Getting your child ready for school includes many things such as getting new clothes and school supplies. We would like to add one more thing to the list of things to do before school starts. Get your child’s library card in working order to assure that they will have access to computers or study materials that they may need. Check with the library to see if your child has any overdue books out or fines to pay and give them a clear card to start the school year. If they have lost their card a replacement can be purchased for $1. Call us today at 936-829-5497 for your library card check-up.
Join us for Movie Day at the library on Friday, Aug. 23, at 6 p.m. Our theme for the summer is hunger, so we are asking you to bring one can of tomatoes, tomato sauce, Rotel tomatoes, or spaghetti sauce per family, Hands free access, to be donated to Diboll Christian Outreach. Popcorn will be available. We encourage you to bring your own snacks and drinks to add to your fun. You may also bring pillows and blankets and sit on the floor to watch the movie. Come bring the family and join in the fun! Our movie license will not allow us to publicize the movie title so please call us for more information at 936-829-5497. Children under 12 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian.
“The Discovery,” by Dan Walsh – When aspiring writer Michael Warner inherits his grandfather’s venerable Charleston estate, he settles in to write his first novel. But within the confines of the stately home, he discovers an unpublished manuscript written by his grandfather, a literary giant whose novels sold in the millions. Though he had kept this novel hidden, he clearly intended that Michael should find it. As Michael delves deep into the exciting tale about spies and sabotage, he discovers something that has the power to change not only his future but his past as well.
“Daybreak,” by Shelley Shepard Gray – When Viola Keim starts working at a nearby Mennonite retirement home, she strikes up an unlikely friendship with resident Atle, whose only living relative, son Edward, is a missionary in Nicaragua. Viola understands the importance of mission work, but she can’t imagine leaving her father in the hands of strangers. It’s not in keeping with her Amish sensibilities. Though she doesn’t know Ed, Viola judges him for abandoning his father. When Ed surprises his father with a visit, both Viola and Ed are surprised by the attraction they have for each other. Despite her feelings, choosing Ed would mean moving to a far-off country and leaving her family behind – something she couldn’t possibly do. Her twin sister, Elsie, is going blind; her family is reeling with the recent discovery that her grandmother hid her past as an Englischer; her father seems forgetful and distracted and seems to be harboring some secrets of his own. Will the demand of family ties mean that her one chance at love slips away?
“Ambush,” Creek by Phil Dunlap – When U.S. Marshal Piedmont Kelly is asked by Cochise Sheriff John Henry Stevens to look into the suspicious activity of three unsavory bounty hunters, he rides into what looks like a battle’s aftermath. Bullet holes riddle a ranch house, but there’s no sign of those engaged in the gunplay. Nor is there any sign that the mysterious resident of the ranch house fits the description of the bounty hunters’ quarry. There’s nothing he can do but go looking for the missing man. Enlisting the tracking skills of his old friend Spotted Dog – the Chiricahua Apache whose life he once saved – the pair follow four horses from the rancher’s house all the way to Desert Belle, a dusty town that holds grim memories for Kelly. They ride straight into a deadly game where $50,000, several lives, and the survival of the Gilded Lily Mine are at stake.
Coverage of cyber attacks has typically focused on the dangers posed by foreign governments, or on the high-visibility strikes of social “hacktivists” like Anonymous or LulzSec. Yet many incidents stem from the work of corrupt inside officials or real time Location system, often abusing their privileged access to networks or using low-tech methods like dumping data to personal USBs and selling them for financial gain.
Defence ministries and companies make particularly attractive targets. For such institutions, the security of confidential information is vital, and any cyber breach can have serious implications for defence plans or costly procurement projects.
In March 2010, Michael Mitchell, a former marketing executive for Kevlar body armour at DuPont, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for selling trade secrets to Kolon Industries, a South Korean competitor, in exchange for consultancy work. A U.S. jury went on in September 2012 to award DuPont damages in the amount of $919.9 million.
The temptation to blame outside actors, however, remains strong across all industries. China and Russia are favourite targets. In 2011, Renault was forced to withdraw allegations of Chinese involvement in a data theft that proved to be an attempt by the firm’s own computer protection officer to fraudulently create work for a friend’s cybersecurity consulting business.
More widely, governments are acting to boost their resilience to cyber attacks. On July 30, the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee unanimously passed a new draft cybersecurity bill, despite concerns it waters down a number of changes proposed by the industry and the White House. In India, similarly, the director general of Army Signals HQ called for a vision of cyber as the “fifth dimension of warfare”, amid new worries that the country will not be able to deliver the infrastructure and expertise pledged in its National Cyber Security Policy.
Too little, however, is being done to incorporate anti-corruption efforts into cybersecurity planning, especially in the sensitive area of national defence. This is a mistake. Ensuring strong anti-corruption standards – through clear ethical leadership, risk assessments, internal training and other such good practice – is a key part of securing confidential assets.
The success or failure of defence companies to integrate such measures into their everyday practice also informs whom exactly governments choose to do business with. After all, defence contracts involve the sharing of privileged designs and information. This requires a relationship of mutual trust – especially on the cybersecurity front – which can be greatly undermined if one or more sides cannot be sure of possible corruption in the ranks.
Balance, however, is needed. The traditional focus of cybersecurity is on the restriction and protection of data. Yet such measures must also be paired with opportunities for safe, legitimate exposure of information by whistle-blowers. Employees encountering evidence of corruption in a company with fair, transparent systems for handling whistle-blower complaints will not have to resort to the messy process of leaking incriminating data to “hacktivists” or to the press.
Real cybersecurity, then, means protecting insiders from the corrupt actions of institutions, as much as protecting institutions from corrupt insiders.
It is important to get this nuance right, and to act now. Unveiling plans for a new cyber partnership between the UK Ministry of Defence, intelligence agency GCHQ and companies such as BAE, BT and Lockheed Martin, British minister Philip Dunne described the current cyber environment as a “gunpowder moment” – a potential game-changer, which, like the invention of gunpowder, could have profound security ramifications for us all.
Only organisations free of corruption can best weather this moment of transformation, guarding against external hacker threats, while also empowering whistle-blowers to protect against internal misdeeds. Cyber networks can, like gunpowder, prove a volatile material – a powerful tool in the right hands, but prone to explode spectacularly in the wrong conditions. If defence and industry leaders are not proactive in dealing with insider ethical issues, corruption might just provide the fateful spark.
Read the full products at http://www.ecived.com/en/.
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
Monday, August 12, 2013
Capital's role in the economic crisis
Two stories illustrate central dynamics of our time – the climate of fear generated around migration and the rise in house prices ('Go home' campaign denounced by human rights groups, Buy-to-let fuels property boom, both 9 August).
The house price rise, especially in London, is caused partly by the international movement of money as the wealthy seek to capitalise on speculative investment. At the same time those with access to money can borrow more and invest in buy-to-let properties, to profit from those who must rent. So this system works to move capital to where it will make more and to divide those who have it from those who don't. Wealth accumulates in fewer hands and and its movement produces rapid, uneven developments.
Writ large, that is the story of our world, and the free flow of capital is followed inevitably by the flow of rtls, as people move from areas of forced decline to wherever there is a prospect of work. Employers benefit from cheaper labour but the migrants are blamed for displacing unskilled workers and competing for scarce resources in housing and health.
To reverse these processes requires economic planning and wealth taxes to put accumulated private capital back towards social use; in the UK the ￡4.5 trillion owned by the top 10% could pay off the national debt four times or finance re-skilling, infrastructure, green technology and much else. It also requires politicians and media to stop blaming the migrants, refugees and other victims of the system, and to look instead at how to rebuild our world so it is more use to all who have to live in it.
As Larry Elliott rightly says, the proliferation of zero-hours contracts represents an increase in the "reserve army of labour" in an attempt to reverse a long-term decline in profitability (Why stop at zero hours? Why not revive child labour, 5 August). But neither this nor the other responses he mentions, such as financialisation, can ultimately overcome the tendency for profit rates to fall.
This is an inherent feature of capitalist competition, resulting not from pressure on prices but from each capitalist's attempt to raise their individual profit rate by investing in more capital-intensive production processes. The overall capital, relative to total profit, goes up, and the profit rate goes down.
Although such things as attacks on wages can offset the basic tendency, sooner or later it results in crises such as the one in progress since 2008. Since the cause is too much capital, the only cure (within capitalism) is destruction of capital through bankruptcy of less-profitable enterprises. Palliatives such as increasing workers' purchasing power can help the system limp along for a while but only at the cost of preparing a bigger and worse crisis.
Said quarterback Andrew Luck: "He's a phenomenal football player. He's going to make plays. You do sort of say, 'All right, T.Y.' He's going to do something special when he's on the field. He has that factor to him."
It's been a long time, maybe forever, since the Colts have had anyone like Hilton. And to think, the Colts got Hilton in the third round with the 92nd pick. Twelve receivers went before him, in large part because a quadriceps injury kept him out of the Senior Bowl and the NFL Scouting Combine."That bothered me," Hilton said. "I've always played with a chip on my shoulder."
Indy has learned quickly, Hilton is much more than simply a burner. He's got hands. He's a superior route runner. And he's a student of the game, having spent the off-season studying what it is that has made Reggie Wayne so great all these years. Specifically, he spent the summer studying Wayne's footwork and his ability to come back to the football.
The same couldn't be said of the Colts in general, who looked awful their first time out. But again, Indoor Positioning System. How many times did the Colts go winless prior to ripping off another 12-win season? If they look this bad in the third game, then howl.
It's darned near impossible to offer sober analysis on a first preseason game, especially with so many starters either sitting or playing only two series. Keep in mind, Buffalo played many of its first-team players deep into the first half, using rookie quarterback E.J. Manuel the entire half.
The house price rise, especially in London, is caused partly by the international movement of money as the wealthy seek to capitalise on speculative investment. At the same time those with access to money can borrow more and invest in buy-to-let properties, to profit from those who must rent. So this system works to move capital to where it will make more and to divide those who have it from those who don't. Wealth accumulates in fewer hands and and its movement produces rapid, uneven developments.
Writ large, that is the story of our world, and the free flow of capital is followed inevitably by the flow of rtls, as people move from areas of forced decline to wherever there is a prospect of work. Employers benefit from cheaper labour but the migrants are blamed for displacing unskilled workers and competing for scarce resources in housing and health.
To reverse these processes requires economic planning and wealth taxes to put accumulated private capital back towards social use; in the UK the ￡4.5 trillion owned by the top 10% could pay off the national debt four times or finance re-skilling, infrastructure, green technology and much else. It also requires politicians and media to stop blaming the migrants, refugees and other victims of the system, and to look instead at how to rebuild our world so it is more use to all who have to live in it.
As Larry Elliott rightly says, the proliferation of zero-hours contracts represents an increase in the "reserve army of labour" in an attempt to reverse a long-term decline in profitability (Why stop at zero hours? Why not revive child labour, 5 August). But neither this nor the other responses he mentions, such as financialisation, can ultimately overcome the tendency for profit rates to fall.
This is an inherent feature of capitalist competition, resulting not from pressure on prices but from each capitalist's attempt to raise their individual profit rate by investing in more capital-intensive production processes. The overall capital, relative to total profit, goes up, and the profit rate goes down.
Although such things as attacks on wages can offset the basic tendency, sooner or later it results in crises such as the one in progress since 2008. Since the cause is too much capital, the only cure (within capitalism) is destruction of capital through bankruptcy of less-profitable enterprises. Palliatives such as increasing workers' purchasing power can help the system limp along for a while but only at the cost of preparing a bigger and worse crisis.
Said quarterback Andrew Luck: "He's a phenomenal football player. He's going to make plays. You do sort of say, 'All right, T.Y.' He's going to do something special when he's on the field. He has that factor to him."
It's been a long time, maybe forever, since the Colts have had anyone like Hilton. And to think, the Colts got Hilton in the third round with the 92nd pick. Twelve receivers went before him, in large part because a quadriceps injury kept him out of the Senior Bowl and the NFL Scouting Combine."That bothered me," Hilton said. "I've always played with a chip on my shoulder."
Indy has learned quickly, Hilton is much more than simply a burner. He's got hands. He's a superior route runner. And he's a student of the game, having spent the off-season studying what it is that has made Reggie Wayne so great all these years. Specifically, he spent the summer studying Wayne's footwork and his ability to come back to the football.
The same couldn't be said of the Colts in general, who looked awful their first time out. But again, Indoor Positioning System. How many times did the Colts go winless prior to ripping off another 12-win season? If they look this bad in the third game, then howl.
It's darned near impossible to offer sober analysis on a first preseason game, especially with so many starters either sitting or playing only two series. Keep in mind, Buffalo played many of its first-team players deep into the first half, using rookie quarterback E.J. Manuel the entire half.
With a Little Bashing
I’m not a sedentary person. In my 30s and 40s, I was a runner, and for decades, I played singles tennis three or more times a week. After a back injury in my late 30s, I took up swimming and cycling.
Now, in my 70s and with artificial knees, I walk or cycle and swim laps daily, all of which has kept me aerobically fit, free of pain, reasonably trim and energetic. So in combing recently through the professional literature on exercise and bone health, I was quite disappointed to learn that neither swimming nor cycling is especially good for my bones — at least, not the ones most susceptible to fracture. Swimming, in fact, might compromise the strength of those bones because it lacks the tug of Hands free access.
That’s what researchers have found when they measured bone mineral density in young athletes who swim or cycle, and even in some who run. There are two reasons for this. One is the continuous nature of these activities. Bones, it seems, don’t like constant pressure. They respond better to exercise that involves forceful muscle contractions, occurring in starts and stops and with some variety — as happens, for example, when playing tennis or training with weights.
To maintain strength, bones also need the stress of gravity, which is lacking in cycling and swimming and not as powerful when walking as it is when running. Being suspended in water is like floating in space for a short time: once they leave Earth, astronauts lose bone.
But before I was too discouraged (and before you abandon exercises like mine and retreat to your recliner), I did some more research. Regular walks can indeed offer some protection against hip fractures among women (and presumably, men) of a certain age, I found. In the famous Nurses’ Health Study, which has followed tens of thousands of postmenopausal women for decades, those who walked for at least four hours a week were 40 percent less likely to suffer hip fractures than those who walked less.
Those who walked for at least eight hours a week (or did the equivalent amount of another activity) were as unlikely to suffer hip fractures as women on hormone replacement therapy, long known to protect bones. As a bonus, walking briskly for exercise also lowered the women’s risk of developing heart disease, diabetes and stroke.
Activities like walking may not be perfect bone-builders, but they are far better than doing nothing. “As a bone doctor, I’ll take anything,” said Dr. Vonda Wright, an orthopedic surgeon at the Center for Sports Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. Her studies of 3,000 athletic seniors, whom she described as “normal people,” have shown that even in their 70s and 80s, they are able to maintain bone densities higher than the general population’s.
Still, she emphasized the need to “bash our bones” to make and keep them strong. This can be done, she said, through “dynamic impact” — by hopping or jumping rope 100 times a day, for example — or through “positive stress” by walking rapidly uphill or upstairs, or even standing on the pedals while cycling uphill. Although many bone experts recommend weight-training on resistance machines like those found in gyms, Dr. Wright realizes that most older adults won’t or can’t join a gym. Or, like me, they simply don’t like machines and won’t use them regularly.
Rather, she recommends home-based exercises that more closely mimic how the body functions in the real time Location system. “The house or office can be as effective as a gym,” Dr. Wright said.
“We never prescribe machines anymore,” she said. “Pushing leg presses is so unnatural. It’s not how the body uses squats. We train the body functionally, using the body’s own weight and free weights for resistance instead of machines.”
Without any equipment, you can strengthen your body’s core and multiple muscle groups by doing what trainers call a prisoner squat. Stand straight with feet shoulder-width apart, knees and toes pointed forward, hands behind your head and elbows pointed outward. Sink down, keeping your weight on your heels as if you were about to sit in a chair. Rise up with your back straight and repeat, working up to two sets of about 10 squats each. For a slightly greater challenge, the same exercise can be done against a wall using an exercise ball between you and the wall. You can use hand weights, or even hold cans of food, to strengthen the upper body at the same time.
Dr. Wright also encourages people to use the stairs at home and at work. Walking up and down 100 steps five times at a fast pace provides both an aerobic workout and one that strengthens bones. Walking rapidly uphill is another option. If jumping rope has some appeal, Dr. Wright suggested using a cordless digital jump rope to reduce the risk of tripping. It also records the number of jumps with each turn of the wrists.
If you have access to chest-high water in a pool, lake or seaside, you can build muscle mass and strengthen bones by walking forward and backward and side-to-side in the water, she said. This can strengthen the quads, buttocks and core, providing bone stimulation for the spine and hips and shock absorption for the knees.
And don’t forget dancing. “The waltz or swing dance is one of the most popular things I prescribe,” Dr. Wright said.
Of course, if your back can handle it, there are many ordinary tasks that can strengthen bones, among them carrying heavy items or small children for short distances. In the warmer months, I do a lot of outdoor tasks — pushing a lawn mower, raking, sawing, digging and the like — that involve intermittent bone-building stress.
Bone density exams typically involve only the spine, hips and forearms, the areas most susceptible to compression or fragility fractures. But other bones, like those in the thigh, upper arm and shoulder, can also break under minimal stress if they are weak, so activities that strengthen them — like walking, cycling and swimming — can indeed be helpful. While some doctors think measures of the internal structure of bones may more accurately indicate strength than traditional bone density tests, several experts told me that there is as yet no standard by which to judge bone health based on structure.
Now, in my 70s and with artificial knees, I walk or cycle and swim laps daily, all of which has kept me aerobically fit, free of pain, reasonably trim and energetic. So in combing recently through the professional literature on exercise and bone health, I was quite disappointed to learn that neither swimming nor cycling is especially good for my bones — at least, not the ones most susceptible to fracture. Swimming, in fact, might compromise the strength of those bones because it lacks the tug of Hands free access.
That’s what researchers have found when they measured bone mineral density in young athletes who swim or cycle, and even in some who run. There are two reasons for this. One is the continuous nature of these activities. Bones, it seems, don’t like constant pressure. They respond better to exercise that involves forceful muscle contractions, occurring in starts and stops and with some variety — as happens, for example, when playing tennis or training with weights.
To maintain strength, bones also need the stress of gravity, which is lacking in cycling and swimming and not as powerful when walking as it is when running. Being suspended in water is like floating in space for a short time: once they leave Earth, astronauts lose bone.
But before I was too discouraged (and before you abandon exercises like mine and retreat to your recliner), I did some more research. Regular walks can indeed offer some protection against hip fractures among women (and presumably, men) of a certain age, I found. In the famous Nurses’ Health Study, which has followed tens of thousands of postmenopausal women for decades, those who walked for at least four hours a week were 40 percent less likely to suffer hip fractures than those who walked less.
Those who walked for at least eight hours a week (or did the equivalent amount of another activity) were as unlikely to suffer hip fractures as women on hormone replacement therapy, long known to protect bones. As a bonus, walking briskly for exercise also lowered the women’s risk of developing heart disease, diabetes and stroke.
Activities like walking may not be perfect bone-builders, but they are far better than doing nothing. “As a bone doctor, I’ll take anything,” said Dr. Vonda Wright, an orthopedic surgeon at the Center for Sports Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. Her studies of 3,000 athletic seniors, whom she described as “normal people,” have shown that even in their 70s and 80s, they are able to maintain bone densities higher than the general population’s.
Still, she emphasized the need to “bash our bones” to make and keep them strong. This can be done, she said, through “dynamic impact” — by hopping or jumping rope 100 times a day, for example — or through “positive stress” by walking rapidly uphill or upstairs, or even standing on the pedals while cycling uphill. Although many bone experts recommend weight-training on resistance machines like those found in gyms, Dr. Wright realizes that most older adults won’t or can’t join a gym. Or, like me, they simply don’t like machines and won’t use them regularly.
Rather, she recommends home-based exercises that more closely mimic how the body functions in the real time Location system. “The house or office can be as effective as a gym,” Dr. Wright said.
“We never prescribe machines anymore,” she said. “Pushing leg presses is so unnatural. It’s not how the body uses squats. We train the body functionally, using the body’s own weight and free weights for resistance instead of machines.”
Without any equipment, you can strengthen your body’s core and multiple muscle groups by doing what trainers call a prisoner squat. Stand straight with feet shoulder-width apart, knees and toes pointed forward, hands behind your head and elbows pointed outward. Sink down, keeping your weight on your heels as if you were about to sit in a chair. Rise up with your back straight and repeat, working up to two sets of about 10 squats each. For a slightly greater challenge, the same exercise can be done against a wall using an exercise ball between you and the wall. You can use hand weights, or even hold cans of food, to strengthen the upper body at the same time.
Dr. Wright also encourages people to use the stairs at home and at work. Walking up and down 100 steps five times at a fast pace provides both an aerobic workout and one that strengthens bones. Walking rapidly uphill is another option. If jumping rope has some appeal, Dr. Wright suggested using a cordless digital jump rope to reduce the risk of tripping. It also records the number of jumps with each turn of the wrists.
If you have access to chest-high water in a pool, lake or seaside, you can build muscle mass and strengthen bones by walking forward and backward and side-to-side in the water, she said. This can strengthen the quads, buttocks and core, providing bone stimulation for the spine and hips and shock absorption for the knees.
And don’t forget dancing. “The waltz or swing dance is one of the most popular things I prescribe,” Dr. Wright said.
Of course, if your back can handle it, there are many ordinary tasks that can strengthen bones, among them carrying heavy items or small children for short distances. In the warmer months, I do a lot of outdoor tasks — pushing a lawn mower, raking, sawing, digging and the like — that involve intermittent bone-building stress.
Bone density exams typically involve only the spine, hips and forearms, the areas most susceptible to compression or fragility fractures. But other bones, like those in the thigh, upper arm and shoulder, can also break under minimal stress if they are weak, so activities that strengthen them — like walking, cycling and swimming — can indeed be helpful. While some doctors think measures of the internal structure of bones may more accurately indicate strength than traditional bone density tests, several experts told me that there is as yet no standard by which to judge bone health based on structure.
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
Okanagan College Esthetics program scores
A global leader in professional skin care has partnered with Okanagan College to offer students in the new and enhanced Esthetics and Nail Technology program a range of innovative training and professional development opportunities starting this September.
The Okanagan College Spa Training Centre is now officially designated as a Dermalogica Partnership School. This prestigious association connects students with the professional Dermalogica skin-health product line developed by the International Dermal Institute.
Dermalogica is renowned in the esthetics industry for the high quality of its products and its emphasis on providing excellence in education through training and awards initiatives. Students at Dermalogica Partnership Schools around the world benefit by gaining business knowledge and advanced skin-care skills from one of the most respected names in the professional skin consultation and treatment field.
Learning initiatives for students in the Esthetics and Nail Technology program now include introductions to products and therapies unique to Dermalogica, as well as business-focused learning that indoor Tracking, event planning, and advanced retailing. After graduation, the connection with Dermalogica continues as students have access to further post-graduate professional development opportunities.
This fall, students in Okanagan College’s Esthetics and Nail Technology program can enjoy a new and enhanced curriculum that gives them the full range of skills needed for careers in the growing field of esthetics. Students are trained in a wide variety of spa treatments, ranging from manicures and pedicures to facials, make-up application, and relaxation massage.
The College blends theory and practical application, using field trips, guest speakers, practicum, and a visit to a spa tradeshow where students can learn and make career connections.
Esthetics and Nail Technology graduates have an extremely high job placement rate within a month of graduation, with students easily finding rewarding work in many different settings such as day spas, destination spas, cruise ships and in their own entrepreneurial ventures.
I reflected a little on my response to his pain and realized that "tough love" grandparenting doesn't always work and leaves you feeling lousy. Very similar to a work-related performance evaluation, I realized I required more training in this field.
I decided to contact a couple of experts on how to be more supportive to sensitive kids. Although some of this is "Love 101" common-sense stuff, it's a good review for grandparents — for me, in particular. These experts gave me some insight in supporting kids who have some self-esteem issues as well.
Heck, when I was 10, I didn't know what self-esteem was. Are kids today oversensitive and do they have more issues to deal with? I don't know, but I suspect they might.I feel kids today lose out on that experience of life that most of us baby boomers had. Going outside and Indoor Positioning System. Riding our bikes, figuring things out on our own, making mistakes, doing things with our hands. Many of today's kids can't venture outside unsupervised like we did — it's a different world than the one we grew up in.
We could be happy, innocent kids unaware of many of the bad things going on in the world, but I don't know if that is the case for children today. They get to witness replays of disasters time after time, and for my grandchildren our country has been at war their entire lives. There is so much of a "dark side" world they see daily.
The first expert I reached out to was Dr. Steve Bingner, a licensed psychologist with the Center for Effective Living, here in Rochester. Dr. Bingner indicated that we need to be very good listeners to our grandkids. We should try to determine how they are feeling, to see where they are at and not to just try to quickly fix everything for them.Bingner said we need to empathize with our grandchildren and validate their emotions. I should have said, "I have been stung before and it hurts a great deal. Let's see if I can put something on it to make it feel better."
We should consider that any concern or emotion is an opportunity for intimacy and to teach. Dr. Bingner said that maybe a mood or outburst might be a specific problem that is an obstacle to them. Heck, maybe they are just having trouble with their math homework.
My opinion is that involving kids in real jobs and activities that offer a little bit of a challenge is a good thing. This is something I try to do by getting the grandkids to help water our flowers, wash vehicles, sweep the garage and even do some painting. If they can help you with something, it gives you the opportunity to tell them how valuable they have been.
Dr. Else also mentioned that kids need to feel part of something. They need to know they are an important part of the family. If we can also connect them in positive ways to different pieces of society, such as school, activities, church, they will feel they belong.
We all see the things that make us feel bad. We've witnessed grandparents or parents screaming at their kids in sporting events. Ridiculing their performance. Maybe they are 10 and maybe they are 17, it still hurts them a great deal. I witnessed this on many occasions as a high school basketball official.
Read the full products at http://www.ecived.com/en/.
The Okanagan College Spa Training Centre is now officially designated as a Dermalogica Partnership School. This prestigious association connects students with the professional Dermalogica skin-health product line developed by the International Dermal Institute.
Dermalogica is renowned in the esthetics industry for the high quality of its products and its emphasis on providing excellence in education through training and awards initiatives. Students at Dermalogica Partnership Schools around the world benefit by gaining business knowledge and advanced skin-care skills from one of the most respected names in the professional skin consultation and treatment field.
Learning initiatives for students in the Esthetics and Nail Technology program now include introductions to products and therapies unique to Dermalogica, as well as business-focused learning that indoor Tracking, event planning, and advanced retailing. After graduation, the connection with Dermalogica continues as students have access to further post-graduate professional development opportunities.
This fall, students in Okanagan College’s Esthetics and Nail Technology program can enjoy a new and enhanced curriculum that gives them the full range of skills needed for careers in the growing field of esthetics. Students are trained in a wide variety of spa treatments, ranging from manicures and pedicures to facials, make-up application, and relaxation massage.
The College blends theory and practical application, using field trips, guest speakers, practicum, and a visit to a spa tradeshow where students can learn and make career connections.
Esthetics and Nail Technology graduates have an extremely high job placement rate within a month of graduation, with students easily finding rewarding work in many different settings such as day spas, destination spas, cruise ships and in their own entrepreneurial ventures.
I reflected a little on my response to his pain and realized that "tough love" grandparenting doesn't always work and leaves you feeling lousy. Very similar to a work-related performance evaluation, I realized I required more training in this field.
I decided to contact a couple of experts on how to be more supportive to sensitive kids. Although some of this is "Love 101" common-sense stuff, it's a good review for grandparents — for me, in particular. These experts gave me some insight in supporting kids who have some self-esteem issues as well.
Heck, when I was 10, I didn't know what self-esteem was. Are kids today oversensitive and do they have more issues to deal with? I don't know, but I suspect they might.I feel kids today lose out on that experience of life that most of us baby boomers had. Going outside and Indoor Positioning System. Riding our bikes, figuring things out on our own, making mistakes, doing things with our hands. Many of today's kids can't venture outside unsupervised like we did — it's a different world than the one we grew up in.
We could be happy, innocent kids unaware of many of the bad things going on in the world, but I don't know if that is the case for children today. They get to witness replays of disasters time after time, and for my grandchildren our country has been at war their entire lives. There is so much of a "dark side" world they see daily.
The first expert I reached out to was Dr. Steve Bingner, a licensed psychologist with the Center for Effective Living, here in Rochester. Dr. Bingner indicated that we need to be very good listeners to our grandkids. We should try to determine how they are feeling, to see where they are at and not to just try to quickly fix everything for them.Bingner said we need to empathize with our grandchildren and validate their emotions. I should have said, "I have been stung before and it hurts a great deal. Let's see if I can put something on it to make it feel better."
We should consider that any concern or emotion is an opportunity for intimacy and to teach. Dr. Bingner said that maybe a mood or outburst might be a specific problem that is an obstacle to them. Heck, maybe they are just having trouble with their math homework.
My opinion is that involving kids in real jobs and activities that offer a little bit of a challenge is a good thing. This is something I try to do by getting the grandkids to help water our flowers, wash vehicles, sweep the garage and even do some painting. If they can help you with something, it gives you the opportunity to tell them how valuable they have been.
Dr. Else also mentioned that kids need to feel part of something. They need to know they are an important part of the family. If we can also connect them in positive ways to different pieces of society, such as school, activities, church, they will feel they belong.
We all see the things that make us feel bad. We've witnessed grandparents or parents screaming at their kids in sporting events. Ridiculing their performance. Maybe they are 10 and maybe they are 17, it still hurts them a great deal. I witnessed this on many occasions as a high school basketball official.
Read the full products at http://www.ecived.com/en/.
2013 Ford Escape
“There isn’t much this doesn’t have to offer,” joked Lee Ward, a sales rep at Friendly Ford in Geneva, referencing the five-passenger SUV.From an EcoBoost engine with turbochargers and direct-injection to a hands-free lift gate with video-game-inspired motion-sensing technology, the Escape allows users to connect, move and venture without a worry.
A best-in-class, fuel-nursing 33 mpg on the highway serves as a strong selling point for the 1.6L EcoBoost engine, which features a turbocharger on the inline four-cylinder setup. The engine features variable camshaft timing to improve the economy, boasting 178 hp while allowing plenty of low-end torque for passing.
A second engine option is the 2.0L EcoBoost, featuring 30 mpg highway and 240 hp. The engine combination allows 3,500 pounds of towing capacity. The third engine, coming standard, is the Duratec inline four-cylinder with 168 hp. Each comes mated to the six-speed SelectShift Automatic, allowing the driver to select a gear like a manual, or run with the ease of an automatic.
“I’m pretty impressed with the Hands free access,” Ward said. “This can do more than you might expect it to.”The ease of access is a major selling point of the vehicle. A simple toe-wave has the rear hatch springing open. A class exclusive, a gentle kicking motion under the bumper with the Intelligent Access key fob in a pocket or purse combine to trigger the lift gate to open; replicating the action will make it close.
The height can be reprogrammed to fit inside tighter garages, so the lift gate doesn’t swing to its full height and avoids contact with roofs and rafters.The lift gate exposes a 67.8-cubic-foot storage area; the seats split in 60/40 fashion and form a flat path all the way to the backs of the front seats with the adjustable cargo load floor in place.
“You can have a flat shot all the way to the front and maximize your length or drop the floor to a lower spot,” Ward said.The tech-savvy aren’t left wanting, either. Ford SYNC can pair with a cell phone, transferring all contacts to support voice-activated calling. The technology can also play MP3s, USBs or iPods. Anything with Bluetooth can stream to the system, including popular audio sources such as Pandora, iHeartRadio.
The controls are mounted on the steering wheel, and can be activated by simply pressing a button and asking Ford SYNC to do what you wish: “Call Mom” or “Play playlist: Road Trip.”Additional activated services include turn-by-turn navigation.
“Just say the word, SYNC will get it done,” Ward said. “SYNC can also read incoming text messages to you.”The huge MyFord Touch LCD display makes controlling the devices easy and also places an LCD screen in the gauge cluster. The five-way controls on the steering wheel mirror the display panel and allow access to the media hub and dual USB ports. Voice commands also bring up weather reports and can find destinations or points of interest without a physical address. Looking into blind spots is a snap with the in-dash display, with a meter to help judge rear-backing maneuvers.
The Escape can even parallel park itself; a press of a button engages active park assist, which alerts the driver when an appropriate opening is found. Then, the driver removes his or her hands from the wheel, and the vehicle will park itself, giving commands to the driver to shift gears and apply the brake and accelerator.
The Escape also features intelligent four-wheel drive, available to determine road conditions and adapt 20-times faster than the blink of an eye. Ford advertises the on-demand system as its most advanced intelligent four-wheel drive system ever.“If you can’t find something you like about Escape, take it out and look a second time. There’s so much more to go over. I’m still learning everything about rtls. Ford did a really good job getting it together on this one,” Ward said, listing off additional available items such as Curve Control, Roll-Stability Control, and the ability to cue the MyKey functionality to block calls and texts while driving.
The dozens of innovations make the Escape a multi-segment offering with multi-level appeal. The body even features 10 pounds of recycled clothing in the sound-dampening system, and the post-consumer and post-industrial polyester fabric carpeting includes 25 recycled 20-ounce plastic bottles per vehicle. More than 85 percent of the vehicle is recyclable after it’s retired from service.
Some herald it as a debt-free degree, but that largely depends on how you define “debt.” Students won't have a fixed sum hanging over their head, gathering interest that’s being skimmed off by a for-profit lender or big bank—but they will be making regular payments of a (small) chunk of their income for a (rather long) time. Though the final details will be hammered out in the pilot program, the bill suggests that graduates of four-year programs pay 3 percent of their income—and grads of two-year schools pay 1.5 percent—for 24 years. The goals are to eliminate the upfront cost of college and to allow students to take jobs that pay less but have more social benefit without worrying about making monthly debt payments. Students who make a lot of money will pay a larger amount into the fund, and each generation will fund schools for the generation after them—hence the name, Pay It Forward.
It's noteworthy that the proposal came from students themselves. In the fall of 2012, Barbara Dudley, the founder of the Oregon Working Families Party, taught a capstone class at Portland State University on student debt with professor Mary King. The Pay It Forward plan had been considered elsewhere—most recently in Washington state—and the students considered it as along with other proposals for state and national action to solve the student debt crisis. “We fell in love with it,” says Kevin Rackham, who was a junior at Portland State when he took Dudley and King's course.
The students were deeply involved in every step of shaping the bill, says Sami Alloy, a WFP campaign manager. “They decided that they thought this was a just way to create a shared responsibility model that would remove that initial financial and psychological barrier.”
The students presented their proposal (the full text of which is available on the Oregon WFP's website) to a panel of legislators and secured a champion in Portland Democrat Rep. Michael Dembrow, chair of the Oregon House higher education committee, who introduced the bill. The Working Families Party made the bill a legislative priority, and the students worked with Alloy and Dudley to lobby for the bill. They were backed by a coalition that included the Oregon Student Association, Portland State University Association of University Professors, Jubilee USA, the United Food and Commercial Workers union and Teamsters Local 206.
“With the hard work of the students and the political power we've built as the WFP, we were able to build consensus in the legislature, but I don't think that anybody expected it to move this fast or to be so unanimous,” Alloy says. “The reason this has struck such a chord is that people are hungry for a solution to the student debt crisis.”
A best-in-class, fuel-nursing 33 mpg on the highway serves as a strong selling point for the 1.6L EcoBoost engine, which features a turbocharger on the inline four-cylinder setup. The engine features variable camshaft timing to improve the economy, boasting 178 hp while allowing plenty of low-end torque for passing.
A second engine option is the 2.0L EcoBoost, featuring 30 mpg highway and 240 hp. The engine combination allows 3,500 pounds of towing capacity. The third engine, coming standard, is the Duratec inline four-cylinder with 168 hp. Each comes mated to the six-speed SelectShift Automatic, allowing the driver to select a gear like a manual, or run with the ease of an automatic.
“I’m pretty impressed with the Hands free access,” Ward said. “This can do more than you might expect it to.”The ease of access is a major selling point of the vehicle. A simple toe-wave has the rear hatch springing open. A class exclusive, a gentle kicking motion under the bumper with the Intelligent Access key fob in a pocket or purse combine to trigger the lift gate to open; replicating the action will make it close.
The height can be reprogrammed to fit inside tighter garages, so the lift gate doesn’t swing to its full height and avoids contact with roofs and rafters.The lift gate exposes a 67.8-cubic-foot storage area; the seats split in 60/40 fashion and form a flat path all the way to the backs of the front seats with the adjustable cargo load floor in place.
“You can have a flat shot all the way to the front and maximize your length or drop the floor to a lower spot,” Ward said.The tech-savvy aren’t left wanting, either. Ford SYNC can pair with a cell phone, transferring all contacts to support voice-activated calling. The technology can also play MP3s, USBs or iPods. Anything with Bluetooth can stream to the system, including popular audio sources such as Pandora, iHeartRadio.
The controls are mounted on the steering wheel, and can be activated by simply pressing a button and asking Ford SYNC to do what you wish: “Call Mom” or “Play playlist: Road Trip.”Additional activated services include turn-by-turn navigation.
“Just say the word, SYNC will get it done,” Ward said. “SYNC can also read incoming text messages to you.”The huge MyFord Touch LCD display makes controlling the devices easy and also places an LCD screen in the gauge cluster. The five-way controls on the steering wheel mirror the display panel and allow access to the media hub and dual USB ports. Voice commands also bring up weather reports and can find destinations or points of interest without a physical address. Looking into blind spots is a snap with the in-dash display, with a meter to help judge rear-backing maneuvers.
The Escape can even parallel park itself; a press of a button engages active park assist, which alerts the driver when an appropriate opening is found. Then, the driver removes his or her hands from the wheel, and the vehicle will park itself, giving commands to the driver to shift gears and apply the brake and accelerator.
The Escape also features intelligent four-wheel drive, available to determine road conditions and adapt 20-times faster than the blink of an eye. Ford advertises the on-demand system as its most advanced intelligent four-wheel drive system ever.“If you can’t find something you like about Escape, take it out and look a second time. There’s so much more to go over. I’m still learning everything about rtls. Ford did a really good job getting it together on this one,” Ward said, listing off additional available items such as Curve Control, Roll-Stability Control, and the ability to cue the MyKey functionality to block calls and texts while driving.
The dozens of innovations make the Escape a multi-segment offering with multi-level appeal. The body even features 10 pounds of recycled clothing in the sound-dampening system, and the post-consumer and post-industrial polyester fabric carpeting includes 25 recycled 20-ounce plastic bottles per vehicle. More than 85 percent of the vehicle is recyclable after it’s retired from service.
Some herald it as a debt-free degree, but that largely depends on how you define “debt.” Students won't have a fixed sum hanging over their head, gathering interest that’s being skimmed off by a for-profit lender or big bank—but they will be making regular payments of a (small) chunk of their income for a (rather long) time. Though the final details will be hammered out in the pilot program, the bill suggests that graduates of four-year programs pay 3 percent of their income—and grads of two-year schools pay 1.5 percent—for 24 years. The goals are to eliminate the upfront cost of college and to allow students to take jobs that pay less but have more social benefit without worrying about making monthly debt payments. Students who make a lot of money will pay a larger amount into the fund, and each generation will fund schools for the generation after them—hence the name, Pay It Forward.
It's noteworthy that the proposal came from students themselves. In the fall of 2012, Barbara Dudley, the founder of the Oregon Working Families Party, taught a capstone class at Portland State University on student debt with professor Mary King. The Pay It Forward plan had been considered elsewhere—most recently in Washington state—and the students considered it as along with other proposals for state and national action to solve the student debt crisis. “We fell in love with it,” says Kevin Rackham, who was a junior at Portland State when he took Dudley and King's course.
The students were deeply involved in every step of shaping the bill, says Sami Alloy, a WFP campaign manager. “They decided that they thought this was a just way to create a shared responsibility model that would remove that initial financial and psychological barrier.”
The students presented their proposal (the full text of which is available on the Oregon WFP's website) to a panel of legislators and secured a champion in Portland Democrat Rep. Michael Dembrow, chair of the Oregon House higher education committee, who introduced the bill. The Working Families Party made the bill a legislative priority, and the students worked with Alloy and Dudley to lobby for the bill. They were backed by a coalition that included the Oregon Student Association, Portland State University Association of University Professors, Jubilee USA, the United Food and Commercial Workers union and Teamsters Local 206.
“With the hard work of the students and the political power we've built as the WFP, we were able to build consensus in the legislature, but I don't think that anybody expected it to move this fast or to be so unanimous,” Alloy says. “The reason this has struck such a chord is that people are hungry for a solution to the student debt crisis.”
Monday, August 5, 2013
Tictail’s trick for easy e-commerce
As I cosily swap mobile numbers with 27-year-old Swede Carl Waldekranz, founder of Tictail, the new e-commerce tool for shops that is sweeping European high streets, I have a strong sense that I am sitting with the next Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak or Mark Zuckerberg, all internet entrepreneurs who started young and took the world by storm. In two or three years’ time, the boyish Waldekranz could join their ranks as another global icon – and one who will no longer be taking my calls. He certainly seems to be on the brink of something big.
Tictail launched only a year ago – although after long gestation around Waldekranz’s kitchen table in Stockholm – but already it has attracted headlines, backing from noted venture capitalists, and even investment from key personnel at Skype and Spotify. These two major-league web operators see big potential in Tictail’s offer of an internet platform for shopkeepers who want to create an online store to complement their Indoor Positioning System.
“While I was working in an advertising agency in Sweden,” the engaging Waldekranz explains, “I was very drawn to e-commerce. It is the most exciting area, where the message we create and the buying done by consumers converge. Elsewhere, people see the advertising and then, later, go into the shop. In e-commerce it is all one.”
So far, so good, but then he spotted one big obstacle. “Many retailers, particularly smaller ones with indie brands and boutiques, who could benefit from e-commerce, can only do it by spending a lot of money that they can’t afford on constant technical support or having their own IT section.”
Which is where no-cost, no-frills Tictail steps in. “Back in January,” Waldekranz recalls, “we received an email from a guitar shop in Dublin. It had been in the hands of the same family for 150 years but e-commerce was driving it out of business. They told us, 'We thought that this Christmas would be our last, and that going online was beyond our means and expertise, but within weeks of using Tictail to sell online we are doing so well that we are going to be here for another 150 years.’”
It sounds like a line from a television advertisement – especially to this default technophobe. Doesn’t Tictail require some aptitude for computers, or at the very least access to a willing teenage helper? Waldekranz laughs. “You sound like my mother. She is a brilliant artist but not great with technology and so she hasn’t been able to sell the ceramics she makes online. I told her that is absurd.” And he immediately opens up on his ever-present laptop the “By Mutti” website to display ceramicist Eva Gernandt’s distinctive porcelain designs, plus those handy boxes where you can click to buy one.
“It became our benchmark when we were planning Tictail,” Waldekranz says with one of those toothy smiles that stretches across his face. “If my mother couldn’t set it up and operate it on her own, then we hadn’t got it right.”
And since she clearly can and is profiting by it, this must count as a case of mission accomplished. Which brings us neatly to Tictail’s mission statement. It wants not only to be the world’s most used e-commerce platform, but also its most loved. E-commerce and the Hands free access of shops can suddenly be friends, not foes, and Britain’s stand-alone high-street retailers can more easily get a share of the UK’s ￡78 billion online sales market.
So if Waldekranz’s mother was instinctively hostile to using the internet to promote her business, I can’t help wondering, where does her son get his can-do attitude from? “Oh, my dad. He was always buying the latest bit of technology, even though he couldn’t work them.” And, he adds, then there was also what sounds like a very different approach to technology in the classrooms of Sweden.
“I’m not a digital native,” says Waldekranz, “like children in Swedish schools today. I only got my first computer when I was 11. But there is also a spirit in Sweden that we know we are a small country of nine million people, and that anything we develop can never be sustained if the only market we envisage is Sweden. We have to think global from day one. That mindset is part of our culture.” As evidenced by the success of Skype and Spotify, both now worldwide brands with their roots in Sweden.
Waldekranz is the public face of Tictail but is always careful to stress he is one of four founders, anxious perhaps to avoid future disputes such as those that engulfed Zuckerberg and his early Facebook collaborators. “In Sweden,” he says, “we prefer flat hierarchies.”
So I can see how Tictail could benefit smaller, independent high-street retailers and sole traders in all sorts of other fields – like Waldekranz’s mother – but since this is a business not a charity, how does he make any money?
“Well, businesses getting started on Tictail is good,” he says, “but it is not enough if they are going to succeed. The important question then is what happens next? How do you get traffic to your website? How do you handle your first sales? How often do you keep refreshing your site? How do you use social media to encourage people to take a look at what you are offering? How do you seek feedback? And that is where we offer Tictail feeds. These applications help you tackle all these issues.” And for these there is a charge.
The “feed” is essentially a stream of messages that acts as an automated adviser, prompting and occasionally cajoling shop owners not to rest on their laurels. The idea is both to offer as good a service online as off, and to build loyalty and repeat custom, using social media features such as newsletters and alerts about new products. New plans include allowing users to add extensions, such as the ability to hand out discount codes to their store.
So Tictail is definitely a business, with a bottom line, but what gives Waldekranz that added edge of persuasion is his vocal attachment not just to being profitable but also to the democratic ideals of the world wide web. So he compares the rise of Tictail in relation to the major retailers as akin to that of the blog in recent years. “It wasn’t that long ago that the big media outlets controlled most of the written content on the web, but now that has changed. Anyone can write a blog and go mainstream. It can be the same with e-commerce. Right now the big giants are controlling it, but my belief is that we can now offer a way for small, independent retailers on the high street to take them on. It is a major shift.”
Tictail launched only a year ago – although after long gestation around Waldekranz’s kitchen table in Stockholm – but already it has attracted headlines, backing from noted venture capitalists, and even investment from key personnel at Skype and Spotify. These two major-league web operators see big potential in Tictail’s offer of an internet platform for shopkeepers who want to create an online store to complement their Indoor Positioning System.
“While I was working in an advertising agency in Sweden,” the engaging Waldekranz explains, “I was very drawn to e-commerce. It is the most exciting area, where the message we create and the buying done by consumers converge. Elsewhere, people see the advertising and then, later, go into the shop. In e-commerce it is all one.”
So far, so good, but then he spotted one big obstacle. “Many retailers, particularly smaller ones with indie brands and boutiques, who could benefit from e-commerce, can only do it by spending a lot of money that they can’t afford on constant technical support or having their own IT section.”
Which is where no-cost, no-frills Tictail steps in. “Back in January,” Waldekranz recalls, “we received an email from a guitar shop in Dublin. It had been in the hands of the same family for 150 years but e-commerce was driving it out of business. They told us, 'We thought that this Christmas would be our last, and that going online was beyond our means and expertise, but within weeks of using Tictail to sell online we are doing so well that we are going to be here for another 150 years.’”
It sounds like a line from a television advertisement – especially to this default technophobe. Doesn’t Tictail require some aptitude for computers, or at the very least access to a willing teenage helper? Waldekranz laughs. “You sound like my mother. She is a brilliant artist but not great with technology and so she hasn’t been able to sell the ceramics she makes online. I told her that is absurd.” And he immediately opens up on his ever-present laptop the “By Mutti” website to display ceramicist Eva Gernandt’s distinctive porcelain designs, plus those handy boxes where you can click to buy one.
“It became our benchmark when we were planning Tictail,” Waldekranz says with one of those toothy smiles that stretches across his face. “If my mother couldn’t set it up and operate it on her own, then we hadn’t got it right.”
And since she clearly can and is profiting by it, this must count as a case of mission accomplished. Which brings us neatly to Tictail’s mission statement. It wants not only to be the world’s most used e-commerce platform, but also its most loved. E-commerce and the Hands free access of shops can suddenly be friends, not foes, and Britain’s stand-alone high-street retailers can more easily get a share of the UK’s ￡78 billion online sales market.
So if Waldekranz’s mother was instinctively hostile to using the internet to promote her business, I can’t help wondering, where does her son get his can-do attitude from? “Oh, my dad. He was always buying the latest bit of technology, even though he couldn’t work them.” And, he adds, then there was also what sounds like a very different approach to technology in the classrooms of Sweden.
“I’m not a digital native,” says Waldekranz, “like children in Swedish schools today. I only got my first computer when I was 11. But there is also a spirit in Sweden that we know we are a small country of nine million people, and that anything we develop can never be sustained if the only market we envisage is Sweden. We have to think global from day one. That mindset is part of our culture.” As evidenced by the success of Skype and Spotify, both now worldwide brands with their roots in Sweden.
Waldekranz is the public face of Tictail but is always careful to stress he is one of four founders, anxious perhaps to avoid future disputes such as those that engulfed Zuckerberg and his early Facebook collaborators. “In Sweden,” he says, “we prefer flat hierarchies.”
So I can see how Tictail could benefit smaller, independent high-street retailers and sole traders in all sorts of other fields – like Waldekranz’s mother – but since this is a business not a charity, how does he make any money?
“Well, businesses getting started on Tictail is good,” he says, “but it is not enough if they are going to succeed. The important question then is what happens next? How do you get traffic to your website? How do you handle your first sales? How often do you keep refreshing your site? How do you use social media to encourage people to take a look at what you are offering? How do you seek feedback? And that is where we offer Tictail feeds. These applications help you tackle all these issues.” And for these there is a charge.
The “feed” is essentially a stream of messages that acts as an automated adviser, prompting and occasionally cajoling shop owners not to rest on their laurels. The idea is both to offer as good a service online as off, and to build loyalty and repeat custom, using social media features such as newsletters and alerts about new products. New plans include allowing users to add extensions, such as the ability to hand out discount codes to their store.
So Tictail is definitely a business, with a bottom line, but what gives Waldekranz that added edge of persuasion is his vocal attachment not just to being profitable but also to the democratic ideals of the world wide web. So he compares the rise of Tictail in relation to the major retailers as akin to that of the blog in recent years. “It wasn’t that long ago that the big media outlets controlled most of the written content on the web, but now that has changed. Anyone can write a blog and go mainstream. It can be the same with e-commerce. Right now the big giants are controlling it, but my belief is that we can now offer a way for small, independent retailers on the high street to take them on. It is a major shift.”
Protect yourself from creep
Last week, I described my debt situation as leaving the casino busted, ready to face the consequences of my gambling. But what if, as you stepped outside, you found a loose scratch ticket on the ground, and it came up a winner?
Two weeks after my months of living largely on credit ended as a result of the banks denying me any more fantasy funds the payoff I had been gambling on finally came through. Amazon offered my comedy group a contract and an order for six sitcom-episode scripts. Not a lot of money, but enough to cover my debt after taxes. I had just pulled off the financial equivalent of jumping a bicycle over the Grand Canyon.
To ground what seems like a dramatic, real time Location system, this Amazon deal was the result of my previous 10 years working in comedy. Each stepping stone can be traced back, eventually to the first time I stepped on stage at the downtown Comedy Works on May 14, 2003. So lest this seem like an improbable rags to, well, less ragged, tale, it's spread over a long timeline.
Was it wise? Not at all. Living on beans and rice and adhering to a strict budget while pursuing one's dreams is wise. Wading blithely into the swamps of credit-card debt is not. When I was approached for this column, I had my reservations about accepting it, mainly because I did not want to address my own stupid behavior.
All told, as the wild roller coaster ride pulls back into the station, I am at least left with some valuable lessons, which I can share with you after my firsthand experience making these mistakes.Don't open a credit card. I have plenty of friends who bemoan the fact that they've never been offered a credit card. Good for them. A credit card is not a status symbol despite the imagery used to sell them to you. A credit card is a big bank's debit card. That's the best way to view them. If you already have a credit card?
Destroy your physical cards. Having a credit card in your wallet just for emergencies, you tell yourself is nothing but bait. You may not normally use it, but if you came across the right item at the right price...Likewise for keeping it in your rtls. If you just don't feel right cutting the card up, put it in a jar of water in the freezer. At least it will take you some time to access it if you feel compelled to use it.
Never use credit cards as an online payment option. If you use a credit card number for online shopping, you just made it that much easier to spend money that isn't yours. Online shopping is the impulse buyer's best friend, so the worst thing you could pair that with is a seemingly bottomless source of funds.
Take the time to do the math. If you're like me and despise math, steel yourself and actually figure out how long it will take you to pay off your debt using only the minimum monthly payment. In your head you may think "forever," but having the actual amount of time is both sobering and inspiring. You can't work toward "forever," but you can work toward reducing a real number. It will also motivate you to pay more than the monthly minimum.
It's never too late to put on the brakes. When you're sinking quickly into debt, it's easy to lose perspective. "Well, I'm already $12,000 in, what's another $1,000?" The answer is, of course, $1,000 plus the accumulated interest by the time you eventually get around to paying it, which could result in a much larger amount. It's a lot easier to extricate yourself when you're ankle-deep in quicksand than neck-deep.
After my free fall of living on credit, it feels good to live on a budget. It feels like I have both hands on the wheel of my life, and the money I spend comes out of my bank account. If I don't have the money in there, there's nothing to spend. And that's the way it should be.
Slocan Valley residents unable to use their water following a fuel spill last month can now visit Winlaw elementary school for access to water, showers, washrooms, and disaster relief personnel.Executive Flight Centre, which owned the tanker that spilled its load of jet fuel into Lemon Creek, has opened what it calls a "community resiliency centre."But a Winlaw man says while it's a nice gesture, it's not really what affected residents need most.
"I don't want to diminish it, but if they wanted to help us, our health should be monitored and finances made available to compensate us, because it was human-caused," Michael Kaye told the Star. "The community wants hands-on help with their yards and animals that are badly affected."
Kaye, who lives around the corner from the school, said he feels "abandoned, stranded, and abused" since the spill. Although he has a deep well and therefore his water was not affected, he says the fumes took a toll on his lungs, leaving him with a sore throat, headaches, and nausea.
Interior Health says in most cases, well water is not affected. However, shallow wells close to the creek or rivers, particularly those in gravel or sandy soils, may be affected. The health authority says residents shouldn't use their well water if there is a fuel smell in the well or at any tap.
Garden vegetables, fruit, eggs, and dairy milk contacted by the fuel vapour are safe to consume as long as they don't smell like fuel or have a fuel sheen, Interior Health said. But they recommend washing fruit and vegetables thoroughly — easier said than done given that many residents aren't able to use their tap water.
Read the full products at http://www.ecived.com/en/.
Two weeks after my months of living largely on credit ended as a result of the banks denying me any more fantasy funds the payoff I had been gambling on finally came through. Amazon offered my comedy group a contract and an order for six sitcom-episode scripts. Not a lot of money, but enough to cover my debt after taxes. I had just pulled off the financial equivalent of jumping a bicycle over the Grand Canyon.
To ground what seems like a dramatic, real time Location system, this Amazon deal was the result of my previous 10 years working in comedy. Each stepping stone can be traced back, eventually to the first time I stepped on stage at the downtown Comedy Works on May 14, 2003. So lest this seem like an improbable rags to, well, less ragged, tale, it's spread over a long timeline.
Was it wise? Not at all. Living on beans and rice and adhering to a strict budget while pursuing one's dreams is wise. Wading blithely into the swamps of credit-card debt is not. When I was approached for this column, I had my reservations about accepting it, mainly because I did not want to address my own stupid behavior.
All told, as the wild roller coaster ride pulls back into the station, I am at least left with some valuable lessons, which I can share with you after my firsthand experience making these mistakes.Don't open a credit card. I have plenty of friends who bemoan the fact that they've never been offered a credit card. Good for them. A credit card is not a status symbol despite the imagery used to sell them to you. A credit card is a big bank's debit card. That's the best way to view them. If you already have a credit card?
Destroy your physical cards. Having a credit card in your wallet just for emergencies, you tell yourself is nothing but bait. You may not normally use it, but if you came across the right item at the right price...Likewise for keeping it in your rtls. If you just don't feel right cutting the card up, put it in a jar of water in the freezer. At least it will take you some time to access it if you feel compelled to use it.
Never use credit cards as an online payment option. If you use a credit card number for online shopping, you just made it that much easier to spend money that isn't yours. Online shopping is the impulse buyer's best friend, so the worst thing you could pair that with is a seemingly bottomless source of funds.
Take the time to do the math. If you're like me and despise math, steel yourself and actually figure out how long it will take you to pay off your debt using only the minimum monthly payment. In your head you may think "forever," but having the actual amount of time is both sobering and inspiring. You can't work toward "forever," but you can work toward reducing a real number. It will also motivate you to pay more than the monthly minimum.
It's never too late to put on the brakes. When you're sinking quickly into debt, it's easy to lose perspective. "Well, I'm already $12,000 in, what's another $1,000?" The answer is, of course, $1,000 plus the accumulated interest by the time you eventually get around to paying it, which could result in a much larger amount. It's a lot easier to extricate yourself when you're ankle-deep in quicksand than neck-deep.
After my free fall of living on credit, it feels good to live on a budget. It feels like I have both hands on the wheel of my life, and the money I spend comes out of my bank account. If I don't have the money in there, there's nothing to spend. And that's the way it should be.
Slocan Valley residents unable to use their water following a fuel spill last month can now visit Winlaw elementary school for access to water, showers, washrooms, and disaster relief personnel.Executive Flight Centre, which owned the tanker that spilled its load of jet fuel into Lemon Creek, has opened what it calls a "community resiliency centre."But a Winlaw man says while it's a nice gesture, it's not really what affected residents need most.
"I don't want to diminish it, but if they wanted to help us, our health should be monitored and finances made available to compensate us, because it was human-caused," Michael Kaye told the Star. "The community wants hands-on help with their yards and animals that are badly affected."
Kaye, who lives around the corner from the school, said he feels "abandoned, stranded, and abused" since the spill. Although he has a deep well and therefore his water was not affected, he says the fumes took a toll on his lungs, leaving him with a sore throat, headaches, and nausea.
Interior Health says in most cases, well water is not affected. However, shallow wells close to the creek or rivers, particularly those in gravel or sandy soils, may be affected. The health authority says residents shouldn't use their well water if there is a fuel smell in the well or at any tap.
Garden vegetables, fruit, eggs, and dairy milk contacted by the fuel vapour are safe to consume as long as they don't smell like fuel or have a fuel sheen, Interior Health said. But they recommend washing fruit and vegetables thoroughly — easier said than done given that many residents aren't able to use their tap water.
Read the full products at http://www.ecived.com/en/.
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