapper hit back on Twitter claiming they were lying.
PHOTOS: LL Cool J
“Fox lifted an old interview I gave in 2008 to someone else & are misrepresenting to the public in order to promote Sarah Palin’s Show. WOW,” he tweeted.
Fox News responded Wednesday morning, saying they would cut the footage of LL Cool J (aka James Todd Smith) from the special.”Real American Stories features uplifting tales about overcoming adversity and we believe Mr. Smith’s interview fit that criteria,” a network spokesperson told TVNewser. “However, as it appears that Mr. Smith does not want to be associated with a program that could serve as an inspiration to others, we are cutting his interview from the special and wish him the best with his fledgling acting career.”


Microsoft no longer uses SCOM to monitor their own workloads. They have replaced their entire SCOM based monitoring stack with Azure Monitor. Allegedly reduced alert noise and administration overhead.
Even if I have moved from SCOM as my main responsibility, I am still very much involved in the whole monitoring and management scope. Over the last years we have heard alot of talk about Azure Monitor replacing SCOM, but that cooled off after a while, maybe until now?
Technology change or cultural change
Microsoft’s story on how they killed SCOM internally was released one day before the official announcement on Operations Manager 2019. But we first heard the story at Ignite in 2018. One may ask, why the re-initiate this topic now?
For SCOM 2019, the focus is to better support hybrid cloud environments, which is good. If Microsoft doesen’t want to use it, should you?
I have written and spoken about the use of SCOM as your hub for Azure Monitor, and my opinion hasn’t changed that much. I belive that transition to you a new monitoring stack will happen with changes to the infrastructure.
When you read the article you’ll see that this was the case for Microsoft as well. There are two quotes i find partculary interesting in the announcement.
“This is not just a technology change, but a culture change,” Baxter says. “It wasn’t only that we would remove SCOM central monitoring, but we had to tell our application teams, now you’re going to manage alerts..”
It was January of 2017 when Baxter got the call. “Our goal was not just to get rid of SCOM, but to move to a Software as a Service (SaaS) solution and retire Virtual Machine (VM) based infrastructure,” she says.
The key here is change in culture. Microsoft went full on DevOps for their internal IT, and by doing that technology will change, and your monitoring will follow.
Further, the showcase mention monitoring was desentralized, which is true. But ther’s another key part of this story. The monitoring team built an integration service between their monitoring stack (Azure Monitor, app insights) and their ITSM system. This system allows for more meta data on each alert etc before ending up as a ticket.
If you’re organization runs most of your IaaS on premises, you don’t have to make change yet. Allow the culture to drive the change. A long the way, your SCOM environment can be that integration service between Azure PaaS, FaaS, XaaS and ITSM.


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Welcome back. I hope this past week was full of game design, playing games, or just spending time with those who are important to you.
Kickstarter creators spend a lot of time and energy building up a crowd and creating buzz for their campaign and then finding creative ways to keep that interest throughout the campaign. However, at times it can feel like once the campaign is funded and over that the backers are almost forgotten about as all of the efforts and focus from the creator shifts to the manufacturing process. I feel like this is a missed opportunity and one that more creators should take advantage of. For this week’s post, I want to look at 5 tips for keeping backer interest post campaign.
Find creative ways to share information
One of the harder aspects of keeping backer interest is being able to find the balance of too many updates and not enough. However, even once that balance is achieved, these updates are an excellent opportunity to increase backer interest by finding creative ways to share the information from the updates.
Roxley Games and Wierd Giraffe Games have gotten really good at using progress bars to communicate the needed information, but I recently was part of a really fun and creative art update. The creators of Infinities recently wanted to share new art for one of the leaders in their game. This particular leader had already caused a little trouble when she hacked the Kickstarter campaign updates. and she was back to her old tricks this time infiltrating the Vatal Entertainment Studio Discord server. As members of the server, we were given 10% of the final artwork, and then had to work together to reveal the remaining 90% as bits of the image were shared with random members, some even coming in the form of password protecting zip files. In the end, we managed to reveal the final image and all had some fun and shared some laughs while we were at it.
Find opportunities to play your game with your backers
Another golden opportunity to keep backer interest up is by taking as many opportunities as possible to play the game with your backers. Having a digital version of your game will be a huge help here, but running in person plays can be important as well. Streaming gameplay is another option.
Give backers opportunities to interact with you and each other
Part of what makes a Kickstarter campaign so exciting is having all of the backers getting together and working towards a common goal. Try and find different ways of continuing this interaction with live streams, Facebook groups, Discord servers, convention appearances, or an online forum.
It is important to note that all throughout your efforts you need to remember to be genuine. Remember that your backers are people and not just numbers and that it is because of their support that you are even making your game. Remember to find ways to appreciate them. I’d love to hear about your experiences with keeping backer interest post campaign, both as a backer and as a creator. Until next week, happy designing.

domain: hobby


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The Bush administration plans to appoint to its domestic-violence advisory committee two representatives of a group vigorously opposed to the law the committee oversees.
Attorney General John D. Ashcroft last week invited Nancy M. Pfotenhauer, president of the Independent Women's Forum, to join the National Advisory Committee on Violence Against Women. He also invited to the committee one of the IWF's national advisory board members, Boston police detective Margot Hill, according to Pfotenhauer.
The committee is responsible for advising the departments of Justice and Health and Human Services on implementation of the Violence Against Women Act. The 1994 legislation, renewed in 2000, provides funds to track down domestic abusers, expand shelters for battered women and prevent violent crimes against women on college campuses.
The Clinton administration in 2000 credited the legislation for a 21 percent drop in violence against women. Ashcroft, in his confirmation hearings, promised to "vigorously enforce federal domestic violence laws and utilize the Violence Against Women Act to assist states in this effort."
Pfotenhauer's Independent Women's Forum, however, has waged a bitter fight against the legislation, providing congressional testimony in opposition and supporting a lawsuit challenging the act.
An article on its Web site entitled "Violence Against Taxpayers" said the legislation "will do nothing to protect women from crime" but would "perpetuate false information, waste money and urge vulnerable women to mistrust all men." Another IWF article said the legislation is based on "deceitful data" and argued that it "is not only unconstitutional, but often harmful to the victims it purports to help."
The appointments infuriated feminist groups. "I'm appalled but I'm not shocked," said Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women. She said the IWF "makes light of violence against women on a regular basis."
Pfotenhauer said in an interview yesterday that her purpose was "not at all" to undo the law but to give states more flexibility in implementing it.
"You have to look at domestic violence as a culture of intimacy," she said, rather than a "one-size-fits-all, men-beat-up-women" framework.
Pfotenhauer said it was the first time her organization has been invited to join the committee. "I'd hope we've been asked to participate in this because we have a different view but one that's constructive," she said.
Advisory committees typically have a few dozen members serving staggered terms. The domestic-violence committee is dominated by Clinton appointees. Justice Department spokeswoman Susan Dryden said yesterday that she was unaware of how many new members were being appointed or what the composition of the committee would be. She said the appointments are not yet official because the large number of those invited have not yet responded to letters sent by Ashcroft.
In early 2000, the IWF filed an amicus curiae brief in a Supreme Court case challenging the legislation's "gender crimes" provision as unconstitutional, arguing that Congress did not have the power to allow victims of such violence to sue in federal courts.
The group argued in its 15-page brief that the legislation was a threat to states' rights and "the preservation of our liberty."
A sharply divided Supreme Court struck down part of the law, saying Congress overstepped its power when it gave women a right to sue their attackers. The 5-4 ruling, involving a college student who alleged she was raped by two football players, voided a provision meant to guarantee that victims of sexual assaults would not be dependent on local prosecutors' decisions and could themselves sue assailants in federal court. The Clinton administration had supported the woman's case, arguing that Congress had the authority to deter violence against women trying to travel or do business around the country.
In other writings on the IWF Web site, the group argues that "the battered women's movement has outlived its useful beginnings." The site also argues that the legislation "is based on ignorance, non-facts, and wishful thinking about the power of the federal government to curb violence between intimate partners."
© 2002 The Washington Post Company

domain: law


Past editions of 'Cross Border Flows in Education'
Page 1 of 1 | 1 results
Release date: 21 April 2010 at
Theme: Children, Education and Skills | Department: Welsh Government | Coverage: England and Wales
Geographic breakdown: Country
| Designation: Official Statistics not designated as National Statistics
Summary: This Statistical Bulletin shows data on cross border flows in education.


Al-Qaeda in Yemen has claimed to have killed four men suspected of practising witchcraft and sorcery in an area controlled by the fighters.
Residents of Mayfaa town in the southeastern province of Hadramout said on Saturday that al-Qaeda fighters had distributed a pamphlet naming the four men.
It did not say when the killings were carried out, but a neighbour of one of the victims told the AFP news agency that he had been missing for days.
Keep readinglist of 4 items
“We have implemented Allah’s ruling against them, which is the death sentence,” said the flyer that was also posted on walls in the area.
“We call upon all Muslims to cooperate with us against this widespread depravity,” it said.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, has overran large parts of Hadramout, including Mukalla, the coastal provincial capital.
It imposed a strict version of Islamic law, executing or lashing those they accused of various crimes, among them homosexuality and sorcery.
Those accused of theft have their hands cut off.
The United States considers AQAP as the most dangerous affiliate of the al-Qaeda network.
It is active across several parts of Yemen, taking advantage of the collapse of central authority during the 2011 uprising that ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh.


This Is Not Another Great Depression
Few people in the world know more about the Great Depression than economic historian Price Fishback, which is why whenever he offers an opinion on the subject, I always listen carefully. Back in the fall, Fishback wrote two outstanding posts here at the Freakonomics blog, one on what the New Deal tells us about the likely success of the stimulus package, and another on the Home Owners Loan Corporation.
Fishback is back, with a three-part series explaining why our current economic situation is very, very different from the Great Depression. In the first of these three posts, Fishback reviews the basic macroeconomic statistics then and now. My description might make it sound dry, but it absolutely is not; this is must-read stuff. I suspect you will be stunned at how bad the Great Depression really was.
How Does the Current Crisis Compare to the Great Depression?
By Price Fishback
A Guest Post
Over the past couple of decades, every time we have experienced a slowdown in the American economy, the media mentioned the possibility that this is the next Great Depression. Maybe this is a natural response to the relative lack of downturns over the past 20 years. After experiencing a downturn once every three to seven years for nearly two centuries, the U.S. economy has been averaging a downturn about once every nine or ten years since the early 1980’s. As declines in the economy have become rarer, perhaps people have become more sensitive to them.
In the 1920’s, Soviet economist Nikolai Kondratiev argued for the existence of 40- to 60-year economic super-cycles. Since the Great Depression ended nearly 70 years ago, maybe we are overdue for the next one.
The events of the last year naturally have stimulated comparisons to the Great Depression. Two years ago, few would have ever guessed that there would be no pure major investment banks left on Wall Street. The banking industry is struggling, as many financial institutions face uncertainty about the values of their assets, particularly financial instruments related to mortgages. The U.S. and most of the rest of the world are in recession. Meanwhile, the stock market has lost roughly 40 percent of its value from the all-time peak it reached in late 2007.
How does this compare to the Great Depression? We won’t know the final outcome of this recession for a while, but I can safely say that the current situation is nowhere near as bad as the situation during the 1930’s. There may be surface similarities on some dimensions, but there are far more differences than there are similarities.
Since the start of the recession in late 2007, the monthly unemployment rate has risen from 4.9 percent to 7.6 percent in January 2009. Before thinking about the Great Depression, realize that unemployment rates have exceeded 7 percent in 139 months since World War II. This includes 32 months between 1974 and 1977, 76 months between 1980 and 1986, and 21 more between 1991 and 1993. The Great Depression was far more disastrous. One year after the stock market crash of 1929, the unemployment rate had risen from 2 percent to 10.8 percent. The next year it was 16.8 percent. Then unemployment rates rose above 20 percent for four straight years!
It does not end there. The unemployment rate exceeded 14 percent for five more years until finally dropping below 10 percent again in 1941. These rates include emergency workers, but these were people who were working for their relief payments at hourly wages that were roughly half the norm on other government projects. We treat people receiving unemployment benefits today as unemployed, and all they are required to do is seek work.
Do I sound like your grandparent talking about walking barefoot and backward several miles through the snow to go to school? There’s more. Real G.D.P. fell during the last two quarters, but real G.D.P. in the fourth quarter of 2008 was almost identical to real G.D.P. in the fourth quarter of 2007. Since World War II, there have been 28 quarters where real G.D.P. was below the same quarter in the prior year. How does this compare with the Great Depression? In 1930, Americans produced 8.6 percent fewer final goods and services than in 1929, in 1931 15 percent less, and in 1932 and 1933 roughly 26 percent less than in 1929. It is hard to conceptualize such a drop in G.D.P.
Consider this: the 1932 and 1933 figures would have been the equivalent of shutting down all production of goods and services west of the Mississippi River. Annual real G.D.P. did not reach its 1929 level again until 1936. We are experiencing pain now, but the problems of the Great Depression were several magnitudes greater.


Read the full story at Metal Architecture.
The findings from the preeminent study on green buildings have been released and the results are both surprising and encouraging. Forty-seven percent of those participating in the World Green Building Trends 2018 SmartMarket Report expect to do the majority of their projects (more than 60 percent) green by 2021. Published today by Dodge Data & Analytics, the new industry report indicates that the international market for green construction projects has grown significantly in the last 10 years and demand for green building activity is poised to grow—to even double in some regions. In fact, the report found a 20 point projected jump from those who currently report a majority of green projects.


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Is it just me or is Rachel Bilson looking cuter than ever these days? I'm not sure what it is that's putting a spring in her step — boyfriend, new denim line, just enjoying the weather — but it looks great on her and that's saying a lot considering the status quo is already pretty high. Yesterday she was spotted having lunch with a friend at the Mustard Seed Cafe in LA maybe showing off a piece from her new Edie Rose collection with her skinny black jeans? If so, and even if not, adorable.
There's Something About R-Bils
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domain: celebrity


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Illustrator Chow Hon Lam recently decided to invest the extra time she had on her hands to start an interesting new project. Lam created a series of webcomics, titled Chubby Animals Talk, that tell the daily life stories of cute animals in a funny and relatable way.
Besides being chubby and adorable, Lam’s characters are also witty, smart, and sometimes clueless. You’ll probably recognize someone you know (or even yourself) in them while enjoying all the puns, jokes and awkward situations that tigers, turtles, raccoons, and bears are going through.
Check our favorite Chubby Animals Talks below.


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Lipid Biological Functions. It is now known that lipids play a much more important role in the body than previously believed. It was previously known that lipids played the role of storage of energy or forming cell membranes alone. ... Lipids are synthesized in the body using complex biosynthetic pathways.Oct 9, 2012
Lipids, also known as fats, play many important roles in your body, from providing energy to producing hormones. You wouldn't be able to digest and absorb food properly without lipids. Of course, eating more fat than you need can lead to weight gain, but in proper amounts lipids are a healthy part of your diet.
Lipids have several important roles in the body, providing: a source and store of energy. an important part of the membrane surrounding every body cell. the basic building blocks from which several hormones (chemical messengers) and bile acids (digestive juices) are made.
Fats make up the largest category of lipids, and also go by the terms triacylglycerols, triglycerides, and glycerolipids. There are several types of fats. Saturated fat is a lipid that exists as a solid substance when it is at room temperature. Milk, cheese, meat, and other animal foods contain saturated fat.
Lipids can be categorized into three main types.Triglycerides. Triglycerides are lipids you obtain from food sources of fat, such as cooking oils, butter and animal fat. ... Steroids. Steroids are a type of lipid that includes hormones and cholesterol. ... Phospholipids. ... Getting Your Lipid Levels Tested.
There are two classes of phospholipids. The first are the glycerophospholipids, which are themselves subdivided into two groups. Phosphatides, is molecules composed of glycerol substituted with two fatty acid esters. Three alcohols that form phosphatides are choline, ethanolamine, and serine.Sep 17, 2014
From a nutritional standpoint, saturated fats have been linked to heart disease. Food sources of saturated fats include butter, dairy products, meats and other animal products. Unsaturated fats contain fatty acids with double-bonds in their carbon chains.


Work hard, be nice, eat tacos.
The first on-demand transit planning software
I created a new feature for Remix dedicated to on-demand routes so transit planners can create routes using emerging technology with little effort.
A product designer, born with the creative gene
Let’s dance


Three years ago, on May 21, 2007, Jezebel.com was born.
In January of that year, Gawker Media Managing Editor Lockhart Steele hired me away from an editing gig at InStyle to create what he and Nick Denton were calling "Girly Gawker". The Jezebel of my imagination – and, eventually, my reality - would serve as an antidote to the superficiality and irrelevance of women's media properties that dominated the late 90s and early aughts. The condescension and cynicism pushed by both magazines and online properties aimed at women was insulting. Their reliance on insecurity-creation, misogyny and unabashed consumerism to "appeal" to female readers had become increasingly offensive. These outlets did not seem to realize (or accept) that young women in the late 20th and early 21st centuries are far more than the sum of their designer handbags and romantic relationships; that their readers did not want, nor need, an endless, ever-repeating loop of beauty tips and sexy sex positions; that there was a vibrant, powerful, and, most importantly, diverse population of women who did not want to be spoken down or marketed to, and whose interests included, but extended far beyond, the superficial traumas of split ends and celebrity breakups. In my most ambitious moments, I saw the site as a battle of the Annas: Holmes vs. Wintour.
What a difference a few years has made.
Thanks to breakout, brand-building investigations of everything from women's magazines, the fashion industry and celebrity Photoshops to menstrual-period dramas, douchebag takedowns and Presidential elections, I've seen our readership catch up to, and, in some cases, surpass, that of older, more established sites in the Gawker Media stable, including Gawker.com, which we have surpassed in monthly pageviews for 9 months straight. In addition, from January to April 2010, the number of unique visitors in the U.S. on Jezebel went up some 35% and April's number of U.S. unique visitors, 1,570,003, was up 72% from the year prior, numbers that, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulation, are higher than the total paid circulations of Vogue, Allure, Harper's Bazaar, Marie Claire, and Elle. (A whole bunch of beautiful graphs documenting both our traffic and reader/commenter engagement can be found here.)
Traffic, of course, is not everything, and copycat properties with deeper pockets and wider reaches have tried, and, for the most part, failed, to appropriate our unique and formidable mix of pop culture coverage, news analysis, gorgeous photography, cultural criticism, and progressive politics. Jezebel has been the recipient of numerous accolades, awards and laudatory profiles - "Best Group Weblog/Best New Weblog" (Bloggie Awards 2008); "best lady-aimed writing on the Web" (Guardian UK); "one of the few genuinely intelligent repositories of media/marketing/fashion commentary and celebrity deflation" (AdAge); "the sharpest, snarkiest, most popular women's blog around" (Times of London) - and our writers are quoted, and courted, by dozens and dozens of media properties and critics. In fact, in just three short years we have managed to assume an amount of influence, both in the U.S. and abroad, that is both startling and undeniable. We have, quite literally, changed the conversation.
Of course, it goes without saying that none of this would have been possible without the contributions of our fiercely loyal readership - the second graph here shows that the site has more community engagement on its open thread, #groupthink, than the rest of the Gawker Media sites combined - and the most dedicated, talented and spirited group of writers and editors I've ever had the pleasure to work with, some of whom have been around almost since the beginning. It's time to give yourselves, and them - Moe Tkacik, Jennifer Gerson, Dodai Stewart, Tracie Egan Morrissey, Maria Mercedes Lara, Cheryl Campbell, Jenna Sauers, Hortense, Megan Carpentier, Jessica Grose, Sadie Stein, Anna North, Margaret Hartmann, Katy Kelleher, Latoya Peterson, Irin Carmon, and our newest recruit, Jessica Coen - a serious, and sustained round of applause.
Here's to a fantastic fourth year. And thanks, as always, for coming along for the ride.
Related: Jezebel: All The News That's Fit To Print – And The Juicy Stuff That's Not [Independent]
Best Websites: News And Comment [Telegraph]
The World's 50 Most Powerful Blogs [Guardian]
Not On Our Blog You Won't [NY Times]
Let's Hear It for Women Who Suffer No Fools [AdAge]
40 Bloggers Who Really Count [Times of London]


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From the Iowa State Association of Counties
This year’s state budget raises a critical issue that affects all Iowans. Will the state maintain its backfill of lost property tax dollars that helps to provide for safe and desirable communities through law enforcement, mental health and disability services, parks, road maintenance and repair, and many other important local government services?
“Iowa’s county governments are essential to the daily lives of Iowans,” said ISAC President and Johnson County Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek. “The county you live in is responsible for many of the services Iowans need – keeping our communities safe, providing services to our most vulnerable citizens, fixing potholes, plowing snow, and offering parks to enjoy with your family and friends.”
In 2013, Iowa state law was changed resulting in a reduction in the tax revenue that local governments receive from commercial and industrial properties. This loss of revenue is paid back to local
governments by the state with funds called the backfill. “It’s essential to Iowa county governments that the backfill remains intact and whole,” ISAC Executive Director Bill Peterson said. “Without these funds, many counties could be faced with a tough choice: raise property taxes on their residents or cut services on which they depend.”
Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds included full funding of the backfill in her proposed budget for fiscal year 2019 that was released today. ISAC commends her for recognizing the importance of county services and keeping property taxes low. The Iowa Legislature should follow Governor Reynolds’ lead and fully
fund the backfill.
ISAC urges Iowans to contact their legislators to let them know that their community needs the backfill.
Contact information for your legislators and other advocacy materials are available at www.iowacounties.org.

domain: politics


Providing Industrial Solutions With A Fiber Laser Cutting Machine
Since the introduction of laser cutting to industries, CO2 lasers have dominated manufacturing process. Fiber laser cutting machine has gradually taken over the market due to its higher performance. A fiber laser machine can complete the same job faster than a CO2 laser with higher power rating. Besides, it consumes less energy and has minimal environmental impact. This laser machine possesses smaller chiller and laser source. Due to its simplicity, it has no mirrors and has eliminated the appearance of laser gas lines.
A fiber laser cutter concentrates the power of the laser beam on the surface of the work material. The workpiece absorbs energy from the laser source which is converted to heat that melts the material. The introduction of gas into the cutting area blows molten metal away from the path. Depending on the power output, fiber lasers can cut metal sheets of various thicknesses. They have the ability to cut 12mm thick stainless steel.
The high-quality beam of a fiber laser cutter allows operators to cut, mark or engrave different metallic materials. This machine finds application in operations that demand high-precision. Besides cutting of metals and non-metallic materials, fiber laser cutting machine is used in metal sheet profiling. It is also useful for marking ID plaques, serial number plates, and other components for traceability.
The greater efficiency and performance of a fiber laser cutter depends on its laser beam. The laser light created in diodes reaches the cutting surface through the optical fiber at the focusing head of the machine. The collision of molecules within the optical fiber eliminates the need for laser gas. Consequently, the energy requirement is reduced and it generates less heat than other cutting devices.
Benefits of fiber laser cutter
The fiber laser cutting machine has many advantages over other cutting devices. They include:
- Increased productivity: The fiber laser cutter ensures greater revenue due to its lower operational costs. This device possesses features that enhance its performance. The short processing period of fiber laser machine contributes to its improved productivity.
Less energy consumption: As a result of its higher efficiency, this machine reduces energy bill.
More reliable: The design of the fiber laser cutter assures the accuracy of manufacturing operations. The device is ideal for high precision processes.
Faster processing time: The fiber laser device completes tasks faster than other cutting devices. The ease and speed of loading new sheets and unloading cut portions lower the processing time. The presence of a feature that removes scraps without interfering with the cutting process also saves time.
Low environmental impact: Many fiber laser cutters have systems that remove dust particles and harmful fumes from the environment. This measure keeps the operators safe and improves the quality of air in the working area.
Low maintenance cost: This cutting machine does not require replacement of mirrors or lamps. Besides, the device may not require hydraulic oils.
As a result of its efficiency and speed in performing tasks, the fiber laser cutter is useful in medicine, aviation, automotive, general manufacturing, and marine engineering. Besides, its laser is less expensive to use, making it a cost-effective option for manufacturing processes.
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California Senator Scott Wiener demonstrated his solidarity with the San Francisco drag community by attending a Night of Ideas event at the San Francisco Public Library (SFPL) in celebration of drag queens and gender-themed books, as well as giving his support for a newly-launched SFPL “Drag Laureate” program.
Wiener tweeted photographs of himself at the Night of Ideas event on Saturday in the company of drag performer Juanita More, a local "drag legend."
“As more & more states ban books & drag queens, we’re celebrating both at San Francisco Public Library’s #NightOfIdeas,” said Wiener.
The California Democratic senator is referring to legislation in several Republican states that seek to ban drag performances in public areas where children could be present, as well as a push to get sexually explicit books off the shelves of school libraries.
Wiener has also recently given his public support to a new initiative of the SFPL: a “Drag Laureate” program that will provide a $55,000 stipend to a chosen drag artist who will serve as a spokesperson for the LGBTQ+ community in San Francisco, and produce drag-centered events and programs in the region.
“San Francisco’s commitment to inclusivity and the arts are the foundation for who we are as a city,” said Mayor London Breed in a press release announcing the launch in November “Drag artists have helped pave the way for LGBTQ+ rights and representation across our city, and they are a part of what makes our City so special.”
“San Francisco’s Drag Laureate program is a wonderful celebration of our drag queens,” said Senator Scott Wiener. “Drag performers are an amazing representation of the LGBTQ community and they contribute so much to our city. I’m thrilled about the launch of this program, and excited to see who is crowned Drag Laureate.”
In 2018, the SFPL faced backlash after it displayed an “Antifa” art exhibit featuring blood-stained t-shirts encouraging people to “punch” feminists, alongside an assortment of deadly weapons, such as a sledgehammer and an axe, with handles painted in various colors such as those of the trans flag.
According to Deep Green Resistance, the disturbing exhibit was funded by Friends of The San Francisco Library, and created by The Degenderettes, a group of heterosexual males who identify as women and therefore believe themselves to be lesbians. These males believe it is an act of oppression when an actual lesbian excludes males from her dating pool.
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domain: sociology


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Our trip to Holland Park
Each trip starts at school with, ‘Where’s the list? Who’s missing?’
Without fail Rinat our new Russian friend keeps us waiting, but over the weeks we’ve got used to him turning up at the destination with his bicycle, and saying he’s been waiting for us.
Due to our walks we’re getting to know London well. We follow Alex or Rebecca to the meeting place, and then listen carefully to Steve our knowledgeable guide as he tells us a bit of history or some interesting fact but sometimes we get distracted because we’re eating our ice cream and miss Steve’s explanation.
On the Holland park day we met Steve at the station at 4pm, and while he polished off his ice cream, he explained that the Holland Park area had the famous Millionaire’s Row of big houses, where the rich and famous have always lived. We asked who and Steve reeled off a list including the Beckhams, Simon Cowell, Elton John and Robbie Williams.Students didn’t know these names so Steve sang and played football and it was soon understood.
Then we crossed the road and entered Holland Park by the Abbotsbury Road entrance and were soon in a different world. On that hot afternoon that part of the park looked tropical with palm trees and bright flowers.
Then there was a wooded area , quite beautiful with the sun slanting through the trees. Selfies everywhere.
A favourite part was the Kyoto Garden with Kiri translating the Japanese notices and giving explanations. Big rocks were set in the perfect grass and Rebecca needed an explanation. Kiri came to the rescue , explaining that Japanese gardens reflect all the features of the world, mountains, sea, and earth. So the goldfish pond and the waterfall represented the sea, the grass the earth and the rocks represented mountains.
Leyal paid attention but most students didn’t worry about these details and made their way to the waterfall and stood on the bridge with Steve annoying other visitors and the goldfish. And taking more selfies. And hanging around for ages.
Finally we dragged ourselves away from the bridge and the goldfish and loved the bamboo forest, and look who we found there:
Then there was the statue, we couldn’t find out who he was but Marita seemed to hit it off with him.
Rebecca by this time was longing for an ice cream , and hurried students through the Mediterranean garden with its giant chess board where various young men disturbed the game , and the rose garden, then through the cloister with its beautiful painted wall to the Italian café which was very unfortunately closing. The open air theatre next door was getting ready for a performance so we didn’t stop there but headed for the avenue leading to Kensington High Street and a very nice bar which had seating for all of us and enough strawberry ice cream to keep us quiet for a while.
When we’d wolfed it all down we made our weary way to Kensington High Street station and the train, where we fell silent all the way back to Ealing and bed, and one or two nodded off. Well, some of us did.
Phrasal verbs to think about
- Turn up
- Reel off a list of..
- To drag oneself away
- To hang around
- To hit it off with s.b.
- Polish sth off
- Long for sth
- To head for somewhere
- Wolf sth down
Published by Rebecca Sukkar
If you could like to join our free walking tours, you can! Just sign up at Reception. Our next tour is to … Mayfair and Park Lane
Published on 28 March, 2023

domain: travel


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Let your painters paint!


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Thanks again BURNAWAY for inviting me to curate the blog this week, on behalf of The Creatives Project !
Here are some of the final installation images from the CONTINUUM Exhibition! The show will be up through Wednesday Oct 15th.
Sun. Oct 12th 2pm-5pm
M-W by appointment. Please email us to schedule a visit email@example.com
Address: The Goat Farm Arts Center
1200 Foster St. Atlanta, GA 30318
Hope you have enjoyed the work of our residents this week. See you soon Atlanta!
-Neda & The TCP Family


A painter in a boom truck had to be rescued in Moncton after the bucket he was in malfunctioned and flipped, leaving the man gripping the bucket and secured by his safety harness five storeys in the air.
Moncton Fire Chief Eric Arsenault said the man was painting the upper levels of city hall on Monday morning. Photos taken at the scene appear to show the bucket has flipped about 90 degrees.
When firefighters first arrived at the scene they tried to reach the man with a 75-foot (about 23-metre) ladder truck, which brought the ladder close, but not close enough for the rescue crew's liking.
Because the man was secured in the harness, firefighters decided to wait for a truck with an aerial platform that could reach about 31 metres. It took rescue crews between 20 and 30 minutes to reach him, Arsenault said.
"He had the proper restraint device on him but he was in a risk of falling out of the bucket so he had to hold on for quite a length of time," he said.
The man was not injured, and was released after being checked on by paramedics.
The City of Moncton has contacted WorkSafeNB to report the incident.


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The Santa Monica Fire Department has been busy helping combat wildfires burning throughout the state. Learn more in this video...Read more
The field and track at Lincoln Middle School are currently under renovation, with plans for reopening by January 2018. When...
Subscribe to our newsletter to receive the latest news and events in Santa Monica and the surrounding areas!
Local clothing line reimagines athleisure By Toi Creel With ranges in styles for men’s clothing from suits and professional clothing...Read more

domain: news


Food Crisis in the Horn of Africa
Famine has spread to the Bay region, one of Somalia's most productive areas. Famine was earlier declared in five other areas in southern and central Somalia. - Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit for Somalia
The number of Somalis in need of humanitarian assistance has increased from 2.4 million to 4 million in the past eight months, with 3 million of them in the country's south. - FAO.
Figures paint a bleak picture for Somalia, there is a window of opportunity for the humanitarian community to stop and reverse this undesirable trend by supporting farmers and herders in addition to other emergency interventions.
Bay region produces 80 per cent of Somalia's sorghum harvest and is considered the country's breadbasket.
Record levels of acute malnutrition have been registered there, with 58 per cent of children under the age of five acutely malnourished, with a crude mortality rate of more than two deaths per 10,000 per day.
The current drought-related food crisis has affected other countries in the Horn of Africa, including northern Kenya, southern Ethiopia and Djibouti.


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Saturday, November 20, 2010
Bounce house Birthday Cake
This is a stacked "bounce house" for Sarah's 7th Birthday. It is a marble cake with chocolate buttercream filling, covered in fondant with fondant details. Little Sarah is also made out of fondant.
Leah Loose owner and cake artist at Leahs Sweet Treats
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ILF+ and ILM+ new linear motor family
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The ILM+ ironless linear motors are a more powerful version of the ILF+ motors. The ILM+ series combine all advantages of ironless motors and provides high continuous force. This motor family is suited for the most demanding mid- to high-mass scanning applications where zero attraction forces and outstanding speed stability are requested. The low mass per force ratio also makes ILM+ suited for very high dynamic applications in many diverse industries. To further increase the continuous force, ILM+ can be delivered with a forced air cooling glider.
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ETEL, founded in 1974 and based in Switzerland, is a supplier 100% dedicated to direct drive technology. ETEL’s range of linear and torque motors, position and motion controllers, and high-end motion system products provide a large selection to meet nearly all customers’ needs and providing them with process improvement they have been looking for.


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I believe I do have a timeline of events that you might find revelatory.
Although impressed with her grandmother’s skill, Deborah laments that the conclusions are never something more exciting, like the subjects being Russian spies.
Vanessa describes the scenes for Walter. She uses nicknames for the characters, such as Buttons and Sheriff Combover.
Once the characters start speaking again, she leaves Walter to watch it alone.


The fifth annual “Eye on Biodiesel” awards were presented today at the conference general session.
Two Florida-based industries were presented with top honors. Florida Power and Light received the “Initiative” award for using B20 in their entire diesel fleet of almost 2500 vehicles. Director of Fleet Services George Survant, here with Joe Jobe, accepted the award.
In addition, NBB presented the Pioneer award to NASA’s John F. Kennedy Space Center for switching to B20 in 2003 in its fleet of 144 diesel-powered vehicles. Bruce Chesson with NASA Transportation was spotlighted for his work and he accepted the award on-stage from NBB Chairman Ed Hegland, NBB CEO Joe Jobe and country music singer Michael Peterson.
Other awards presented included the Impact award, which was presented to GROWMARK, Inc., for demonstrating its ongoing commitment to the advancement of the biodiesel industry. The company’s bidiesel sales grew from 10,000 gallons in 2000 to an estimated 22.7 MILLION gallons in 2007. GROWMARK’s marketing manager for alternative fuels Mark Dehner, pictured here with Michael Peterson, accepted the award.
The National Oilheat Research Alliance received this year’s Industry Partnership award for its efforts in Bioheat heating oil education. NORA president John Huber accepted the award, pictured here with Ed, Joe and Michael.
The Inspiration award this year went to David E. Harris Jr., general manager of transporation services for Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. Harvard made the switch to B20 five years ago and now fuels 68 vehicles with the blend. Harris meets with potential biodiesel users, represents Harvard at biodiesel evetns and its the leading member and Harvard representative on the EPA’s Greater Boston Breathes Better program. He is pictured here with Joe.
Tom Smallwood of the US Marine Corps accepted the “Influence” Award from Michael for use of biodiesel in the Marine Corps. Under Tom’s leadership, use of biodiesel has skyrocketed since 2001. Ninety percent of Marine Corps bases now use biodiesel.
Finally, Cummins, Inc. was presented the “Innovation” award for the company’s multi-year research efforts on engine compatibility with biodiesel blends which led them to be one of the first companies to support the use of biodiesel blends in their diesel engines. Edward Lyford-Pike accepted the award on behalf of Cummins.