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Today I'm thrilled to have cookbook author and blogging friend Gesine Bullock-Prado.
Gesine is the author of the memoir "My Life from Scratch: A Sweet Journey of Starting Over One Cake at a Time"" and the cookbooks "Sugar Baby" and the newest "Pie it Forward". She lives in Vermont with her husband, is a chef instructor at the King Arthur Flour Company in Norwich, VT, and is slowly learning the process of becoming a gentlewoman farmer while remodeling their antique home and semi-working farm. And if that's not enough, is currently on a book tour promoting her third book "Pie it Forward" via radio and television. (you might also have seen her doing cooking segments on the Today Show as well). It also needs to be noted that she did have a small pastry shop in Montpelier, Vermont: Gesine Confectionary and it has since been closed. I can't imagine doing all this; I'm tired after typing it all. And don't forget to see her website: gesine.com It's just adorable and for me, literally sums up what her new life is like in rural Vermont. (read through to find out about a giveaway to win a copy of Pie It Forward!).
Gesine (geh-see-nuh) was incredibly kind to answer a few questions for me about her latest cookbook, and how she does it all in life, as well as her next steps in life.
What does "Pie It Forward" entail? It's a new frontier in pies; sweet and savory pies that is; a different take of the classics; a creative twist with a heavy dose of Gesine imagination. Her press release says it perfectly: "….Gesine imagination—riffing on her German roots, her Hollywood background, and life on her Vermont farm. A blueberry brown butter tart, an Italian plum tart with a yeasted-dough crust, a tiramisu-inspired espresso tart, a Vermont pizza pie…."
And with each new pie recipe has its own crust recipe since Gesine states "not all dough's are created equal!" Good point.
Bonus part of the book? A savory chapter filled with pork pies, Cornish pasties, Bavarian calzone…
Brief history of Gesine: she lived a large, glamorous, yet overworked stressful life in Hollywood working as a lawyer, film executive for many years. She left the Hollywood life to set her eyes on pastry-making, open a bakery, and start life again, from scratch, in an antique home, living as a soon-to-be gentlewoman farmer (with her husband, and I've lost count how many animals, and farm animals). And if you're curious to find out why she left all that glamour and glitz for the simple life, starting from scratch, and choosing the baker path, I HIGHLY suggest you read her book "My Life from Scratch: A Sweet Journey of Starting Over, One Cake at a Time".
chocolate fleur de Sel caramel tart, pg 153
Her blogs include:
Confections of a (closet) Master Baker – splendid recipes, secret tips and yummy pictures from a professional pastry chef
Sugar Baby Cookbook – a companion website for the cookbook: Sugar Baby. It includes extras like videos, extra pictures and ideas of what else you can do with the wonderful recipes in Sugar Baby.
Running in Circles – A blog dedicated to reconfiguring traditional recipes so that they work as the perfect fuel for runners while staying as delicious as the original. Also great advice of you want to run a marathon and never thought you could.
Freegrace Living – Living life completely from scratch: from raising farm animals, to growing food to restoring a Tavern built in the 1700's. There's more to life from scratch than baking.
Pie It Forward – The companion website for the cookbook: Pie It Forward.
Gesine's gorgeous homestead in Vermont (looks as if the renovations are going quite well)
Geese, she has lots of them. Chatty little critters too.
The newest additions to the farm. Precious right? Gesine takes really good care of the babies: they all sleep on flannel sheets!
Just typing up the intro, and all that you do, all that you have done in your past life, I thought to myself, where does she get the energy? It's obvious you have a zest for life and taking on multiple projects.
I was under the impression that you just completely set your eyes on starting life over with pastry making. I had completely forgotten that in your busy Hollywood days you baked, a lot actually, as a stress release. Did you start out making fancy pastries? And is it true that you've had no formal training?
How did you learn all these fine pastry making skills?
It was my mother's death that really put the coal in the pastry engine. She died far too young of cancer, especially for a woman who was a health food nut (macrobiotic) and a marathon runner. But she was also a wonderful and adventurous cook, primarily during the holidays when she let loose with the butter and sugar. She was German and I was raised in Austria and Germany when I was younger and we returned most summers thereafter. Suddenly, my mother's strict culinary regime went out the window. Kaffee und Kuchen (cake and coffee) was a daily meal, whether we baked at home with my aunt and family or whether we went into Salzburg and hit up a pastry shop where pastries are an intricate and edible art. When we were back in the states, I coveted my friend's Oreos and Nutter Butters. Once I had my own kitchen and I set about baking earnestly, I drew from my childhood influences and the stubborn streak I'd inherited from my mother. The first task I gave myself was mastering laminated doughs and I wasn't leaving my kitchen until I'd made those doughs my bi…well, you know where I'm going. And that's how it progressed. If there was a treat I loved from childhood and couldn't find in the states, (mandelhoernchen, macaron, millefeuille etc) I figured out how to make it myself.
And you do all this on your own, very little in the way of assistants I see? Does this energy stem from your busy Hollywood life? Always wanting to continue taking on more? I'm a loner and a perfectionist. Tina Rupp, who is the photographer on the books, always looks at me like I'm nuts for doing all the baking for the photo shoots alone. But it's my work. I wrote the book. These are my recipes. So I feel like the reader should see how I do it. And under that kind of pressure, where you're baking 100s of things in a few hours, it's a great test to the workability of recipes and proof that they can look beautiful even if you're losing your mind and have 5 minutes to finish.
I also bore easily. My husband is my true helpmate in life but in the pasty department, there's no trespassing in my baking cave. On the other hand, when I'm teaching, I love everyone to get their paws in the mix: to feel the croissant dough as it's rising and the butter block when it's the perfect temperature for folding, just to play with the ingredients. I want to share what I know and love, so when I'm in that mode, I not only want people in my space, I want them literally poking my dough.
raspberry-lemon coconut panna-cotta tartlets, pg. 46
In one of your blog title's you've dubbed yourself with the name "I'm gesine, helga's daughter" tell me the story behind that title? This is in memory to your mom? You're mom was the one that put that sparkle in your eye for baking at an early age? I've heard from your podcast on NPR how much of an influence that was. (listen here).
That's actually my "handle" on Blogger, so whenever I post or comment that's what turns up. It's because I am truly my mother's daughter. I wrote my memoir Confections of a Closet Master Baker/My Life from Scratch as a pastry journey and as a love letter to mom. I bake and she's conjured before me.
Also, from that NPR podcast I learned and I admire that you said, regarding watching your mom slowly die of cancer, you said, and quite simply but with such intensity, "watching my mom slowly die of cancer, I realized life is too short….I can't stop her cancer but I can certainly make my life happier…" And this is essentially, leading up to now, what you've done: make your life happier? Yes?
Absolutely, Life's too short. I know she was proud of me before I changed my life but she'd have reveled in the life revolution we've made. At once it's heartbreaking that I don't get to share Vermont, the animals, the pastry and the peace we've captured. On the other hand, her hand is in all of it so I see her in everything I do.
And speaking of your strong German mother, she was the one that lived a macrobiotics lifestyle, but still baked buttery, rich goodies such as German tortes, tarts. Was this a contradiction or her balance of good food with bad food?
The wonderful thing about my mother is that she never saw beautifully made food as "bad" food because it isn't. She saw processed food and unnatural food as bad. I think she was just incredibly honest with herself and her self-control. You put a pint of ice cream in front of her, she'd eat the whole thing. Same with a box of marzipan. But my mother was a huge advocate of using butter and gorgeous, real ingredients. When we were back in her home, in Germany, she relaxed and she let the dietary vice grip loosen and she'd enjoy her slice of cake and then we'd climb a mountain. Had she lived her entire life this way, you could make a good argument that she'd be alive today.
All those years, in your past life, of living the fast life of Hollywood--any of that make you now look back and say "Hey I learned something from this?"
The honest truth is if you work in Hollywood, it's anything but fast. Film production is a "hurry up and wait" life. I didn't party or schmooze. But that "hurry up and wait" actually does apply to baking. So often there are processes that require you to whip this, whip that, fold gently but quickly, IMMEDIATELY put it in the oven….and then wait wait wait until it's done. Thankfully, I can make something else while I'm waiting.
I understand the meaning of wanting to write your first book "My Life from Scratch: a sweet journey of starting over". And can see the connection to then write your second book "Sugarbaby" a wonderful yet hard task I might add. But tell me how/why you choose the direction of pie for book three?
My life change was as much to write as to bake. Once my pastry shop opened, I had no time to write. Starting at 3:30 a.m. and closing up shop at 7pm leaves you with nothing left but a strong desire for red wine and a bed. But Vermont is filled with artists and writers and it turned out that a vast majority of our customers were writers. So we started a writer's group that met in the shop after we'd shut the door. We'd nosh on left over goodies and share our latest and not so greatest. I had to produce something for the group so I started to write my pastry journey. Originally, the memoir had no recipes. It wasn't until we were about to go to publishers that I rewrote the manuscript to accommodate them. The cookbooks are simply my need to share specific techniques. SugarBaby was the book I couldn't find when I was training myself. I didn't understand why you could get a candy-making book but there was nothing in it that explained that those techniques were the same as in making an Italian meringue for macaron or a Sacher glaze or pate de bomb for chocolate buttercream or croquant. It was as if there was a conspiracy to keep this knowledge away from home bakers and this ticked me off. As for pie, I have a really broad view of pie and I've heard so many people lament that pie crust is the bane of their existence. I wanted to produce a book that explained what makes up the flaky, tender crust and then show that there are many versions on the same theme and how to coordinate with various fillings. You can make a traditional American crust or you can blast it with 50% more flaky and buttery by making a quick puff and then you can take it to the moon by making traditional puff. And then there is the simple tart dough, which is my version of pate brisee, and so much more. Like SugarBaby, I find that when you get knee deep in the pastry world, you see these techniques that are interrelated and I wanted to share that pie can be so much more than what we've traditionally thought about in the home kitchen.
I know when I test recipes I often rely on my husband to taste test first. He's not a foodie so he isn't all that reliable, as he says "this is good" to just about everything. Does your husband have a good palette? Is he a good taste-tester?
He's got a very sophisticated and broad palate. And he's honest. So he's my true barometer of what's what in the kitchen.
vermont apple pie, pg. 91
Your bakery Gesine Confectionary in Vermont is closed now? Was this let go because of too much on your plate? I heard it was a fabulous little cake shop. Think you'll ever own another bakery again—you know when things calm down a bit for you?
I'll never say never.
Do you still sell those infamous macaroons online?
Instead of mail order, I'm partnering with someone to get them in retail stores nationwide. This takes more time than I'd like but it's an interesting endeavor.
In "pie it forward" you literally live up to the title of "redefining the pie classics". Going into this cookbook, did you have a set list of pies that you wanted to recreate or should I say re-design?
I usually develop recipes based on what I'm craving. Which can be really dangerous.
Years ago when my husband and I first moved back to cape cod, we rented a very old (like 1700's old), antique house that belonged to one of the first constables of Sandwich, MA. The amount of money we poured into that place made us deem it "the money pit". I know you and your husband bought an old house and farmhouse? Was this something you wanted to do? Do you still love it? My memories of living a our antique rental, made me coin it up in this phrase "living in the money pit was like owning a convertible car that had piles of money in the back seat, and every time you drove the car the money would just blown away…"
I grew up in a family that restored houses so I can't imagine not having a project. The second a house is "done" I'm ready to move on. Thankfully, this house will always have a project in store. It was built in 1786 and has a lovely history but is in better shape than most new construction. I don't think of it as blowing money as much as being a steward of Vermont history. I'd rather spend money on maintaining the property than buying shoes or clothes. Not unlike how I'd rather blow $100 on great chocolate than $300 on a purse. I'll enjoy the chocolate and my carriage house turned bakery a hell of a lot more.
With all the skinny pastry chefs I know (and there are not a lot of skinny ones out there). I have to ask, and a few fans have asked me to ask you: how do you stay so thin? Is it because you're always on the move?
The adage "never trust a skinny chef" is so so wrong. I say, "never trust a fat chef" because who is more likely to scarf the best stuff in the kitchen before it gets out to the customers? You always have to taste for quality and balance but leave the best for the customers.
nutella tart, pg. 182 and classic pecan pie, pg. 183
Personally, I learn a great deal from you, and your recipe posts at Confections of a (closet) Master Baker; you easily show us how easy it is to make macaroons. Watching your videos at your website www.gesine.com; you have a wonderful video about making a wild blueberry pie. I couldn't agree with you more when you say the best part is the crust. And one of your tips: everything must be cold; even the flour. Where did you learn that from? Any other tips for exceptional pies and pie crusts?
I'm a geek, I like to know the true nature of things. The "cold" in crusts is a standard issue instruction but the why of it interested me more and the bottom line is that the nature of flour is to absorb moisture. If everything's warm, the flour will absorb the butter and the crust will be tough. If you chill everything, the butter won't be absorbed but will remain suspended in discernable chunks in the dough. In the oven, the moisture evaporates, creating a lovely puff and flakiness, leaving the proteins and the butter to create structure and gorgeous flavor. The other truism of pie dough is not to over process it, otherwise you're working the gluten (proteins) in the flour which also leads to a tough dough AND warms the dough so your butter is going melt and then that whole absorption thing happens. The other thing is not to add too much moisture to most butter flour doughs (traditional pie crust and puffs) which will make the dough goopy and tough. Often, the dough will look too dry and a baker will add more water until the dough comes together and "looks" right. However, this is usually the sign of a grossly overprocessed dough. Instead, add just enough liquid so that when you pinch the dough between your fingers, it holds together. Then press into a round, cover with wrap and refrigerate. This allows the dough to rest and for the flour to start hydrating. About 20 minutes. You'd be surprised how 20 minutes can turn a round of dough from a rough, dry mess into a smooth, workable dough.
In a typical day, what do you eat? I know sugar is a staple in your diet for recipe taste-testing.
Eggs. We have so many laying birds from hens to geese to ducks, eggs are on constant rotation. I make fish stews and cassoulets for lunch. We have ramps and fiddelheads in the fridge now and hopefully a foraging jaunt today will turn up some morels for a nice tart. It's a seasonal free for all here.
Most memorable travel destination for food? What did you have?
We've had so many memorable meals together, my husband and I. When we travel, it's 1% exploring the new town and 99% food. But my favorite was an unexpected meal in Morocco. We detoured into a truck stop for a minute. We smelled a gorgeous tagine and suddenly we were ravenous. We ended up ordering beef kefta and washed it down with Coke, feasting in the middle of the dessert. It was one of those food experiences when you catch yourself gleefully humming while you eat, your feet doing that "I just put something unbelievable in my mouth and there's more in the bowl" happy dance.
Favorite junk foods, if any?
Too many to list. I still crave cheese filled Combos whenever I drink too much beer. I won't let you near my bowl of Kraft macaroni and cheese. And bacon.
Does your husband like to cook or bake?
He's a great cook. He's become an expert at Japanese pub food. He's our weekend chef.
If someone wants to open their own bakery, granted they are going to be on their feet all day. I know you're on your feet all day; a good pair of chef clogs goes a long way, but what about keeping your back strong? Any tips in that area?
Don't lock your knees and stretch. Get a rolling counter at the right height for you. I roll laminated doughs by hand al day and while this is a phenomenal workout, it's awful on the back. If you get the counter to just the right height, it takes so much burden off your vertebrae. And take walks. I actually find that a good run cures all my bake and back ailments.
strawberry love pie, pg. 226
Is there another book in the works? Something about 'complicated desserts'?
The next book is a cake book, geared towards creations that are beautiful when you slice into them as much as the are beautiful on the outside. And by "inside" that means they look great slice and that they better taste damn great when you put them in your mouth. Some are complicated but others are painfully easy and just look complicated (my favorite kind). And we're filming a PBS series called "Life from Scratch" (gee, wonder where that came from) that's part homesteading lifestyle show part baking show. Want to know how to hatch and raise ducklings and then use your extra duck eggs to make an unbelievable pound cake? Want to make your own farmer's cheese and turn it into the best cheesecake ever? Curious about keeping bees but want someone else to get stung first (i.e., me), this is the show for you.
Thank you so much Gesine! Your answers were just a joy to read and comforting to know I'm not the only one that has an obsession with those darn Combo pretzel things. Thanks for the back tips too!
To enter the giveaway for a chance to win a copy of Pie It Forward, simply leave a comment here telling us which of Gesine cookbooks you've read, or which ones you'd like to read.
We'll do the drawing May 29, 2011.
One entry per person please. PLEASE have a valid email in your link and/or comment.
guest post: cookbook author gesine bullock-prado of "Pie It Forward"
Today I'm thrilled to have cookbook author and blogging friend Gesine Bullock-Prado.
47 comments:
I've read her memoir and Sugar Baby. Can't wait to get this one!ReplyDelete
- Anonymous5/21/12, 2:46 PM
"...who is more likely to scarf the best stuff in the kitchen before it gets out to the customers..."ReplyDelete
Wow. Fat phobia much? I read Gesine's memoir and really enjoyed it, but this attitude certainly isn't selling me her new book. Forget it.
Wow, what a great cookbook! I don't have any of Gesine's cookbooks, but I'd adore the pie one...I'm especially in love with that chocolate caramel fleur de sel tart you have pictured above...it looks SO tasty!! Yum.ReplyDelete
OH, I love Gesine! She's down to earth and accessible and her recipes are one hundred percent reliable and refreshingly innovative. I've read and own everything except the Pie it Forward. My copy of Confessions of a Master Baker is almost always out on loan since I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a great read. It'd be great to win the cookbook, but I'm going to buy it anyway! I'll be looking for the PBS series! Thanks, Vanilla Suguh! Lots o' fun today!ReplyDelete
Dawn, great interview - I love Gesine's books and her blog! Thanks for asking her about the next book! ;-) I have this book - but would love to win it to give it as a gift to someone!ReplyDelete
I've not read any of the cookbooks but I am interested in this one :-)ReplyDelete
- Anonymous5/21/12, 4:06 PM
I read My Life from Scratch and loved it! Sitting and reading it was something akin to slowly eating and savoring a really good piece of cake. Really good chocolate cake and a steaming cup of coffee.ReplyDelete
Elisabeth (email@example.com)
I sadly do not have any of Gesine's books :( would love to win this one though to start!ReplyDelete
I don't have any of Gesine's books, either, but would love to win this one and find out how wonderful she is. Would probably lead me to purchase other books she's written.ReplyDelete
- Catherine5/21/12, 7:02 PM
Unfortunately I don't own any of Gesine's books, but I have both Pie it Forward -and- Sugar Baby on my wishlist!ReplyDelete
-Catherine (firstname.lastname@example.com)
Wow, she is brand new to me, but I am going to start digging through her blogs and mining for ideas promptly! I'd love to check out any of her books, but we have a few diehard pie fans in the house that would be very happy to see the pie book arrive. Thanks so much, great post!ReplyDelete
I read My Life from Scratch when it first came out. I just loved reading about her leap of faith. I am sure her mom is watching over her and thinking "that's my girl". I also own Sugar Baby, which is amazing too.ReplyDelete
I would love to read the Pie it Forward! The pecan pie and strawberry cake look amazingReplyDelete
I have read Confections of a Closet Master Baker, its very inspiring, specially to a young pastry chef like me. Pie it Forward is in my wish list because I love pies!!ReplyDelete
Mark (marklesaca (at) gmail (dot) com
Awesome! Love Gesine and all her talents and what a great looking house!ReplyDelete
I have read Life From Scratch and I would love to get Sugar Baby!ReplyDelete
A wonderful guest post! That book sounds really interesting and I'd love to win it... I am a pie girl... ;-PReplyDelete
I have read and purchased both so far. I actually have the first one with original title and I love them both. Looking forward to the thirdReplyDelete
This is great, Dawn. I have two of her books (Sugar Baby is a gem), but am dying to get this one. It's on my list.ReplyDelete
I have not read any of her books, but pie is my favorite thing to bake, it's even in the title of my blog. I would love this cookbook to make the apple pie, pecan pie, and Strawberry Love Pie shown in this post. And I bet there are many more recipes in the book that look and sound just as delicious.ReplyDelete
Dawn, great interview - Unfortunately I don't own any of Gesine's books!ReplyDelete
barbarapalermo at gmail dot com
I can't wait to check out that book! Fun!ReplyDelete
I would love to read her memoir and Pie It Forward looks yummy. Great interview tooReplyDelete
I would love the Pie book! Saw her on a talk show the Revoloution I think. Yummy stuff!! Gfreat post DawnReplyDelete
I am a devoted fan of Gesine's blog. I do not have any of her books, while each looks better than the next I would love to read "My Life from Scratch: a sweet journey of starting over", I am in need of some inspiration.ReplyDelete
THanks for the chance!
Thanks for such a wonderful interview. I keep drooling over Sugar Baby every time I go to the bookstore, one of these days it will come home with me :). I look forward to reading "My life from scratch" as it seems to fit with where I am in life at the moment.ReplyDelete
Jacque-Lynne (email@example.com)
i havent had the chance to read any of her books but after looking them up in def gonna hit up my local bookstore (powells!) to see if i can find "My Life from Scratch" - looks amazing (which i realize isnt a cookbook per se but still..)!ReplyDelete
- Anonymous5/22/12, 2:33 PM
I've read Sugar Baby and Conections of a closet Master Baker. Both really good!ReplyDelete
- Ashley M5/22/12, 8:42 PM
I have not read any of them but would love to start with this one.ReplyDelete
Great post & giveaway. I've never read her cookbooks but I definitely will be on the lookout for them now! Those raspberry-lemon coconut panna-cotta tartletes have me drooling. Really wishing I had one for dessert right now.ReplyDelete
I talked about you on my blog tonight. :)
I have not read any of these books, but if the interview and pictures are any indication of how good this new one will be I would love to read "Pie it Forward".ReplyDelete
Wow Dawn you do a fantastic interview, way to pick her brain! I have yet to read her books but now I am interestedReplyDelete
I borrrowed both Confections of a Closet Master Baker and Sugar Baby from my library, but I'd love to own one of Gesine's books. Looking forward to seeing her on PBS.ReplyDelete
- Anonymous5/23/12, 10:28 PM
What a great interview! Thank you. I would love to read her first book as I can somejwat relate to moving to the rural life. Am adding her books to my Wish List. firstname.lastname@example.com
I forgot to add my email firstname.lastname@example.com to my last message. Great interview!ReplyDelete
fabulous! sounds like gesine is a wonderful woman, and i can't wait to check out her book (and blogs ;))ReplyDelete
I would like this one so I can have the chocolate fleur de Sel caramel tart recipe. YUMReplyDelete
I dont even know where to begin with this. It's one of the best interviews I've read online in years! Thank you (both of you) for taking the time to do it, and do it so thoroughly! I love Gesine's life story, career path, approach to food, and would be thrilled to read this new book. I have thumbed through her Sugar Baby book before and almost bought it; now, I don't know what I was waiting for!ReplyDelete
- Jeannine DiBart5/26/12, 3:52 PM
Am reading "Confections" right now because of this interview! Love it and would love to own the Pie book! email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Great interview, thank you for sharing! Looking forward to reading any of her books, hard to pick one to start with. Pie It Forward sounds like a real treat!ReplyDelete
I haven't read any of them, but I am a huge pie person so I'd love Pie it Forward!ReplyDelete
I haven't read any of her books so I really hope to win her "Pie it Forward" to read & practice her recipes! :)ReplyDelete
I haven't read any of her books but looking at the pictures I'm now sad I haven't! I've been on a pie kick lately, so this book is veeeeerrrrry tempting! :)ReplyDelete
What a fabulous interview, Dawn! I just love Gesine's outlook on life and baking. I've read her book "Confections of a Closet Master Baker." I absolutely loved it!ReplyDelete
I've loved "Confections" and "Sugarbaby", but have not read PIF, which I'd love to have, read and bake from as well.ReplyDelete
I'd love to read that pie it forward book because I just got a new pie pan!ReplyDelete
I`ve read all of her three books. One is better than the other and I`m looking forward to many new creations and recipes. Good - Better - Gesine!ReplyDelete


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Microsoft announced Google will continue to provide Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) support to Windows Phone users for another six months.
Google announced in December it was turning off EAS on free Gmail accounts at the end of this month. Google wants to use a combination of IMAP, CardDAV, and CalDAV instead of EAS. After the cut-off, existing sync relationships would have continued to work, but any new phones (or reset old phones) would have to go without.
That caused a big problem for Windows Phone users, as Microsoft's smartphone platform depends on EAS for both push mail and syncing of calendars and contacts.
Today's announcement provides a two-pronged solution to this problem. First, Google is extending the EAS window for six months. Users will have until July 31 to establish new sync pairings on their Windows Phone devices. Second, Microsoft is adding CalDAV and CardDAV support to Windows Phone, and it will provide an update available before July 31 to turn this on.
Google's decision to remove EAS from free accounts still has implications for other Microsoft products. The Windows 8 Mail app, for example, uses EAS, and it doesn't appear to be covered by the reprieve. Microsoft's guidance for Gmail users is to stick with IMAP—which means disabling calendar and contact sync entirely—or switch to Outlook.com e-mail.
Neither option is a good one, but there's no indication so far that Redmond intends to provide CalDAV or CardDAV support for its desktop platform.


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If you drink while studying for a test, hope the exam will be held in a bar
Why We Make Mistakes: How We Look Without Seeing, Forget Things in Seconds, and Are All Pretty Sure We Are Way Above Average. By Joseph T. Hallinan. Broadway, 283 pp., $24.95.
By Janice Harayda
A few days before Halloween in a small town in Delaware, a 42-year-old woman hanged herself from a tree across from a moderately busy road. Her body dangled about 15 feet above the ground and could easily be seen from passing cars, but no one called the police for more than 12 hours.
"They thought it was a Halloween decoration," the mayor's wife said as a crowd gathered at the scene in 2005.
Joseph Hallinan uses the tragedy to make a point: Context affects our perceptions of events more than we imagine. Its importance helps to explain why we often can't quite place somebody we've run into: Is he a barista at the local Starbucks? A volunteer at the library? It's easier to recall who a person is when you know where he belongs. And context involves more than time and place, Hallinan says in Why We Make Mistakes, a fascinating survey the causes of human error. One study found that people who learned while slightly drunk remembered better if they were tested while tipsy.
Hallinan focuses on cognitive or perceptual errors that affect behavior, or factors such as change blindness (an inability to notice shifts in what we see) and overconfidence (a trait that shows up more in men than women and influences the mistakes of each sex). But he writes at times about behavior that affects perceptions, such as not getting enough sleep. And this dilutes slightly the focus of his book, which draws on research in psychology, economics, and other fields. Why deal with fatigue but not with such physical conditions as chronic pain or stress that can also cause errors?
A larger issue is whom the "we" in the title of the book refers to. Hallinan seems to draw mainly on the work of American researchers, and this raises questions when he deals with a topic such as overconfidence. He makes a strong case that "we" are overconfident. But that's what Europeans have said for decades about Americans, and it makes you wonder if his conclusions would have differed if he'd drawn on more studies of, say, Scots or Hungarians. You don't know whether this is a book about why people make mistakes or about why Americans make mistakes.
Even so, Why We Make Mistakes is as sobering – and potentially helpful — as it is lively. If you can't decide whether to get a second opinion about a recommended medical treatment, here's a fact that could help you make up your mind: Studies of autopsies have shown that "doctors seriously misdiagnose fatal illnesses about 20 percent of the time."
Best line: No. 1: "Memory, it turns out, is often more of a reconstruction than a reproduction." No. 2: "Wrong-site surgery continues to afflict untold numbers of patients each year. … One recent survey, for instance, asked hand surgeons about operating on the wrong place; 20 percent of them revealed that they had operated on the wrong site at least once in their careers."
Worst line: "On the kinds of sophisticated tasks that economists are most interested in, like trading in markets or choosing among gambles, the overwhelming finding it that increased incentives to do not change average behavior substantially. Generally, what incentives do is prolong deliberation or attention to a problem. People who are offered them will work harder on a given problem … though they will not necessarily work any smarter." This passage seems self-contradictory and an oversimplification of the effect of incentives. If people work harder on a problem, isn't that a change in their "average behavior"?
Recommendation? Why We Make Mistakes may appeal to fans of the books of Malcolm Gladwell, though there's some overlap of information with them.
Published: February 2009
Editor: Kris Puopolo
About the author: Hallinan is a Pulitzer Prize–winner and former Wall Street Journal reporter. He lives in Chicago.
One-Minute Book Reviews posts short reviews by Janice Harayda, former book editor of the Plain Dealer in Cleveland. The site is also the home of the "Backscratching in Our Time" series that calls attention to authors who praise each other's books. The next installment in the series will appear Friday.
© 2009 Janice Harayda. All rights reserved.
www.janiceharayda.com and www.twitter.com/janiceharayda


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Company Name: Kroger Stores
Position Type: Employee
FLSA Status: Non-Exempt
Our primary focus is to create an uplifting customer experience through exceptional service. We are looking for friendly and engaged people who have a passion to serve and Feed the Human Spirit. Our associates work in different departments in our stores but share a common goal of being friendly and caring to each other and our customers. From making it right to making connections, we show each other how much we truly care.
As a part of our team, you could:
Assist customers at checkout and bag groceries
Build attractive displays and stock shelves
Select and gather products to fulfill customer's online orders
Prepare gourmet dishes, make artisan sandwiches and serve local and imported cheeses
Bake fresh breads and cookies, decorate cakes and serve personalized coffees
Create artistic floral arrangements
Prepare fresh cut fruits and vegetables
Cut and serve the highest quality meats and seafood
Contribute in many other areas to provide extraordinary service to our customers
We are now accepting applications for all positions including cashier, bagger, e-Commerce clerk, grocery clerk, produce clerk, meat clerk, deli clerk and bakery clerk.
We offer our associates much more than just a paycheck, we offer a career with promise. In addition to medical and retirement plans, we offer paid vacation, life insurance, tuition assistance and college scholarships. Associates also enjoy flexible schedules, and many associates who begin in part-time jobs choose to grow with us into long-term careers. If you are interested in becoming a valued member of our team, apply now. We look forward to getting to know you!
Education Level: None
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Position Type: Part-Time
Shift(s): Day; Evening; Overnight
Regions : Mountain
States : Texas
Keywords :
Jobs at Kroger: At Kroger, we hire people who have a passion for helping others and who want to build a relationship with our Customers. No matter what stage of your career, you can build your future at Kroger. We look for people who want more, aspire to be more and work hard to achieve their goals. Our focus on keeping the Customer first is what makes us successful. We offer many opportunities not only in our stores, but in Manufacturing, Logistics, Marketing, Finance, Human Resources, and many other fields.
Company Overview
Kroger Family of Companies employs nearly half a million associates who serve customers in 2,782 retail food stores under a variety of local banner names in 35 states. Our Family of Companies also operates 2,268 pharmacies, 274 fine jewelry stores, 1,489 supermarket fuel centers and 38 food production plants in the United States. Kroger is dedicated to our Purpose: to Feed the Human Spirit™ by serving America through food inspiration and uplift and creating #ZeroHungerZeroWaste communities by 2025. Careers with The Kroger Co. and our family of companies offer competitive wages, flexible schedules, benefits and room for advancement.
Posting Notes: TX || Nacogdoches || 1215 North St || 75961 || Kroger Stores || [[mfield2]] || Customer Service || Employee || Non-Exempt || Part-Time || None


text:
The greenhouse effect and the 2nd law of thermodynamics
What the science says...
|Select a level...
The 2nd law of thermodynamics is consistent with the greenhouse effect which is directly observed.
Climate Myth...
2nd law of thermodynamics contradicts greenhouse theory
"The atmospheric greenhouse effect, an idea that many authors trace back to the traditional works of Fourier 1824, Tyndall 1861, and Arrhenius 1896, and which is still supported in global climatology, essentially describes a fictitious mechanism, in which a planetary atmosphere acts as a heat pump driven by an environment that is radiatively interacting with but radiatively equilibrated to the atmospheric system. According to the second law of thermodynamics such a planetary machine can never exist." (Gerhard Gerlich)
Skeptics sometimes claim that the explanation for global warming contradicts the second law of thermodynamics. But does it? To answer that, first, we need to know how global warming works. Then, we need to know what the second law of thermodynamics is, and how it applies to global warming. Global warming, in a nutshell, works like this:
The sun warms the Earth. The Earth and its atmosphere radiate heat away into space. They radiate most of the heat that is received from the sun, so the average temperature of the Earth stays more or less constant. Greenhouse gases trap some of the escaping heat closer to the Earth's surface, making it harder for it to shed that heat, so the Earth warms up in order to radiate the heat more effectively. So the greenhouse gases make the Earth warmer - like a blanket conserving body heat - and voila, you have global warming. See What is Global Warming and the Greenhouse Effect for a more detailed explanation.
The second law of thermodynamics has been stated in many ways. For us, Rudolf Clausius said it best:
"Heat generally cannot flow spontaneously from a material at lower temperature to a material at higher temperature."
So if you put something hot next to something cold, the hot thing won't get hotter, and the cold thing won't get colder. That's so obvious that it hardly needs a scientist to say it, we know this from our daily lives. If you put an ice-cube into your drink, the drink doesn't boil!
The skeptic tells us that, because the air, including the greenhouse gasses, is cooler than the surface of the Earth, it cannot warm the Earth. If it did, they say, that means heat would have to flow from cold to hot, in apparent violation of the second law of thermodynamics.
So have climate scientists made an elementary mistake? Of course not! The skeptic is ignoring the fact that the Earth is being warmed by the sun, which makes all the difference.
To see why, consider that blanket that keeps you warm. If your skin feels cold, wrapping yourself in a blanket can make you warmer. Why? Because your body is generating heat, and that heat is escaping from your body into the environment. When you wrap yourself in a blanket, the loss of heat is reduced, some is retained at the surface of your body, and you warm up. You get warmer because the heat that your body is generating cannot escape as fast as before.
If you put the blanket on a tailors dummy, which does not generate heat, it will have no effect. The dummy will not spontaneously get warmer. That's obvious too!
Is using a blanket an accurate model for global warming by greenhouse gases? Certainly there are differences in how the heat is created and lost, and our body can produce varying amounts of heat, unlike the near-constant heat we receive from the sun. But as far as the second law of thermodynamics goes, where we are only talking about the flow of heat, the comparison is good. The second law says nothing about how the heat is produced, only about how it flows between things.
To summarise: Heat from the sun warms the Earth, as heat from your body keeps you warm. The Earth loses heat to space, and your body loses heat to the environment. Greenhouse gases slow down the rate of heat-loss from the surface of the Earth, like a blanket that slows down the rate at which your body loses heat. The result is the same in both cases, the surface of the Earth, or of your body, gets warmer.
So global warming does not violate the second law of thermodynamics. And if someone tells you otherwise, just remember that you're a warm human being, and certainly nobody's dummy.
Basic rebuttal written by Tony Wildish
Update July 2015:
Here is the relevant lecture-video from Denial101x - Making Sense of Climate Science Denial
Update October 2017:
Here is a walk-through explanation of the Greenhouse Effect for bunnies, by none other than Eli, over at Rabbit Run.
Last updated on 7 October 2017 by skeptickev. View Archives


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We got a question on Twitter over the weekend about reading material for LIS:
RT @brandontlocke: Any recommended reads for aspiring/future MLIS students?
It is difficult to respond to such a question in 140 characters or less. I made the attempt by suggesting reputable blogs and e-news sources for LIS information and fiction for mind expansion (and fun!). Feeling that a little more was needed I have expanded with advice, links and resources.
There are some recommended books for LIS like "Library: An Unquiet History" and "Libraries in the Ancient World. Certainly you can start with the American Library Association's Mission and History or even Wikipedia if you want some historical information.
Honestly though I think the profession is undergoing such shifts that you're better off reading via the Internet or the trade mags (if you are in school and can get free access – even better). I am first to admit that I am biased in that direction anyway yet these sources are going to give you the best picture of what is happening now and the foreseeable future. You're surely going to get enough of the past in class so may as well spend other time researching the future.
As I tweeted Brandon, I also think it important for relaxation, inspiration and humor to balance out with some good fiction reading (whatever "good" means to you). The benefits of reading fiction for writing are obvious but the correlation to heightened emotional intelligence and even business savvy and success has been found in avid readers. If nothing else, we are, after all going to be librarians who should practice the literacy skills we preach (as well as having an awareness of what is out there).
You cant read everything. (Duh!) This is my reminder to myself and you that this is OK. The important thing, especially if you are just exploring LIS, is that you are seeping yourself in the issues and language of the day as much as possible. Seeing what you read through to the end and what makes your eyes glaze over is a great culling tool for your intended concentration. You can always research or find more information about issues that interest you or things that you feel like you need to know.
There are some fine blog RSS links in the left sidebar to get you started. I find that having a wide range of people on my Twitter feed is helpful (from @buffyhamilton to @brainpicker to even @smartbitches and of course all my fellow hackers). Sometimes LIS articles come from unlikely places. Start following a few people and then see who is retweeted or followed by those to expand your list. If you have a few moments look for #LIS or #MLIS. It goes without saying that you need to check any links and sources for accuracy and, just as with articles, some might appeal more than others.
Thanks for the question Brandon! You're already well on your way to being a good information professional by asking.
If you have a question about reading or LIS in general we are Twitter available @HackLibSchool or please comment/ask below. We want to help you hack!
[Image Credit: "Card Catalog, Burrow Library" via Flickr under CC license by Ed Uthman]
Categories: Social Media, To Read


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Claudia St. John sees a lot of bad resumes in her job as president of Affinity HR Group in New York. One, in particular, made her smile and get slightly creeped out at the same time.
The person's resume had this glowing claim: "I've been known to reach out and touch people."
"In the first place, that is not a good idea," St. John says with a laugh. "You do not want to reach out and touch other people."
But coming up with a resume that will catch people's attention, if not touch them, is becoming more important as more jobs become available. The latest "Manpower Employment Outlook Survey," recently released by ManpowerGroup, a human resource consulting company based in Milwaukee, Wisc., finds that hiring confidence remains strong among employers. Out of more than 18,000 surveyed employers, 19 percent say they are anticipating increasing their hiring plans this spring and 73 percent say their plans to hire are probably going to continue as planned. Only 4 percent say they are anticipating staff reductions and 4 percent are not sure about their hiring intentions.
As the economy improves, the people looking to fill these openings may want to look at another survey of hiring managers and human resources professionals just released by CareerBuilder that found the best and worst resume terms.
Worst words
As St. John looks over the list, she says the bad terms on resumes all use jargon.
The least effective terms on a resume, according to CareerBuilder's survey, include words and phrases like "bottom-line," "team player," "results-driven," "value added," "thought leadership," "go-to person" and "synergy."
The top three worst words to use are "think outside of the box," "go-getter" and, worst of all according to those surveyed, "best of breed."
St. John adds "multifaceted collaboration" to the list. "Which basically means 'worked together,'" she says.
Bruce A. Hurwitz, a recruiter and career counselor in New York, says in an email that all these types of words and phrases are nonsense.
"All an employer cares about is the candidate's actual accomplishments, not self-praise," Hurwitz says. "Who cares what a candidate thinks of himself? 'Team player.' What? He's going to write, 'I don't work well with others'?"
Hurwitz says all job-seekers need to do is accurately state their responsibilities and results they accomplished at previous places of employment. "And, presto, all of the 'words to use' will be there and those to avoid will not."
Best words
The CareerBuilder survey's best resume terms seem to support this. They include words like "ideas," "increased/decreased," "influenced," "volunteered," "resolved," "created" and "managed." The top three resume words were "trained/mentored," "improved" and the best word was "achieved."
Unlike the worst words, which didn't demand clarification, the best words need more to make sense. Michael Mercer, the author of "Job Hunting Made Easy," sent a few examples by email to the Deseret News on how this works well:
- Trained company's 8 top-producing new Sales Reps
- Increased sales 48 percent by launching a new product line
- Improved profit margins 19 percent … through better loyalty programs
St. John says it is important to include the results of action words in resumes. Focus and quantify
"I don't want to know that you managed something," she says. "You could have managed it, and it could have gone horribly. I want to know what results you had. I want to know how many people you were responsible for. I want to know how much revenue you grew. I want to know what kind of results you accomplished in your profession."
Like Mercer's examples, St. John wants claims that are quantifiable. She also says it is important to focus a resume to a particular job and not just make a general one for all uses. "Otherwise it is just a scattershot approach," she says.
Bob Myhal, the CEO of NextHire, a company that helps small and medium-sized businesses find employees, says recruiters and hiring managers usually only have about 15 seconds to look over your resume, so your should keep the resume simple and easy to read. He also says to use the right keywords for the job. "Many job seekers don't realize that busy recruiters and employers often utilize automated screening tools to analyze how closely a resume matches the job description," he said. "If there is not a strong correlation, then your resume may never actually be seen by a human."
St. John notices that older people looking for jobs have a tendency to cram everything they've ever done into the resume. Younger people have a tendency to inflate what they've done, she says. "At least with the young you can read through the fluff to see what they've really done," she says.
Both Hurwitz and St. John call the "goals" or "objectives" section at the top of a resume a waste of space. Instead, Hurwitz says use a "selected accomplishments" section first with five bullet points of actual achievements. It is the perfect section to use words like "achieved," "improved" and "trained/mentored."
Just don't, whatever you do, reach out and touch other people.
EMAIL: email@example.com, Twitter: @degroote, Facebook: facebook.com/madegroote


text:
Subject Matter Experts
Access to care
Patrick Lenihan, PhD, MUPP
UIC School of Public Health
1603 W. Taylor
Chicago, IL 60612
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Bernard J. Turnock, MD, MPH
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UIC School of Public Health
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Campaign for Better Health Care
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Mildred Williamson, PhD, MSW
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text: DOWNLOADS Article (PDF-539KB) Asia's emerging economies are leading the world out of recession, and the region's consumers are taking the baton from their overextended counterparts in developed countries. Are the largest global consumer enterprises ready for this momentous shift? McKinsey's experience suggests that even the most sophisticated multinationals must change significantly to realize Asia's growth potential. The region is as diverse as it is vast. Its markets come in a bewildering assortment of sizes and development stages, and its customers hail from a multitude of ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Their tastes and preferences evolve constantly. The speed and scale of change in Asian consumer markets can surprise even experienced executives. To meet the challenge, global companies will have to organize themselves regionally to coordinate strategy and use resources in the most efficient way while at the same time targeting the tastes of consumers on a very local level. In Asia's high-growth markets, these companies face intense competition from low-cost local players; customers with modest incomes, disparate preferences, and minimal brand loyalties; and fragmented distribution channels. Some of the problems will recede as the region's economies mature. For now, though, the savviest players are trading their old management practices—including largely independent country operations and centralized administrative structures—for leaner, faster, more flexible, and regionally collaborative ones. They are strengthening their in-country operations while creating small, fast, and entrepreneurial regional leadership teams, which at their most successful adeptly allocate resources across markets, leverage scarce executive talent, drive innovations from one market to another, and relentlessly cut costs. Four general principles sum up the changes needed to reach Asia's new consumers through a strategy that's both regional and local. Global companies must revamp their corporate structures so that operations in Asia enjoy a high status commensurate with its long-term profit potential and have the autonomy needed for significant results. They have to focus on growth opportunities in urban clusters. Their products and prices must be tailored to local preferences. Finally, they must learn how to market, sell, and distribute products through a variety of channels and retail formats. For global consumer companies, building this kind of regional–local structure can be an enormous challenge—but it can't be ignored. Instead of treating Asia as a sideshow, they must act on the assumption that success in Asian markets is necessary for survival.Go where the growth is Asia won't replace the United States as the lead engine of global growth—at least not for five to ten years. At the end of 2008, the GDP of the whole of Asia was just under $14 trillion, roughly the same as the GDP of the United States alone. Private consumption accounted for only about half of Asia's GDP, compared with 72 percent in the United States. Asia's three billion people spent less than $7 trillion; America's 300 million, upward of $10 trillion.1 1. Global Insight. Unless otherwise noted, Asia as used in this article comprises the following economies: Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Nepal, New Zealand, the Pacific Islands, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. If Asia fails to stoke internal consumption, the region may grow more slowly over the next decade than it did in the last (see "A consumer paradigm for China"). Yet some observers think private consumption in the region's emerging economies could grow enough, as early as this year, to offset falling consumption in the United States and the European Union. Even under dour assumptions about the prospects for Asian economies, the region is likely to contribute more than half of all growth in global consumption by 2020. Such macroeconomic perspectives understate Asia's significance for individual companies. In dozens of product categories, the Asian consumer is already global king. China is the world's biggest market for many household products, including TVs, refrigerators, and air conditioners. This year, for the first time ever, China will probably top the United States and Japan as the world's largest automobile market by number of vehicles sold. China's rank may slip back again as sales in those two advanced economies recover. Even so, with China's car ownership at fewer than 14 vehicles per thousand citizens, compared with more than 400 per thousand in the United States, the long-term trend is clear. For manufacturers such as GM and Volkswagen, which made big bets in China early, booming sales there help offset home market losses. Later arrivals like Ford and the big Japanese carmakers (see sidebar "Japan's frustrations in China") are scrambling to catch up. Sidebar LinkedIn Twitter Facebook Email Japan's frustrations in China Japanese companies were among the earliest to enter China when it opened its doors to foreigners, three decades ago. The leading Japanese brewer Suntory, for example, was the first foreign company to form a joint venture in China's beer market. Lawson, Japan's second-largest convenience store chain, was the first overseas retailer to get a franchise in Shanghai. But discouraging experiences in the early years created a sense of skepticism about the prospects for long-term success. Today, Japan's consumer companies lag far behind their global rivals in China, despite that early market entry, geographic proximity, and the Chinese consumer's high regard for the quality of Japanese brands. A McKinsey analysis of 12 consumer-facing industries found that, except for a few standouts in areas such as automotive and skincare, Japan's leading consumer companies struggle in China. Some have abandoned hope of building successful businesses there and are focusing on other areas, such as Southeast Asia. Sectors where Japanese companies have had particular difficulty include packaged foods, personal care, household care, PCs, and mobile handsets. A McKinsey survey of senior executives at more than 30 leading Japanese companies (primarily in the consumer sector) found that the respondents generally saw China as an essential market. Yet many acknowledged that their companies had experienced only limited success there and expressed feelings of frustration, even futility, about the possibilities for improvement. A surprising number thought it was too late to establish a significant presence. Almost all the respondents expected less than 10 percent of their companies' revenues to come from China over the next three to five years; more than half said less than 5 percent. More than 70 percent of the respondents thought that now is the right time for further investments in China; 21 percent said that it's already too late or that they felt unsure whether investments make sense now. Sixty percent reported that Chinese nationals accounted for less than a tenth of the executives their companies employ in China. Only 25 percent said that they have programs to let Chinese executives spend time in Japan. Respondents at just two companies characterized their Chinese operations as "highly independent" from headquarters. Many respondents expressed frustration with China's weak legal and regulatory systems, but they acknowledged the problems their companies have in managing government relations, attracting capable Chinese employees, and tailoring products to the needs and budgets of local consumers. Those difficulties are all the more striking given China's strategic importance to companies based in Japan, whose home market is mature and shrinking. For many Japanese consumer companies, success in China could prove the key to global competitiveness—or even survival. No company illustrates Asia's potential better than Yum! Brands, the proprietor of KFC and Pizza Hut. KFC opened its first restaurant on China's mainland in 1987, now operates 2,497 in the country (compared with 5,253 in the United States), and counts on it for nearly 30 percent of global revenue. Yum!'s total sales there, which soared 31 percent last year, helped the company shrug off the US recession. CEO David Novak, who tells investors that Yum!'s business in China is merely "in the first inning of a nine-inning ball game," vows the company will eventually have more than 20,000 restaurants in the country. He says KFC in China "can be every bit as big as McDonald's in the US." But for many global companies with operations in China, a new phase is about to begin. The past decade was a time of market entry and gradual increase in scale. In the coming decade, overseas players will push for market leadership. India's consumer market lags behind China's by five to ten years, but similar stories of booming growth are unfolding there. Already, India is the world's fastest-growing mobile-phone market, adding more than ten million new subscribers a month. Its top consumer companies, including Hindustan Unilever, Nestlé India, Godrej Consumer Products, and Colgate Palmolive, have posted cumulative annual growth rates of 14 to 19 percent over the past five years while sales at the country's leading retailer, Pantaloon Retail, soared by 68 percent. Throughout Asia, products and market segments are growing explosively, in sudden waves of 70 to 100 percent expansion that could run for years. Global businesses that can't ride those waves may drown in them.Change the game Asia's emerging markets are a hypercompetitive free-for-all. Local rivals offer products with incremental innovations in ever-shorter product cycles—typically, at prices global companies find hard to match. Consumers don't know established global brands and show little loyalty to the brands they do know. Marketing strategies are complicated by the uneven development of Asia's telecom networks. The predominance of small, family-owned retail outlets thwarts efforts to control the distribution and display of products. For global consumer giants, fidelity to methods that work back home can be futile. Leverage innovation and talent through regional teams One key to success is rethinking organizational models. Many global companies try to use an international division run from the global home office to supervise their operations in Asia. Companies with large operations there may well have a regional headquarters, but often it oversees an assortment of country-specific fiefdoms that don't collaborate and sometimes operate in their own languages, frustrating communication. For Asia, that's often the worst model, leaving C-level executives at headquarters two layers from the most important growth markets, oblivious to the speed of change and the scale of the opportunity. So global consumer companies are experimenting with alternative management practices and organizational models to ensure that Asian operations get the capital, talent, and C-level attention they need to compete. Some companies organize Asian operations as independent business units, with their own capital budgets, partnerships, and P&Ls. Yum! Brands, for instance, has three divisions: the United States, China, and elsewhere. In 2008, after years of running retail operations in China and Japan separately, Wal-Mart Stores established an Asia office in Hong Kong to spread best practices across the region. Often, successful Asian organizational models involve teams of senior executives with diverse cultural and market experiences, who work together to improve performance throughout the region. These regional teams set priorities, as well as mobilize expertise and resources to achieve scale advantages that can't be realized at the level of any single Asian market. They plan strategically; drive supply chain and cost-cutting initiatives; oversee recruitment, product development, and strategic alliances; and make crucial decisions about distribution channels, formats, and categories. Collaboration and a sense of entrepreneurial pace characterize these regional teams. Top executives and specialists hop around markets, encouraging product designers in China, for example, to learn from innovations in Japan or a supply chain leader in India or to investigate techniques that simplified operations and lowered costs in Malaysia. According to many executives, getting managers throughout the region to speak a common language is essential for spreading such best practices. Think cities, not regions or countries To be effective in Asia, consumer companies must think regionally but sell locally: they do better by focusing on urban clusters than by conceiving of an entire country as one market. In recent years, many multinationals have tried to understand Asian markets more precisely by dividing them into subnational megaregions or attempting to craft multitier urban strategies based on population size or household income. Because these approaches miss crucial variations in consumer preferences and behavior, resources are invested less than optimally. McKinsey's experience suggests that in Asia, urban clusters are the most appropriate strategic and marketing unit for consumer businesses. Often, we advise clients to forget the forest and see the trees. In developed and emerging Asia alike, cities are by far the dominant nodes of mass consumption, and their importance will surely grow. In Japan, more than half of all consumers live in Tokyo or Osaka. A fifth of South Korea's live in Seoul. In China, the McKinsey Global Institute estimates, more than 350 million people will leave the countryside by 2025, creating more than 23 megacities with populations upward of 5 million.2 2. For the full McKinsey Global Institute report, see Preparing for China's urban billion, available free of charge online at mckinsey.com/mgi. In India, more than 700 million people will make the same journey by 2050, creating as many as 36 megacities. The scale of these migrations has no precedent. They will create huge opportunities for global consumer companies—but also huge headaches. After pouring into the cities of China and India, the migrants will assume new social identities. They will be open to new foods, fashions, forms of entertainment, and ways of living, but they will be fickle customers unfamiliar with established brands. Asked to identify the top contenders in apparel, Asia's new urbanites are as apt to name local upstarts as, say, Louis Vuitton or Gucci. As they prosper, their preferences will probably grow more diverse. In 2005, when McKinsey initiated extensive surveys of Chinese consumers, we found that the size and GDP of the cities where they lived predicted their spending habits reliably. People who lived in Beijing, Shanghai, and other first-tier cities, for example, tended to buy similar products. Over the next three years, as the number of China's middle- and high-income households tripled, geography became more important. By 2008, city of residence predicted 9 out of 12 of these attitudes (For more, see "Understanding China's wealthy"). Thus, in recent years, the market for premium refrigerators has grown by 20 percent in Shanghai but by only 8 percent in neighboring Nanjing. Consumers in Guangzhou are much more likely to buy cameras with sophisticated LCD screens than those in Shenzhen, another first-tier city only 100 kilometers away, who demand portable, thin models. Global companies must think carefully about where and how to play in Asia's urban markets.Customize locally, don't tweak Long gone are the days when global companies could charge Asians a premium to buy products designed for consumers in developed markets. It's not enough even to tweak existing product lines for Asian sensibilities. Success now requires the ability not only to understand regional and local tastes and preferences but also to design products and services in Asia. South Korea's LG Electronics struggled when it came to India in the 1990s until a change in foreign-investment rules enabled the company to invest in local design and manufacturing facilities.3 3. See Pramath Raj Sinha, "Premium marketing to the masses: An interview with LG Electronics India's managing director," mckinseyquarterly.com, September 2005. Noting, for example, that many Indians use their TVs to listen to music, LG introduced new models with better speakers and, to keep prices competitive, less costly displays. The company marketed many other original products, including appliances with programming menus in local languages, refrigerators with brighter colors and smaller freezers, large washing machines for India's big families, and microwaves with one-touch "Indian menu" functions. Those innovations were possible because LG invested heavily in local R&D and staffed its operations with thousands of top-notch Indian designers and engineers. LG's product innovation center in Bangalore is the company's largest outside South Korea. The company is India's market leader in TVs, refrigerators, air conditioners, and washing machines. Local design is all the more important in Asia because customers in many of its markets expect a very wide variety of offerings and short innovation cycles. Yum! Brands' Pizza Hut restaurants in China sell as much Chinese food as pizza, and in 2004 the company launched a new chain, East Dawning, that serves only Chinese food. KFC tailors menus to local palates and launches new items every month. Tingyi, the Taiwanese company that is the mainland's leading instant-noodle vendor, used local designers to reshape a whole product category, creating separate premium and low-cost brands. In Asia, price is a crucial part of customization. For all but a few categories, volume—not a high profit margin—is the key to sustainable success. Products in categories such as apparel, automotive, and consumer electronics are sinking to price points that were unthinkable only a few years ago. What's more, sophisticated consumer companies like P&G and Hindustan Lever have repeatedly found that compelling entry-level products and brands are essential for attracting consumers to higher-priced ones, often by "de-engineering" premium products to focus on the features and attributes that Asian customers value most. P&G, for example, cut the price of Crest toothpaste more than 50 percent in China by reducing the cost of packaging, which is less important to consumers than being able to choose from a variety of flavors. Financing can play a role too. Levi Strauss recently announced that it would let customers in India pay in three monthly installments for jeans costing more than $33. A pilot version of the program, in Bangalore, showed the company that consumers who took advantage of this option spent an average of 50 percent more. Introducing it enabled Levi Strauss to preserve the status of its jeans as an upmarket, aspirational product, while bringing them within reach of millions of less affluent young consumers. In pushing prices lower, supply chain management matters no less than financing and design. Asia's savviest consumer businesses have embraced the techniques pioneered by fast-fashion retailers and Japanese automakers in picking up the pace and lowering the costs of the entire supply chain. LG, for instance, has shortened order-fulfillment cycles in Asia from months to just weeks. Retailers and consumer product companies are learning that fast supply chains for some categories assure fresher products and a quicker response to trends in everything from fashion to consumer electronics.Learn to market and sell across a variety of channels Penetration rates for traditional and online media are lower in developing Asia than in developed markets, so efforts to influence purchase decisions are more complex. Consumer companies must be adept at shaping the consumers' view of brands across a number of channels and through a variety of media—not only TV, radio, print, and the Internet, but also events, outdoor ads, mobile messaging, in-store promotions, and educational campaigns. Managing this shift to multichannel retailing and sales calls for new approaches to marketing and brand building. Modern retail chains account for only about a third of all consumer goods sales in China and for less than a fifth in India; small, family-run shops are much more important. In all formats, consumer product companies must somehow influence access to shelf space and display, since point-of-sale factors have an ever greater impact on purchase decisions. For now, key-account management is less important in Asia than it is in developed markets. Many global companies get things wrong because they attempt to rely on the sales teams of third-party distributors and the key-account-management routines that worked at home or in the past. Adapting quickly to capture growth from direct-to-consumer channels will also probably become more important in Asia, as it already is elsewhere. In some urban clusters, for categories such as consumer electronics and apparel, online sales growth is beginning to overtake traditional channels. In Japan, sales in direct channels have exceeded those in department stores so far this year. Sales at TaoBao, China's largest online retailer, have soared to more than $14 billion annually since it was launched, in 2003. Lancôme reports that its partnership with Baidu, China's largest search engine, helped lift online sales in China by 30 percent. And AmWay has become one of China's largest consumer packaged-goods companies by selling its products door-to-door through a network of 300,000 sales representatives. As Asia's economies evolve and mature, today's frenetic, hypercompetitive, fragmented marketplace will inevitably give way to a more settled one, with fewer players enjoying larger market shares and better margins. The penetration of modern retail formats will increase. But the journey will be long and filled with twists and turns. As the winners learn to make decisions quickly to meet the demand for speed, scale, localization, and low costs, they will test and adopt new and more entrepreneurial management practices. These companies will probably share four characteristics. Their fast, adaptive business models will leverage scale and innovation throughout Asia, and regional organizational structures and operating practices will reflect this shift. But resources will be focused locally, on the development of category, format, and brand strategies targeting the explosive growth opportunities of sharply defined urban clusters, not countries. Products tailored and priced to meet cluster-level tastes and needs will be supported by faster, lower-cost supply chains. Finally, brand marketing skills will be used to market and sell across a variety of channels. For global consumer businesses, the struggle for Asia has now been joined—cluster by cluster, city by city.


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Cat5e Green Ethernet Patch Cable, Bootless, 25 foot
Product Description
Cat5e Ethernet cables of the 25 foot length have a variety of uses. These cables will provide a greater reach for those situations that require more serious distances. These Ethernet Cables are great for the home office or any other environment.
This particular cable is a green UTP (Unshielded Twisted Pair) bootless patch cable. The individual conductors are 24 AWG (American wire gauge) stranded pure copper. Cat5e patch cables are stranded to improve flexibility. Pure copper conductors provide the best signal possible. The RJ45 plug features gold connectors to prevent corrosion thus ensuring a longer cable life. Our Cat5e Ethernet patch cables exceed the EIA/TIA-568-C standard.


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MIIS Students Gain Professional Experience Working on Environmental Issues Around the World
Spanning the globe and addressing a wide range of issues, students in the International Environmental Policy program at the Monterey Institute are adding valuable field training to their academic studies through high quality internship placements designed to advance their career aspirations.
Nina Geller (MAIEP '14) has focused on Chinese environmental issues in her studies and had the opportunity this summer to work with Roots & Shoots in China, an international environmental educational organization founded by Jane Goodall.
Her main project was working on content for the organization's bilingual website, but she also participated in events, talking with locals about the environmental cost of shark-fin soup. She also helped with research and content for a bilingual brochure to be distributed to Chinese companies to compel them to sign a "no-shark" pledge. "My internship not only gave more Chinese language competency skills in environmental terms, it showed me from an NGO perspective what grassroots work is being done in China."
Nina Geller (center) interns in Beijing, China.
Tiffany Carlson's (MAIEP '14) concentration is Ocean and Coastal Resource Management and she spent the summer in Denmark on a Center for the Blue Economy fellowship working for Maersk Drilling. The primary project she worked on involved revamping and updating their Environmental Management Program (EMP) Advisor Tool. "From the initial set-up of the rig to its decommissioning, drilling operations inevitably leave an environmental footprint," Tiffany says, explaining that each drilling team uses the tool to create their own EMP, thus increasing their awareness of the issues involved. "I truly enjoyed my time in Denmark and definitely feel I learned a great deal during my internship."
Whitney Hales (MBA/MAIEP '14) had the "amazing" opportunity to spend two months in southern Belize this summer as part of the Frontier Market Scouts program, working for Maya Mountain Cacao (MMC). The small social enterprise sources premium, organic cacao from small holder farms, centrally processes it and exports to luxury beans-to-bar chocolate makers. "As a business and environmental policy student, I was drawn to the MMC by its mission," Whitney shares and adds that she assisted in laying the foundation for establishing the non-profit, designed and published the 2013 Impact Repost and managed all social media marketing. "MMC's focus on addressing both social and environmental problems while providing a high-quality, desired product provided me with the ideal learning experience and job skill development needed to prepare me for the future work I wish to have."
For More Information
Jason Warburg
Eva Gudbergsdottir


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Final gov't birth control rule for faith groups
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration issued its final compromise Friday for religiously affiliated charities, hospitals and other nonprofits that object to covering birth control in their employee health plans.
The Health and Human Services Department said the final plan simplifies how insurers provide the coverage separately from faith-based groups and gives religious nonprofits more time to comply. However, the changes are unlikely to resolve objections from faith groups that the requirement violates their religious freedom.
More than 60 lawsuits have been filed challenging the rule. The cases are expected to reach the Supreme Court.
The birth-control rule was first introduced in February 2012, as part of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, drawing praise from women's groups and condemnation from religious leaders. The original plan exempted churches and other houses of worship, but required faith-affiliated charities, universities and other nonprofits to provide the coverage for their employees.
The regulation became an election-year issue as Roman Catholic bishops, evangelicals and some religious leaders who have generally been supportive of Obama's policies lobbied fiercely for a broader exemption. The Obama administration offered a series of accommodations, leading to the final rules released Friday.
Under the compromise, administration officials said they simplified the definition of religious organizations that are fully exempt from the requirement. The change means a church that also ran a soup kitchen would not have to comply.
Other religious nonprofits must notify their insurance company that they object to birth control coverage. The insurer or administrator of the plan will then notify affected employees separately that coverage will be provided at no cost. The insurers would be reimbursed by a credit against fees owed the government.
Michael Hash, director of the health reform office of the Health and Human Services Department, said the final regulation spells out in more detail the buffer between religious charities and contraceptive coverage. Faith-based groups were given another reprieve — until Jan. 1 — to comply.
"There's a much brighter line here — a simpler line — and we think that responds to a good many of the comments that we got," said Michael Hash, director of the Health and Human Services office of health reform. More than 400,000 comments were submitted over the last several months, the agency said.
Judy Waxman of the National Women's Law Center, an advocacy group based in Washington, said she would prefer women hear directly about the coverage from their insurer, but her organization could accept the plan. "It's fair," she said.
However, Eric Rassbach, an attorney with the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a public interest law firm challenging the contraception coverage rule, said "it doesn't really change the overall way they're trying to do this." The Becket Fund represents many of organizations challenging the regulation in federal court.
The Catholic Church prohibits the use of artificial contraception. Evangelicals generally accept the use of birth control, but some object to specific methods such as the morning-after contraceptive pill, which they argue is tantamount to abortion, and is covered under the policy.
The lawsuits are split almost evenly between nonprofit plaintiffs — including several Roman Catholic dioceses — and for-profit businesses who say the rules go against their religious beliefs. For-profit businesses are not included in the accommodation released Friday and were not eligible for the time extension.
The Oklahoma-based Hobby Lobby Stores Inc. is the largest and best-known of the businesses that have sued. On Thursday, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver allowed the lawsuit to move forward on religious grounds. The judges said the portion of the law that requires them to offer certain kinds of birth control to their employees is particularly onerous and sent the case back to a lower court, which had rejected the companies' request for an injunction to prevent full enforcement of the new law. Businesses that fail to comply potentially face fines, which for Hobby Lobby could reach into the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Many of the nonprofit lawsuits had been put on hold until the final rules were announced.
Neither the Catholic Health Association, a trade group for hospitals, nor the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops had an immediate reaction Friday, saying the regulations were still being studied. New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, president of the bishops' conference, said he appreciated the time extension.


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Upgrading from Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 to Core i7-4770K
POV-Ray 3.7 beta
The Persistence of Vision Ray-Tracer was developed from DKBTrace 2.12 (written by David K. Buck and Aaron A. Collins) by a bunch of people (called the POV-Team) in their spare time. It is a high-quality, totally free tool for creating stunning three-dimensional graphics. It is available in official versions for Windows, Mac OS/Mac OS X and i86 Linux. The POV-Ray package includes detailed instructions on using the ray-tracer and creating scenes. Many stunning scenes are included with POV-Ray so you can start creating images immediately when you get the package. These scenes can be modified so you do not have to start from scratch. In addition to the pre-defined scenes, a large library of pre-defined shapes and materials is provided. You can include these shapes and materials in your own scenes by just including the library file name at the top of your scene file and by using the shape or material name in your scene. Since this is free software, feel free to download this version and try it out on your own.
The most significant change from the end-user point of view between versions 3.6 and 3.7 is the addition of SMP (symmetric multiprocessing) support, which, in a nutshell, allows the renderer to run on as many CPU's as you have installed on your computer. This will be particularly useful for those users who intend on purchasing a dual-core CPU or who already have a two (or more) processor machine. On a two-CPU system the rendering speed in some scenes almost doubles. For our benchmarking we used version 3.7 RC5, which is the most recent version available. The benchmark used all available cores to their fullest extent to complete the render.
Once rendering on the object we selected was completed, we took the elapsed time from the dialog box, which indicates the exact time it took for the benchmark to finish the benchmark. A lower time indicates faster system performance. This benchmark used all 8 threads and loaded each one up at 100% load!
Performance Results: It took a whopping 458.64 seconds for the old Q6600 system to complete this benchmark. The new 4770k system literally ran circles around the Q6600 and completed the benchmark in 163.47 seconds!
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DCH marks 90th birthday as 'heart of community'
Hospital was founded in 1923
TUSCALOOSA | DCH Regional Medical Center — formerly Druid City Hospital — opened its doors in Tuscaloosa 90 years ago today.
At the time, a special "hospital edition" of The Tuscaloosa News heralded its opening as "the greatest achievement from a humanitarian viewpoint accomplished by the present generation" and said that it was something that took "personal sacrifice." It replaced the infirmary that previously served the town.
When the hospital opened its doors on March 28, 1923, the building located on University Boulevard on the University of Alabama's campus served 50 patients. Almost immediately, the hospital's leaders discovered a need for $25,000 in equipment for the new hospital. The money was raised by the community within a week, according to the DCH Foundation.
Druid City Hospital later expanded to 80 beds to serve Tuscaloosa's growing population. But by World War II, just 20 years after the hospital was built, Tuscaloosa's population had outgrown its modest hospital.
"DCH has expanded and always become larger, and kept adding on to parts of the hospital," said Maxine Walker, a former director of the School of Nursing at the University of Alabama. Walker first began working with DCH in 1945.
At the time, Joseph Allen Duckworth, president of the private nonprofit corporation that operated the hospital, challenged the "new generation to put up as did the founders" to bring to Tuscaloosa and Northport the quality health care they deserved.
The private, nonprofit board that had operated the hospital since it opened could not raise money needed to keep up with the needs of a growing hospital, so the board turned DCH over to the city and county in 1946, according to DCH records. A nine-member board of directors was also created to lead the hospital, with members appointed by the local government.
Later that year, government officials leased a portion of Northington General Hospital, a temporary Army hospital that closed at the end of World War II. The Northington complex, where University Mall now stands, served as a temporary home for Druid City Hospital until a new hospital could be financed and constructed. A 1-cent sales tax was adopted at the time to finance the construction of a new hospital.
The new 240-bed hospital, which opened in December 1952, featured piped-in oxygen at every bedside, four major operating rooms and the state's first surgical recovery room.
DCH continued to grow to keep pace with its evolving role as a regional medical center serving a seven-county area of more than 220,000 people. Additions from 1958 to 1976 brought DCH to 496 beds, and the opening of a five-story wing in 1976 made DCH the state's third largest hospital.
As a regional medical center, DCH attracted physician specialists and constructed specialty units, including an intensive care nursery, coronary and intensive care units, subintensive care units, open-heart surgery, an orthopedic unit and a pediatric unit. A state-of-the-art cancer center — later named the Lewis and Faye Manderson Cancer Center at DCH — opened its doors in 2009.
In 2012, the hospital served more than 23,000 admitted patients and 1,723 babies were born, according to hospital data.
Lucy Jordan, a former director of volunteer services with DCH, said that although the building has changed much over the years, it's the people who dedicate their lives to serving the patients at DCH that has made DCH so special. Jordan began working with the hospital's volunteer service in the early 1970s.
"You wouldn't find more dedicated people anywhere," Jordan said. "The hospital contributes so much to the livelihood of the West Alabama area."
DCH has been part of the lifeblood of the Tuscaloosa community for many years, although it was most evident during and after the April 27, 2011, tornado, said Jordan, who was a patient at DCH that day.
"We've had several big emergencies like the storm over the years, and all the emergency calamities have been handled well," Jordan said. "I was surprised and thrilled with the actions of the nursing staff all over the hospital (during the April 27, 2011 tornado.) It impressed me so much."
But, she would expect DCH to go above and beyond for the Tuscaloosa community, she said.
"(DCH) has always been at the heart of the community," Jordan said.
Reach Lydia Seabol Avant at 205-722-0222 or email@example.com.