text:
In order to analyze the effect of rain enrichment on soil respiration rate of a Nitraria sphaerocarpa community,we measured soil respiration rate in bare and vegetated areas in a hyperarid area(Dunhuang)during the growing season.Results show that rain enrichment can increase bare and vegetated soil respiration rates.The more rainfall enrichment,the greater the increment and the longer duration time effect for soil respiration rate.200%(16 mm)and 300%(24 mm)of rain enrichment can significantly increase bare soil respiration rates by 90%and 106%(P<0.01),respectively.By contrast,areas with 100%(8 mm),200%(16 mm)and 300%(24 mm)of rain enrichment can significantly increase shrub area respiration rates by 68%,157%and 205%(P<0.01),respectively.The response time of bare and vegetated soil respiration to rainfall enrichment is asynchronous.Response variable of soil respiration in vegetated soil is higher(118%)than in bare soil.There was significant positive correlation between soil respiration rate and soil water content during the growing season(P<0.01).For every 1 mm increment of precipitation,soil respiration rate increased by 0.01 and 0.04μmol/(m2·s),respectively in vegetated and bare soils.
Chen S, Lin G, Huang J, He M, 2008. Responses of soil respiration tosimulated precipitation pulses in semiarid steppe under differentgrazing regimes. Journal of Plant Ecology, 1: 237-246.
Conant RT, Klopatek JM, Klopatek CC, 2000. Environmental factorscontrolling soil respiration in three semiarid ecosystems. Soil Sci-ence Society of America Journal, 64: 383-390.
Gao XJ, Zhao ZC, Ding YH, Huang RH, Giorgi F, 2001. Climatechange due to greenhouse effects in China as simulated by regionalclimate model. Advance in Atmosphere Science, 18: 1224-1230.
Gao YH, Zhang ZS, Liu LC, Jia RL, 2009. Effects of revegetation onsoil respiration in the Tengger Desert. Acta Pedologica Sinica,46(4): 626-633.
Huang X, Li WH, Ma JX, Chen YP, Zhu CG, 2011. Influence of pho-tosynthesis on soil respiration rates for Populus euphratica in dif-ferent light conditions in arid environments. Journal of Desert Re-search, 31(5): 1167-1173.
Huxman TE, Snyder KA, Tissue DT, Leffler AJ, Ogle K, Pockman WT,Sandquist DR, Potts DL, Schwinning S, 2004. Precipitation pulses and carbon fluxes in semiarid and arid ecosystems. Oecologia, 141:254-268.
IPCC, 2007a. Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis,Summary for Policymakers. Contribution of Working Group I tothe Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel onClimate Change. Geneva, Switzerland.
IPCC, 2007b. Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vul-nerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth Assess-ment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In:Parry ML, Canziani OF, Palutikof JP, van der Linden PJ, Paul J,Hanson CE (eds.). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UnitedKingdom.
Jin Z, Qi YC, Dong YS, 2007. Diurnal and seasonal dynamics of soilrespiration in desert shrubland of Artemisia ordosica on OrdosPlateau of Inner Mongolia, China. Journal of Forestry Research,18(3): 231-235.
Lee MS, Nakane K, Nakatsubo T, Mo W, Koizumi H, 2002. Effects ofrainfall events on soil CO 2 flux in a cool temperate deciduousbroad-leaved forest. Ecological Research, 17: 401-409.
Li DL, Cao GM, Wu Q, Li YM, Wang YH, 2005. The seasonal changerule of CO 2 release rate in alpine Potentilla fruticosa shrub mead-ow ecosystem. Pratacultural Science, 22(5): 4-9.
Li YQ, Zhao HL, Zhao XY, Zhang TH, Liu XP, 2008. Responses ofsoil respiration to air temperature from June to September in dif-ferent sand dunes, Horqin Sandy Land. Journal of Desert Research,28(2): 249-254.
Li YQ, Zhao XY, Liu XP, Shang W, Feng J, Su N, 2011. Soil carbonsequestration in sand-fixation plantation of Pinus sylvestris var.mongolica and response of soil respiration to drought and wet con-ditions. Journal of Desert Research, 31(2): 282-287.
Liu X, Wan S, Su B, Hui D, Luo Y, 2002. Responses of soil CO 2 effluxto water manipulation in a tall grass prairie ecosystem. Plant andSoil, 240: 213-223.
Marland G, Boden TA, Andres RJ, 2000. Global regional and nationalCO 2 emissions. In: Trends a Compendium of Date on GlobalChange Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center. Oak Ridge:Oak Ridge National Laboratory, US Department of Energy.
Meng XL, Chen SP, Wei L, Lin GH, 2009. Temporal and spatial varia-tions of soil respiration in an Artemisia ordosica shrubland ecosys-tem in Kubuqi Desert. Environmental Science, 30(4): 1152-1158.
Musslman RC, Fox DG, 1991. A review of the role of temperate forestin the global CO 2 balance. Air Waste Manage Assoc., 41: 798-807.
NAST, 2000. Climate change impacts of the United States: the poten-tial consequences of climate variability and change. Overview.Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
Norton U, Mosier AR, Morgan JA, Derner JD, Ingram LJ, Stah PD,2008. Moisture pulses, trace gas emissions and soil C and N incheat grass and native grass-dominated sage-brush-steppe in Wyo-ming, USA. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 40: 1421-1431.
Raich JW, Schlesinger WH, 1992. The global carbon dioxide flux insoil respiration and its relationship to vegetation and climate. Tellus(Series B), 44: 81-99.
Reynolds JF, 2001. Desertification. In: Levin SA (ed.). Encyclopediaof Biodiversity, Vol. 2. Academic Press, San Diego, pp. 61-78.
Ryan AS, 2007. Precipitation pulses and soil CO 2 flux in a SonoranDesert ecosystem. Global Change Biology, 13: 426-436.
Schlesinger WH, Andrews JA, 2000. Soil respiration and the 14 globalcarbon cycle. Biogeochemistry, 48: 7-20.
Shi YF, Shen YP, 2003. Signal, impact and outlook of climatic shiftfrom warm-dry to warm-humid in northwest China. Science andTechnology Review, 23(2): 54-57.
Shi YF, Shen YP, Li DL, Zhang GW, Ding YJ, Hu RJ, Kang ES, 2003.Discussion on the present climate change from warm-dry towarm-wet in northwest China. Quaternary Science, 23(2):152-164.
Sponseller RA, 2007. Precipitation pulses and soil CO 2 flux in a Son-oran Desert ecosystem. Global Change Biology, 13: 426-436.
Tao GT, Zhao J, Sun QZ, 2008. Effect of perennial cultivated forage onsoil respiration of sandy land. Journal of Desert Research, 28(2):301-305.
Wang Y, Cao MK, Tao B, Li KR, 2006. The characteristics of spa-tio-temporal patterns in precipitation in China under the back-ground of global climate change. Geographical Research, 25(6):1031-1040.
Wang YD, Wang HM, Ma QZ, Li QK, Shi LL, Xu F, 2010. Review ofresponse mechanism of soil respiration to rainfall. Chinese Journalof Plant Ecology, 34(5): 601-610.
West NE, Stark JM, Johnson DW, Abrams MM, Wight JR, Heggem D,Peck S, 1994. Effects of climatic change on the edaphic features ofarid and semiarid lands of western North America. Arid Soil Re-search and Rehabilitation, 8: 307-351.
Xu Y, Tian L, Xu CS, 2009. A Cutting Propagation Device useFull-light Automatic Spray Technology. China, 200720191044.Zhai PM, Pan XH, 2003. Change in extreme temperature and precipi-tation over northern China during the second half of the 20th cen-tury. Acta Geographica Sinica, 58: 1-10.
Zhang LH, Chen YN, Li WH, Zhao RF, 2007. Soil carbon dioxideemission and affecting factors under Haloxylon ammodendroncommunity in Junggar Basin. Journal of Desert Research, 27(2):266-272.

lowercased:
in order to analyze the effect of rain enrichment on soil respiration rate of a nitraria sphaerocarpa community,we measured soil respiration rate in bare and vegetated areas in a hyperarid area(dunhuang)during the growing season.results show that rain enrichment can increase bare and vegetated soil respiration rates.the more rainfall enrichment,the greater the increment and the longer duration time effect for soil respiration rate.200%(16 mm)and 300%(24 mm)of rain enrichment can significantly increase bare soil respiration rates by 90%and 106%(p<0.01),respectively.by contrast,areas with 100%(8 mm),200%(16 mm)and 300%(24 mm)of rain enrichment can significantly increase shrub area respiration rates by 68%,157%and 205%(p<0.01),respectively.the response time of bare and vegetated soil respiration to rainfall enrichment is asynchronous.response variable of soil respiration in vegetated soil is higher(118%)than in bare soil.there was significant positive correlation between soil respiration rate and soil water content during the growing season(p<0.01).for every 1 mm increment of precipitation,soil respiration rate increased by 0.01 and 0.04μmol/(m2·s),respectively in vegetated and bare soils.
chen s, lin g, huang j, he m, 2008. responses of soil respiration tosimulated precipitation pulses in semiarid steppe under differentgrazing regimes. journal of plant ecology, 1: 237-246.
conant rt, klopatek jm, klopatek cc, 2000. environmental factorscontrolling soil respiration in three semiarid ecosystems. soil sci-ence society of america journal, 64: 383-390.
gao xj, zhao zc, ding yh, huang rh, giorgi f, 2001. climatechange due to greenhouse effects in china as simulated by regionalclimate model. advance in atmosphere science, 18: 1224-1230.
gao yh, zhang zs, liu lc, jia rl, 2009. effects of revegetation onsoil respiration in the tengger desert. acta pedologica sinica,46(4): 626-633.
huang x, li wh, ma jx, chen yp, zhu cg, 2011. influence of pho-tosynthesis on soil respiration rates for populus euphratica in dif-ferent light conditions in arid environments. journal of desert re-search, 31(5): 1167-1173.
huxman te, snyder ka, tissue dt, leffler aj, ogle k, pockman wt,sandquist dr, potts dl, schwinning s, 2004. precipitation pulses and carbon fluxes in semiarid and arid ecosystems. oecologia, 141:254-268.
ipcc, 2007a. climate change 2007: the physical science basis,summary for policymakers. contribution of working group i tothe fourth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel onclimate change. geneva, switzerland.
ipcc, 2007b. climate change 2007: impacts, adaptation, and vul-nerability. contribution of working group ii to the fourth assess-ment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. in:parry ml, canziani of, palutikof jp, van der linden pj, paul j,hanson ce (eds.). cambridge university press, cambridge, unitedkingdom.
jin z, qi yc, dong ys, 2007. diurnal and seasonal dynamics of soilrespiration in desert shrubland of artemisia ordosica on ordosplateau of inner mongolia, china. journal of forestry research,18(3): 231-235.
lee ms, nakane k, nakatsubo t, mo w, koizumi h, 2002. effects ofrainfall events on soil co 2 flux in a cool temperate deciduousbroad-leaved forest. ecological research, 17: 401-409.
li dl, cao gm, wu q, li ym, wang yh, 2005. the seasonal changerule of co 2 release rate in alpine potentilla fruticosa shrub mead-ow ecosystem. pratacultural science, 22(5): 4-9.
li yq, zhao hl, zhao xy, zhang th, liu xp, 2008. responses ofsoil respiration to air temperature from june to september in dif-ferent sand dunes, horqin sandy land. journal of desert research,28(2): 249-254.
li yq, zhao xy, liu xp, shang w, feng j, su n, 2011. soil carbonsequestration in sand-fixation plantation of pinus sylvestris var.mongolica and response of soil respiration to drought and wet con-ditions. journal of desert research, 31(2): 282-287.
liu x, wan s, su b, hui d, luo y, 2002. responses of soil co 2 effluxto water manipulation in a tall grass prairie ecosystem. plant andsoil, 240: 213-223.
marland g, boden ta, andres rj, 2000. global regional and nationalco 2 emissions. in: trends a compendium of date on globalchange carbon dioxide information analysis center. oak ridge:oak ridge national laboratory, us department of energy.
meng xl, chen sp, wei l, lin gh, 2009. temporal and spatial varia-tions of soil respiration in an artemisia ordosica shrubland ecosys-tem in kubuqi desert. environmental science, 30(4): 1152-1158.
musslman rc, fox dg, 1991. a review of the role of temperate forestin the global co 2 balance. air waste manage assoc., 41: 798-807.
nast, 2000. climate change impacts of the united states: the poten-tial consequences of climate variability and change. overview.cambridge university press, cambridge, uk.
norton u, mosier ar, morgan ja, derner jd, ingram lj, stah pd,2008. moisture pulses, trace gas emissions and soil c and n incheat grass and native grass-dominated sage-brush-steppe in wyo-ming, usa. soil biology and biochemistry, 40: 1421-1431.
raich jw, schlesinger wh, 1992. the global carbon dioxide flux insoil respiration and its relationship to vegetation and climate. tellus(series b), 44: 81-99.
reynolds jf, 2001. desertification. in: levin sa (ed.). encyclopediaof biodiversity, vol. 2. academic press, san diego, pp. 61-78.
ryan as, 2007. precipitation pulses and soil co 2 flux in a sonorandesert ecosystem. global change biology, 13: 426-436.
schlesinger wh, andrews ja, 2000. soil respiration and the 14 globalcarbon cycle. biogeochemistry, 48: 7-20.
shi yf, shen yp, 2003. signal, impact and outlook of climatic shiftfrom warm-dry to warm-humid in northwest china. science andtechnology review, 23(2): 54-57.
shi yf, shen yp, li dl, zhang gw, ding yj, hu rj, kang es, 2003.discussion on the present climate change from warm-dry towarm-wet in northwest china. quaternary science, 23(2):152-164.
sponseller ra, 2007. precipitation pulses and soil co 2 flux in a son-oran desert ecosystem. global change biology, 13: 426-436.
tao gt, zhao j, sun qz, 2008. effect of perennial cultivated forage onsoil respiration of sandy land. journal of desert research, 28(2):301-305.
wang y, cao mk, tao b, li kr, 2006. the characteristics of spa-tio-temporal patterns in precipitation in china under the back-ground of global climate change. geographical research, 25(6):1031-1040.
wang yd, wang hm, ma qz, li qk, shi ll, xu f, 2010. review ofresponse mechanism of soil respiration to rainfall. chinese journalof plant ecology, 34(5): 601-610.
west ne, stark jm, johnson dw, abrams mm, wight jr, heggem d,peck s, 1994. effects of climatic change on the edaphic features ofarid and semiarid lands of western north america. arid soil re-search and rehabilitation, 8: 307-351.
xu y, tian l, xu cs, 2009. a cutting propagation device usefull-light automatic spray technology. china, 200720191044.zhai pm, pan xh, 2003. change in extreme temperature and precipi-tation over northern china during the second half of the 20th cen-tury. acta geographica sinica, 58: 1-10.
zhang lh, chen yn, li wh, zhao rf, 2007. soil carbon dioxideemission and affecting factors under haloxylon ammodendroncommunity in junggar basin. journal of desert research, 27(2):266-272.


text: Liberty High School is hosting a fundraising event to raise money for the Betty Puskar Breast Care Center. Participating high schools are Bridgeport, RCB, Doddridge, South Harrison, and Liberty. The event will take place on Sunday, April 23 at the Liberty High School athletic complex. $5 admission, gates open at noon, games will kick off around 1:00 p.m. In addition to the games, there will be craft vendors, concessions, basket raffles, and activities.

lowercased: liberty high school is hosting a fundraising event to raise money for the betty puskar breast care center. participating high schools are bridgeport, rcb, doddridge, south harrison, and liberty. the event will take place on sunday, april 23 at the liberty high school athletic complex. $5 admission, gates open at noon, games will kick off around 1:00 p.m. in addition to the games, there will be craft vendors, concessions, basket raffles, and activities.


text:
Video: Trump Keeps Promise About Economy VS Obama.
Video: All Hell Breaks Loose In Ontario Question Period!
Video: CNN’s Ratings Actually Lose Out to Shark Week!!!

lowercased:
video: trump keeps promise about economy vs obama.
video: all hell breaks loose in ontario question period!
video: cnn’s ratings actually lose out to shark week!!!


text:
I-64 Interstate and Bridge Rehabilitations (Harrison County, IN) | HMB Professional Engineers, Inc.
I-64 OVER BLUE RIVER: This (119’, 148’, 119’) three span composite steel girder bridge carries I-64 traffic over Blue River. The 10 year old existing approach slabs were exhibiting longitudinal and transverse cracks. They were replaced with new full width approach slabs. The existing concrete barriers received surface seal from the gutter line to the drip notch. TGB type guardrail transitions and TBC barrier wall transitions were installed adjacent to the new approach slabs and to transition to the new roadway guardrail. The interstate maintenance of traffic scheme utilized crossovers for the entire project length.
I-64 OVER GETHSEMANE CHURCH ROAD: This (38’-3”, 39’, 38’-3”) three span composite pre-stressed concrete I-beam bridge carries I-64 traffic over the named county road. The existing approach slabs were replaced. The existing aluminum railing did not meet safety and design criteria and therefore was replaced with new standard concrete railing. The deck was milled and received a latex modified Portland cement concrete overlay. The last 5’ of the deck slab was removed including the entire mudwall, top of wingwalls and diaphragms. The ends of the pre-stressed concrete I-beams were encased to make them semi-integral with the type 1A joints at the approach slabs. The interstate maintenance of traffic scheme utilized crossovers for the entire project length.
SR 135 BRIDGE OVER I-64: This (78’,90’,90’,62’-6”) four span welded steel girder bridge carries SR 135 traffic over I-65 at exit 105 in Corydon. The existing approach slabs were replaced. The existing aluminum railing did not meet safety and design criteria and therefore was replaced with new standard concrete railing. The deck was milled and concrete patching done as needed. The deck then received a latex modified Portland cement concrete overlay. For south abutment 2, the last 5’ of the deck slab was removed including the entire mudwall and top of wingwalls. The ends of the welded steel plate girders were encased to make them semi-integral with the type 1A joint used at this location. The north abutment 1 had the finger joint removed and replaced with a 4” neoprene SS joint. Bearings were replaced with new steel risers and neoprene pads. A 4 phase traffic scheme was used to maintain traffic and constantly keep two lanes open in the southbound direction.

lowercased:
i-64 interstate and bridge rehabilitations (harrison county, in) | hmb professional engineers, inc.
i-64 over blue river: this (119’, 148’, 119’) three span composite steel girder bridge carries i-64 traffic over blue river. the 10 year old existing approach slabs were exhibiting longitudinal and transverse cracks. they were replaced with new full width approach slabs. the existing concrete barriers received surface seal from the gutter line to the drip notch. tgb type guardrail transitions and tbc barrier wall transitions were installed adjacent to the new approach slabs and to transition to the new roadway guardrail. the interstate maintenance of traffic scheme utilized crossovers for the entire project length.
i-64 over gethsemane church road: this (38’-3”, 39’, 38’-3”) three span composite pre-stressed concrete i-beam bridge carries i-64 traffic over the named county road. the existing approach slabs were replaced. the existing aluminum railing did not meet safety and design criteria and therefore was replaced with new standard concrete railing. the deck was milled and received a latex modified portland cement concrete overlay. the last 5’ of the deck slab was removed including the entire mudwall, top of wingwalls and diaphragms. the ends of the pre-stressed concrete i-beams were encased to make them semi-integral with the type 1a joints at the approach slabs. the interstate maintenance of traffic scheme utilized crossovers for the entire project length.
sr 135 bridge over i-64: this (78’,90’,90’,62’-6”) four span welded steel girder bridge carries sr 135 traffic over i-65 at exit 105 in corydon. the existing approach slabs were replaced. the existing aluminum railing did not meet safety and design criteria and therefore was replaced with new standard concrete railing. the deck was milled and concrete patching done as needed. the deck then received a latex modified portland cement concrete overlay. for south abutment 2, the last 5’ of the deck slab was removed including the entire mudwall and top of wingwalls. the ends of the welded steel plate girders were encased to make them semi-integral with the type 1a joint used at this location. the north abutment 1 had the finger joint removed and replaced with a 4” neoprene ss joint. bearings were replaced with new steel risers and neoprene pads. a 4 phase traffic scheme was used to maintain traffic and constantly keep two lanes open in the southbound direction.


text:
I actually pilfered the title from a short blurb in Triathlete about Kate Major’s decision to do some short races close to her home in Queensland. She said the races were a good opportunity to race close to home, but there was also a very quick mention that she was using the races to prepare for her upcoming Ironman. While this got only a passing note, I think that perhaps more attention ought to have been paid to this decision. Of course, I’m also likely biased, since I want to believe that my own decision is a good one. I’m still always surprised that people actually read what I write here, but given that it seems to happen, I thought I might share the reasoning behind the race schedule I have posted. “Why on earth are there five Olympic-distance races on that schedule?” you may be asking. Or you may be thinking, “he really is a glutton for punishment!” As for the latter, that probably is a fair assessment, but then again, I think it’s probably true of just about every triathlete. So let’s instead focus on answering the former question. Why exactly are half of my races set to be Olympic distance races, a distance that is quite far removed from that where I seem to have found the most success recently.
For part of the answer, let’s hop into our wayback machine and journey back to the good ole days of triathlon, the late 80’s and early 90’s. Anyone who’s old enough to have worn offensively colored speedos in a race can tell you all about these glory days. But that’s not really what I want to talk about. I want to talk, more specifically, about the ratio of pros to races with prize money. Basically, unlike today, you had more races with good money than you had pros to compete in them. A lot more. So what did people do? They raced. And they raced a lot. And they raced all distances. If there was a race, and it had prize money, people raced it. And I think, generally speaking, it did them a lot of good.
I think there are a couple factors at play. Without getting too much into physiology, I think racing across multiple distances in complementary. In layman’s terms, if you are used to racing really hard and fast, then racing at a lower pace (even for a long amount of time) seems quite easy by comparison. And on the flip side, if you are used to racing all day, then racing faster, but for a shorter amount of time, can seem much more manageable. Of course, the reality is a physiological answer about aerobic base and threshold and all that stuff, but that’s really above my pay grade. This summer is about experimenting and also about having fun.
Simply put, I am racing all these short races because I think it will make me a better triathlete. Not just a better Ironman racer, but better as a whole. A better swimmer, biker, and runner. Physically and mentally, I think that I will come away from these races better equipped to race at any distance, and that’s the reason I’m doing them. If you spend all your time focused on one format or one distance, I think you get stale. You forget how to race fast, or you forget how to race long, or you forget how to just go out and race. So that’s what I’m doing. I’m just racing.
You should just show up in Des Moines on the start line. Seriously. That would be AWESOME!

lowercased:
i actually pilfered the title from a short blurb in triathlete about kate major’s decision to do some short races close to her home in queensland. she said the races were a good opportunity to race close to home, but there was also a very quick mention that she was using the races to prepare for her upcoming ironman. while this got only a passing note, i think that perhaps more attention ought to have been paid to this decision. of course, i’m also likely biased, since i want to believe that my own decision is a good one. i’m still always surprised that people actually read what i write here, but given that it seems to happen, i thought i might share the reasoning behind the race schedule i have posted. “why on earth are there five olympic-distance races on that schedule?” you may be asking. or you may be thinking, “he really is a glutton for punishment!” as for the latter, that probably is a fair assessment, but then again, i think it’s probably true of just about every triathlete. so let’s instead focus on answering the former question. why exactly are half of my races set to be olympic distance races, a distance that is quite far removed from that where i seem to have found the most success recently.
for part of the answer, let’s hop into our wayback machine and journey back to the good ole days of triathlon, the late 80’s and early 90’s. anyone who’s old enough to have worn offensively colored speedos in a race can tell you all about these glory days. but that’s not really what i want to talk about. i want to talk, more specifically, about the ratio of pros to races with prize money. basically, unlike today, you had more races with good money than you had pros to compete in them. a lot more. so what did people do? they raced. and they raced a lot. and they raced all distances. if there was a race, and it had prize money, people raced it. and i think, generally speaking, it did them a lot of good.
i think there are a couple factors at play. without getting too much into physiology, i think racing across multiple distances in complementary. in layman’s terms, if you are used to racing really hard and fast, then racing at a lower pace (even for a long amount of time) seems quite easy by comparison. and on the flip side, if you are used to racing all day, then racing faster, but for a shorter amount of time, can seem much more manageable. of course, the reality is a physiological answer about aerobic base and threshold and all that stuff, but that’s really above my pay grade. this summer is about experimenting and also about having fun.
simply put, i am racing all these short races because i think it will make me a better triathlete. not just a better ironman racer, but better as a whole. a better swimmer, biker, and runner. physically and mentally, i think that i will come away from these races better equipped to race at any distance, and that’s the reason i’m doing them. if you spend all your time focused on one format or one distance, i think you get stale. you forget how to race fast, or you forget how to race long, or you forget how to just go out and race. so that’s what i’m doing. i’m just racing.
you should just show up in des moines on the start line. seriously. that would be awesome!


text:
After many years of being in storage I have the urge to bust out my Necrons in BFG again. The only issue is years back I traded away my Imperials and core game components.
So is anyone looking to get out of the game? Have a fleet and/or game components like order dice, bearing token and blast/torpedo/ordinance tokens to sell/trade?
Hmm, I too have a necron fleet. Fully painted.
I have both books, as well as all components. I haven't played in a decade, sadly. Very sadly, since I love BFG.
I might even have the original box for the game. What I dont have is one of the plastic fleets. I think its chaos I am lacking. But I do have metal mine ordinance and even some Forgeworld imperial stuff like the escorts that launch fighters, thunderhawks ordinance, etc.
If somebody hasnt gotten to you with a better deal, I'll rummage through storage and see what I have.
Sounds great. I played BFG years ago and I hope the rumors turn out to be true about a new version being set during the Horus Heresy. But in the meantime the old version will have to do and I’d love to see how the game has aged.
No rush but I’d love if you were able to take a look around and see what you had. I am interested and I’d rather deal with someone here rather than BGG or Reddit.

lowercased:
after many years of being in storage i have the urge to bust out my necrons in bfg again. the only issue is years back i traded away my imperials and core game components.
so is anyone looking to get out of the game? have a fleet and/or game components like order dice, bearing token and blast/torpedo/ordinance tokens to sell/trade?
hmm, i too have a necron fleet. fully painted.
i have both books, as well as all components. i haven't played in a decade, sadly. very sadly, since i love bfg.
i might even have the original box for the game. what i dont have is one of the plastic fleets. i think its chaos i am lacking. but i do have metal mine ordinance and even some forgeworld imperial stuff like the escorts that launch fighters, thunderhawks ordinance, etc.
if somebody hasnt gotten to you with a better deal, i'll rummage through storage and see what i have.
sounds great. i played bfg years ago and i hope the rumors turn out to be true about a new version being set during the horus heresy. but in the meantime the old version will have to do and i’d love to see how the game has aged.
no rush but i’d love if you were able to take a look around and see what you had. i am interested and i’d rather deal with someone here rather than bgg or reddit.


text:
Good news!!! IObit Malware Fighter v5 final version has been released. This new version has brand new UI with great functions. Check it out and enjoy the new features.
- Join discussion on our forums.
Thanks for your active suggestion. I will report your suggestion to our product team.
@All, what you expect most in the new IObit Malware Fighter v5? Or which parts do you think that we should improve on the basic of the current IObit Malware Fighter v4?
Welcome all of your suggestions.
I think Antivirus should have feature to turn off antivírus engine and protection....because user often install the world popular antivírus programs like ESET, AVIRA, Kaspersky and Bitdefender.....if you make antivírus with option to turn off, then user does not have to uninstall ASC Ultimate or go back to PRO version, if user does not want to have two antivírus running..
Thanks for your continual suggestion. Well, it seems a suggestion for ASC Uttimate.
Do you do not need to worry about the conflicts or slow down your PC.
Thanks for your feedback. Sorry to tell you that I cannot send more screenshots of IObit Malware Fighter v5, for it has not been released officially. Thanks for your understanding.
For this question " can you add all your scan engines to virustotal, virscan.org, opswat, metascan, herdprotect and jotti malware scan please" could you please describe the question more clearly? Sorry I did not get you fully.
I will report it to our product team for consideration.
@ all, welcome all of your suggestions.
Error Up date engines , bitdefender and iobit !!!
To look into the issue, please download the tool from http://testdemo.iobit.com/InfoHelper.exe.
After that, please download and install the full patch from http://update.iobit.com/dl/imf5/bd/b...-201612211.exe to see whether the issue can be solved.
@all, welcome all your feebacks. Your support will be our greatest stimulus to work harder to improve our products and service.
The best so far, it is a custom look great-interface in the style of Microsoft Windows 10, perfectly perform all tasks with Bitdefender function, protection in real time is perfect, works seamlessly and does not draw a lot of resources. Enough is adapted both novice and advanced users, since I use Malwarefigter 5 Beta 1, I did not notice any problems. The update goes smoothly, mighty anti-virus solution that deserves all the positive reviews.
Happy to hear that you are satisfied with our products. Your support will be our greatest stimulus to work harder and better.
@ All, welcome more your suggestions and feedbacks.
So I just found out ya released IMF 5 Beta, installed after a format today. I got to say appearance thus far is AWESOME... Just from the brief look from install, it appears that you all incorporating into it an issue I been feeling I need to address... Browser Protection. I'm hoping I am correct, and you all will address this issue in it, because it does appear I have been getting a lot of Windows corruption, malicious OS issues which appear to be coming in via internet browsers. And since Microsoft itself has started the same in Windows 10, it clearly appears "the bad guys" are now focusing in using browsers to attack others, rather than viruses and etc. that current security software focus on. I have yet to see any security suites that focus strongly enough on these browser attacks, therefore I am hoping IObit is "picking up the sword" regarding this. Currently, I am on the verge of dropping my once rely upon security suite, and am currently depending on IObit software to pick up the coverage atm, and it seems to be working. So please, keep up the good work.
Thank you for contacting IObit. This is Maggie from IObit.
Happy to hear that you are satisfied with our products. Your support will be our greatest stimulus to work harder and better. Welcome more your suggestions and feedbacks.
If you have any issues, please feel free to tell us.

lowercased:
good news!!! iobit malware fighter v5 final version has been released. this new version has brand new ui with great functions. check it out and enjoy the new features.
- join discussion on our forums.
thanks for your active suggestion. i will report your suggestion to our product team.
@all, what you expect most in the new iobit malware fighter v5? or which parts do you think that we should improve on the basic of the current iobit malware fighter v4?
welcome all of your suggestions.
i think antivirus should have feature to turn off antivírus engine and protection....because user often install the world popular antivírus programs like eset, avira, kaspersky and bitdefender.....if you make antivírus with option to turn off, then user does not have to uninstall asc ultimate or go back to pro version, if user does not want to have two antivírus running..
thanks for your continual suggestion. well, it seems a suggestion for asc uttimate.
do you do not need to worry about the conflicts or slow down your pc.
thanks for your feedback. sorry to tell you that i cannot send more screenshots of iobit malware fighter v5, for it has not been released officially. thanks for your understanding.
for this question " can you add all your scan engines to virustotal, virscan.org, opswat, metascan, herdprotect and jotti malware scan please" could you please describe the question more clearly? sorry i did not get you fully.
i will report it to our product team for consideration.
@ all, welcome all of your suggestions.
error up date engines , bitdefender and iobit !!!
to look into the issue, please download the tool from http://testdemo.iobit.com/infohelper.exe.
after that, please download and install the full patch from http://update.iobit.com/dl/imf5/bd/b...-201612211.exe to see whether the issue can be solved.
@all, welcome all your feebacks. your support will be our greatest stimulus to work harder to improve our products and service.
the best so far, it is a custom look great-interface in the style of microsoft windows 10, perfectly perform all tasks with bitdefender function, protection in real time is perfect, works seamlessly and does not draw a lot of resources. enough is adapted both novice and advanced users, since i use malwarefigter 5 beta 1, i did not notice any problems. the update goes smoothly, mighty anti-virus solution that deserves all the positive reviews.
happy to hear that you are satisfied with our products. your support will be our greatest stimulus to work harder and better.
@ all, welcome more your suggestions and feedbacks.
so i just found out ya released imf 5 beta, installed after a format today. i got to say appearance thus far is awesome... just from the brief look from install, it appears that you all incorporating into it an issue i been feeling i need to address... browser protection. i'm hoping i am correct, and you all will address this issue in it, because it does appear i have been getting a lot of windows corruption, malicious os issues which appear to be coming in via internet browsers. and since microsoft itself has started the same in windows 10, it clearly appears "the bad guys" are now focusing in using browsers to attack others, rather than viruses and etc. that current security software focus on. i have yet to see any security suites that focus strongly enough on these browser attacks, therefore i am hoping iobit is "picking up the sword" regarding this. currently, i am on the verge of dropping my once rely upon security suite, and am currently depending on iobit software to pick up the coverage atm, and it seems to be working. so please, keep up the good work.
thank you for contacting iobit. this is maggie from iobit.
happy to hear that you are satisfied with our products. your support will be our greatest stimulus to work harder and better. welcome more your suggestions and feedbacks.
if you have any issues, please feel free to tell us.


text:
You never really think anything of it when you hear some stranger died. You know like Elvis Presley or Michael Jackson. It's so different when you have to hear it with a name you know.
That's what I had to hear. "Kids,daddy died." Those were the exact words I heard when my dad died.
Death is something you have to experience close by before you fully understand it.

lowercased:
you never really think anything of it when you hear some stranger died. you know like elvis presley or michael jackson. it's so different when you have to hear it with a name you know.
that's what i had to hear. "kids,daddy died." those were the exact words i heard when my dad died.
death is something you have to experience close by before you fully understand it.


text:
Introduce yourself to the most advanced hearing aids in the WORLD.
With prices starting at just $599, call our hearing specialists today and hear the Lucid difference for yourself!
We only sell Powered by Lucid hearing aids for one reason! We make the best and stand by them 100%.
Get your free hearing test at our hearing center in Fairbanks.
If you live in Fairbanks or the surrounding area, you can schedule a free hearing exam by calling us, emailing us or submitting the form below.
OR submit the form below and we will contact you to schedule your hearing exam.
America Hears is excited to offer Fairbanks and surrounding areas the best hearing solutions available at affordable prices. If you haven’t visited our Fairbanks hearing center yet, please stop in. We’d love to meet you and offer you a complimentary hearing test. We’re located off College Road (32 College Road, Suite 4, Fairbanks, AK 997017). Our free hearing tests are quick, easy and a great way to find out if you need any help with your hearing.
We’re proud to be part of the Fairbanks community and grateful to serve our friends and family in Fairbanks.
Customers around the country are hearing clearly again.
Call us anytime Monday through Friday business hours and we will help with questions, concerns, and adjustments. Factors such as weather, listening environment, and health all affects our hearing. Know you have a Certified Hearing Specialist committed to helping you Hear Happy.
As long as you are enjoying your America Hears Hearing Aids, We're Here for You. Only at America Hears, do you have Unlimited Support for Life. We can help with tips on cleaning your hearing aid, help you make minor adjustments and keep you hearing clearly every day.
At Home Adjustments is one of the things our Customers love more about America Hears. With the purchase of a Programming Box (only $99 with the purchase of a hearing aid) you can adjust your hearing aid on your own or with the help of your America Hears Hearing Specialist right from the comfort of your own home.
This is a partnership to better hearing. We are confident that together we'll help you enjoy conversations, beautiful music, the sounds of nature and more. And if after 60 days you are not 100% happy, return your aids for a full refund.
All Hearing Aids utilize patented Powered by Lucid smart technology, allowing you to hear more of what you want to and less of what you don’t. Superior to traditional “compression” hearing aid technology, Powered by Lucid innovations incorporate automatic adjustment algorithms developed for use in cochlear implants to optimize the listening experience of the ever-changing acoustical environment.

lowercased:
introduce yourself to the most advanced hearing aids in the world.
with prices starting at just $599, call our hearing specialists today and hear the lucid difference for yourself!
we only sell powered by lucid hearing aids for one reason! we make the best and stand by them 100%.
get your free hearing test at our hearing center in fairbanks.
if you live in fairbanks or the surrounding area, you can schedule a free hearing exam by calling us, emailing us or submitting the form below.
or submit the form below and we will contact you to schedule your hearing exam.
america hears is excited to offer fairbanks and surrounding areas the best hearing solutions available at affordable prices. if you haven’t visited our fairbanks hearing center yet, please stop in. we’d love to meet you and offer you a complimentary hearing test. we’re located off college road (32 college road, suite 4, fairbanks, ak 997017). our free hearing tests are quick, easy and a great way to find out if you need any help with your hearing.
we’re proud to be part of the fairbanks community and grateful to serve our friends and family in fairbanks.
customers around the country are hearing clearly again.
call us anytime monday through friday business hours and we will help with questions, concerns, and adjustments. factors such as weather, listening environment, and health all affects our hearing. know you have a certified hearing specialist committed to helping you hear happy.
as long as you are enjoying your america hears hearing aids, we're here for you. only at america hears, do you have unlimited support for life. we can help with tips on cleaning your hearing aid, help you make minor adjustments and keep you hearing clearly every day.
at home adjustments is one of the things our customers love more about america hears. with the purchase of a programming box (only $99 with the purchase of a hearing aid) you can adjust your hearing aid on your own or with the help of your america hears hearing specialist right from the comfort of your own home.
this is a partnership to better hearing. we are confident that together we'll help you enjoy conversations, beautiful music, the sounds of nature and more. and if after 60 days you are not 100% happy, return your aids for a full refund.
all hearing aids utilize patented powered by lucid smart technology, allowing you to hear more of what you want to and less of what you don’t. superior to traditional “compression” hearing aid technology, powered by lucid innovations incorporate automatic adjustment algorithms developed for use in cochlear implants to optimize the listening experience of the ever-changing acoustical environment.


text: A t-shirt made just for Cheverly, MD. Printed with soft hand, water-based inks on a natural-colored unisex t-shirt. Ink has a muted, non-vibrant look for a throw-back effect. Designed and printed with pride in Ann Arbor, Michigan with a retro color palette, and available for most cities, towns, and villages in the United States!

lowercased: a t-shirt made just for cheverly, md. printed with soft hand, water-based inks on a natural-colored unisex t-shirt. ink has a muted, non-vibrant look for a throw-back effect. designed and printed with pride in ann arbor, michigan with a retro color palette, and available for most cities, towns, and villages in the united states!


text:
Discussion in 'iPhone and iPad Games' started by DevGame, Jul 18, 2018.
Vloggers, vloggers everywhere… Guess what? It’s time you become one of them!
Do you crave the limelight? Now with this new clicker simulator game you get a chance to become popular.
Maria Way, one of the most hyped vloggers, will take you through the whole process – from picking a topic for your video to growing your subscribers’ community!
Choose the most trending topics for your videos. Maria will prompt you which topics are likely to generate buzz! Film videos about cats, food, humor, sports, etc.
Produce videos – this is a clicker game, you know how to do it, right? Tap, tap like never before!
More videos - more followers. More followers – more $$ earned! Do you think you can make a fortune from this?
Start with just a simple camera and small studio and upgrade your equipment to become more popular and successful!
Caught the wave? It’s time to step it up a notch a little more. Dress up! Get cool clothes and accessories to look stylish. Take it from me, it’s one the key success factors!
C’mon, get the show on the road! I’m sure your vlog will live up to the hype. Just like mine.
I know that the game is not from him but it looks like his game a lot. But graphics are lower even knowing his game had 8-Bit.

lowercased:
discussion in 'iphone and ipad games' started by devgame, jul 18, 2018.
vloggers, vloggers everywhere… guess what? it’s time you become one of them!
do you crave the limelight? now with this new clicker simulator game you get a chance to become popular.
maria way, one of the most hyped vloggers, will take you through the whole process – from picking a topic for your video to growing your subscribers’ community!
choose the most trending topics for your videos. maria will prompt you which topics are likely to generate buzz! film videos about cats, food, humor, sports, etc.
produce videos – this is a clicker game, you know how to do it, right? tap, tap like never before!
more videos - more followers. more followers – more $$ earned! do you think you can make a fortune from this?
start with just a simple camera and small studio and upgrade your equipment to become more popular and successful!
caught the wave? it’s time to step it up a notch a little more. dress up! get cool clothes and accessories to look stylish. take it from me, it’s one the key success factors!
c’mon, get the show on the road! i’m sure your vlog will live up to the hype. just like mine.
i know that the game is not from him but it looks like his game a lot. but graphics are lower even knowing his game had 8-bit.


text:
Arrow Sewing Cabinets: Must Be Winner Monday!
You GO Margaret!! I am tickled for you to win!!
Way to go Margaret! Congratulations.
Thanks, everyone! Wow! What a surprise I got when the mailman just now came with my package. I hadn't seen the posting about the winner, so I couldn't even imagine what on earth this package could be. Anyway, I'm thrilled to have been chosen and my gifts are awesome. Thanks again!

lowercased:
arrow sewing cabinets: must be winner monday!
you go margaret!! i am tickled for you to win!!
way to go margaret! congratulations.
thanks, everyone! wow! what a surprise i got when the mailman just now came with my package. i hadn't seen the posting about the winner, so i couldn't even imagine what on earth this package could be. anyway, i'm thrilled to have been chosen and my gifts are awesome. thanks again!


text:
Every month at 3 PM IST (India Time) on payday, the recreational area at Net Solutions’ Chandigarh campus comes alive. No, people are not lining up with their environmentally friendly bags to collect bundles of cash. Salary disbursement is electronic and always has been. In fact, we are strong proponents of Prime Minister Modi’s vision of a #cashless India. Why then, one wonders, are the people huddling on payday? It’s surely not to discuss climate change and its effect on bird migration.
The real answer is a bummer. People line up to collect their pay slips. #incomprehensible #areyoukiddingme.
Yes, I’m with you. There are many hashtags that can be used to describe this ritual. A company that counts Xerox, Microsoft, Yahoo, HBR and Haymarket among its clients, this does not add up.
The story starts much earlier than this. Most organizations, especially enterprises, have grown organically over the years. Net Solutions, too, has had a similar journey.
2017 is our 17th year of existence. We started at a modest facility (Sameer’s garage really) with a few people and even fewer execution tricks. Today, we have a state-of-the-art delivery center at Information Technology Park. Infosys is one of our neighbors (we have a better view of the Shivalik foothills than they do). It has been a journey full of positive experiences and challenges. We sorted out most of the teething issues as we grew over the years and digitized almost everything. Yes, salary slips weren’t a priority and probably still are not; we will take care of them, eventually. The glass is half full, people.
As a Product Development company that specializes in Digital Customer Experience curation and management, we have two facets. For the lack of creative nomenclature, let us call them: internal and external. The external experiences have always been top drawer. Right from that first call, logging the notes in Sales Force, conversion of the lead into an opportunity, closing the opportunity, Business Analysis, project execution and management, quality control, automated release management and iterative delivery of MVP/MVE, we have it covered. All electronic. All cutting edge. But, that is not what we will discuss today.
We want to talk about the internal experiences. Our workforce. The folks who make us who we are. What sort of an experience do we get?
Biometric attendance, fiddle with tens of internal IT systems, fill time sheets, hop on calls with our partners (clients if it is unclear), interact with various teams (HR, Finance, Facility Admin, Sales, Pre-Sales, PMO, CX, UX, UI, Tech Leads, Product Management, Labs etc.), consume calories, hydrate, exercise, engage in mild gossip by the water cooler (alright, alright, full gossip), power nap in the recovery room, 1-on-1 meetings with managers, career planning meetings, strategy meetings, training sessions, Wisdom Wednesdays, Digital Fridays, playing with the little ones at the onsite nursery, and much more.
Phew. So many experiences. These have to planned, managed, tracked, optimized, and delivered. We would have no moral authority to build Digital Experience Platforms for our partners if we could not build one for our workforce. With this vision, a couple of years ago, we started unifying the experiences at our workplace. All those disparate experiences then started becoming Digital Experiences at Workplace.
The journey has been… unique. Inertia is one tough, son of a gun. People get used to doing things, however inefficient they may be. Identifying change agents and having people rally around them is easier said than done. Digitizing institutional memory is very important, especially for a company like ours where the median tenure of an employee is 10 years. That’s right, people do not seem to want to move out from here. We are like those kids who never outgrow their parental home. Lazy bums.
Jokes aside, we have had the need for that single source of truth that not only replaced those tens of IT systems that we had gotten used to, but also held everything that we considered sacrosanct in one place: our institutional memory, our engagements and interactions with each other, and a seamless way to go about our day-to-day at work.
Problem statements, meet the solution [drum rolls]: Grid.
As misplaced as the name sounds (since there is nothing to do with the literal or figurative [if any] meaning of the word), it encompasses the solution that we have created as an answer to our internal incoherence.
Chest thumping and swagger aside, an intelligent reader might ask, what does it really do, dude?
Yes, we chose to eat this frog. (If you want to learn more about frogs and why you should eat them, take a look: https://goo.gl/JBHgmI). It seemed like a logical thing to do. We had tens of IT systems, we could not replace them all overnight. We went after the pain point. Multiple systems mean multiple accounts, which translates into every individual needing to remember those many passwords.
The smart ones just use 123456 as a password for all their accounts. The not so smart ones create secure passwords that are at least 10 characters in length, and contain numbers and special characters. We then write these passwords on a post-it note and stick it on our workstation monitors. Easy. God knows why people complain about password management.
How are you feeling? I am okay. Next day, how are you feeling? I am happy. Three mornings later, how are you feeling? I am groggy.
Who wants to keep a manual record of how everyone is feeling in the organization at any given point in time? More importantly, is it even recordable?
This needs to be done. Call it employee morale management, Sentiment Analysis or anything else that rocks your boat. The fact is, human resources are the most expensive investment for any organization and they need to be taken care of. Not just by doling out free lunches or planting expensive coffee machines (they certainly help), but by going into the psyche of human behavior and aspirations, and bridging the emotional disconnect.
Our implementation features logging of sentiment during work hours (and offwork hours if one chooses to share that they slept on the couch). Our Analytics engine then operationalizes the mathematical model (hand-crafted by our Data Scientists sitting in the House-of-the-Lords Labs area) over the data sets to identify areas where we need to bolster our defenses and make the workplace more hospitable.
Since our workforce does not believe in attrition, we might as well make sure they are happy during their decade-long pit stops with us. Sadly (or fortunately, whatever your taken on this is), we do not venture into fixing the couch fiascos.
Our engagement program includes rewards and recognition in the form of popular choice (peer to peer) and critics choice (ahem, HR) awards. Folks earn points for contributing to the learning ecosystem in the form of blogs, knowledge sharing sessions, hackathons, critiquing posts, etc. It all links together (now this is the only known instance of validation of the name Grid) into a social network.
In fact, a few weeks ago, our engine detected a few people trading appreciation notes to notch up points on the leaderboard (shame, shame [Game of Thrones, anyone?]). The engagement grew further after an incremental product release where we disclosed how people have fared on the leaderboard over the months. Darn peepers. The more graphs we release, engagement goes up each time. People love to know what others are doing. Zuckerberg beat us to this revelation by 13 years. Alas.
All fun and no work makes Net Solutions an unprofitable enterprise. In the spirit of getting paid for an honest day’s work, we need to manage our assets and the so called institutional memory. We built the DAM module to manage our memory bank and regulate its access through RBAC (role based access control).
In fact, RBAC is in the foundation of Grid. People can be given privileges to perform a variety of functions and these privileges can be upgraded and downgraded on demand, without the person having to…..wait for it…..wait for it…..without having to logout and back in for the updated permissions to kick in.
These assets can be organized around a partner project, an internal initiative or anything in between. No more tossing documents over Skype or email.
We realized that we were tired of sending companywide emails that in essence were “this is to inform you that Nyquist won’t be running in Preakness Stakes this year.” Boring. Drab. Dull. Stoic. Yada yada yada.
We want emotions pouring in, a way for people to engage in a community dialogue and not let announcements be a monologue. We created a module that lets relevant stakeholders (nah, we aren’t publicly traded, yet) announce their bit, ruffle some feathers and kick back with a beer and watch the fun. People, given an opportunity, can be pretty darn vocal about how they feel about things. We try to keep it civil but many a toupee have been lost in skirmishes.
Polls and surveys live in Grid’s arsenal to solicit feedback with a positive intent to course correct, hear back from those we do not speak of and let the system balance monarchy and democracy.
Certain polls have been very successful. In one such instance, people voted in favor of improving food options at our on premise restaurant by including “nicer delicacies,” AND also voted to reduce the meal price. Sky Chef gracefully declined to be our in-house meals service provider.
Where there are humans or machines, there are problems. If you remember any of the team names that were mentioned during early parts of this blog, you would have identified that some teams exist to work behind the scenes to keep the ecosystem running flawlessly. These teams - HR, Finance, IT, Facility Management make sure the rest of us can focus on our work without having to worry.
Things still go wrong though, and when they do, we don’t want to breathe down their neck or keep calling them till the time all coyotes have been shooed away from the premises. We have an electronic ticket logging and management system that folks use to raise their issues. Since Grid is powered by RBAC, we can easily add / change first responders and create escalation queues to ensure timely resolution of all tickets logged. Descriptive Analytics and a variety of reports (Aging, TTL, MTBF etc.) ensure everyone is on their A-game. Bite me Zendesk.
With Grid, one of the focus areas has been to give everyone the information they need to do their jobs while keeping it fun and engaging. With blue collars getting what they need, the white collars also need something. Monarchy and Democracy need to be balanced, remember?
The CXO dashboard gives the economic view on the projects being developed. Which projects are in red vs black? Which projects have the most number of bugs open? Which projects are unlikely to meet the timelines and do we send nine potential mothers to create that baby in one month? There are plenty of other markers, several proprietary, which I cannot discuss here.
The idea being that this dashboard provides an unadulterated, unfiltered view of what’s happening on the floor. Those found guilty are called for an inquest on Fridays.
This, ladies and gents, is our Grid. There are companion mobile apps for iOS and Android distributed through Enterprise deployment. There are several other components of Grid such as Predictive Analytics, Forecasting, Profitability Metrics etc., which I will cover in another post, someday.

lowercased:
every month at 3 pm ist (india time) on payday, the recreational area at net solutions’ chandigarh campus comes alive. no, people are not lining up with their environmentally friendly bags to collect bundles of cash. salary disbursement is electronic and always has been. in fact, we are strong proponents of prime minister modi’s vision of a #cashless india. why then, one wonders, are the people huddling on payday? it’s surely not to discuss climate change and its effect on bird migration.
the real answer is a bummer. people line up to collect their pay slips. #incomprehensible #areyoukiddingme.
yes, i’m with you. there are many hashtags that can be used to describe this ritual. a company that counts xerox, microsoft, yahoo, hbr and haymarket among its clients, this does not add up.
the story starts much earlier than this. most organizations, especially enterprises, have grown organically over the years. net solutions, too, has had a similar journey.
2017 is our 17th year of existence. we started at a modest facility (sameer’s garage really) with a few people and even fewer execution tricks. today, we have a state-of-the-art delivery center at information technology park. infosys is one of our neighbors (we have a better view of the shivalik foothills than they do). it has been a journey full of positive experiences and challenges. we sorted out most of the teething issues as we grew over the years and digitized almost everything. yes, salary slips weren’t a priority and probably still are not; we will take care of them, eventually. the glass is half full, people.
as a product development company that specializes in digital customer experience curation and management, we have two facets. for the lack of creative nomenclature, let us call them: internal and external. the external experiences have always been top drawer. right from that first call, logging the notes in sales force, conversion of the lead into an opportunity, closing the opportunity, business analysis, project execution and management, quality control, automated release management and iterative delivery of mvp/mve, we have it covered. all electronic. all cutting edge. but, that is not what we will discuss today.
we want to talk about the internal experiences. our workforce. the folks who make us who we are. what sort of an experience do we get?
biometric attendance, fiddle with tens of internal it systems, fill time sheets, hop on calls with our partners (clients if it is unclear), interact with various teams (hr, finance, facility admin, sales, pre-sales, pmo, cx, ux, ui, tech leads, product management, labs etc.), consume calories, hydrate, exercise, engage in mild gossip by the water cooler (alright, alright, full gossip), power nap in the recovery room, 1-on-1 meetings with managers, career planning meetings, strategy meetings, training sessions, wisdom wednesdays, digital fridays, playing with the little ones at the onsite nursery, and much more.
phew. so many experiences. these have to planned, managed, tracked, optimized, and delivered. we would have no moral authority to build digital experience platforms for our partners if we could not build one for our workforce. with this vision, a couple of years ago, we started unifying the experiences at our workplace. all those disparate experiences then started becoming digital experiences at workplace.
the journey has been… unique. inertia is one tough, son of a gun. people get used to doing things, however inefficient they may be. identifying change agents and having people rally around them is easier said than done. digitizing institutional memory is very important, especially for a company like ours where the median tenure of an employee is 10 years. that’s right, people do not seem to want to move out from here. we are like those kids who never outgrow their parental home. lazy bums.
jokes aside, we have had the need for that single source of truth that not only replaced those tens of it systems that we had gotten used to, but also held everything that we considered sacrosanct in one place: our institutional memory, our engagements and interactions with each other, and a seamless way to go about our day-to-day at work.
problem statements, meet the solution [drum rolls]: grid.
as misplaced as the name sounds (since there is nothing to do with the literal or figurative [if any] meaning of the word), it encompasses the solution that we have created as an answer to our internal incoherence.
chest thumping and swagger aside, an intelligent reader might ask, what does it really do, dude?
yes, we chose to eat this frog. (if you want to learn more about frogs and why you should eat them, take a look: https://goo.gl/jbhgmi). it seemed like a logical thing to do. we had tens of it systems, we could not replace them all overnight. we went after the pain point. multiple systems mean multiple accounts, which translates into every individual needing to remember those many passwords.
the smart ones just use 123456 as a password for all their accounts. the not so smart ones create secure passwords that are at least 10 characters in length, and contain numbers and special characters. we then write these passwords on a post-it note and stick it on our workstation monitors. easy. god knows why people complain about password management.
how are you feeling? i am okay. next day, how are you feeling? i am happy. three mornings later, how are you feeling? i am groggy.
who wants to keep a manual record of how everyone is feeling in the organization at any given point in time? more importantly, is it even recordable?
this needs to be done. call it employee morale management, sentiment analysis or anything else that rocks your boat. the fact is, human resources are the most expensive investment for any organization and they need to be taken care of. not just by doling out free lunches or planting expensive coffee machines (they certainly help), but by going into the psyche of human behavior and aspirations, and bridging the emotional disconnect.
our implementation features logging of sentiment during work hours (and offwork hours if one chooses to share that they slept on the couch). our analytics engine then operationalizes the mathematical model (hand-crafted by our data scientists sitting in the house-of-the-lords labs area) over the data sets to identify areas where we need to bolster our defenses and make the workplace more hospitable.
since our workforce does not believe in attrition, we might as well make sure they are happy during their decade-long pit stops with us. sadly (or fortunately, whatever your taken on this is), we do not venture into fixing the couch fiascos.
our engagement program includes rewards and recognition in the form of popular choice (peer to peer) and critics choice (ahem, hr) awards. folks earn points for contributing to the learning ecosystem in the form of blogs, knowledge sharing sessions, hackathons, critiquing posts, etc. it all links together (now this is the only known instance of validation of the name grid) into a social network.
in fact, a few weeks ago, our engine detected a few people trading appreciation notes to notch up points on the leaderboard (shame, shame [game of thrones, anyone?]). the engagement grew further after an incremental product release where we disclosed how people have fared on the leaderboard over the months. darn peepers. the more graphs we release, engagement goes up each time. people love to know what others are doing. zuckerberg beat us to this revelation by 13 years. alas.
all fun and no work makes net solutions an unprofitable enterprise. in the spirit of getting paid for an honest day’s work, we need to manage our assets and the so called institutional memory. we built the dam module to manage our memory bank and regulate its access through rbac (role based access control).
in fact, rbac is in the foundation of grid. people can be given privileges to perform a variety of functions and these privileges can be upgraded and downgraded on demand, without the person having to…..wait for it…..wait for it…..without having to logout and back in for the updated permissions to kick in.
these assets can be organized around a partner project, an internal initiative or anything in between. no more tossing documents over skype or email.
we realized that we were tired of sending companywide emails that in essence were “this is to inform you that nyquist won’t be running in preakness stakes this year.” boring. drab. dull. stoic. yada yada yada.
we want emotions pouring in, a way for people to engage in a community dialogue and not let announcements be a monologue. we created a module that lets relevant stakeholders (nah, we aren’t publicly traded, yet) announce their bit, ruffle some feathers and kick back with a beer and watch the fun. people, given an opportunity, can be pretty darn vocal about how they feel about things. we try to keep it civil but many a toupee have been lost in skirmishes.
polls and surveys live in grid’s arsenal to solicit feedback with a positive intent to course correct, hear back from those we do not speak of and let the system balance monarchy and democracy.
certain polls have been very successful. in one such instance, people voted in favor of improving food options at our on premise restaurant by including “nicer delicacies,” and also voted to reduce the meal price. sky chef gracefully declined to be our in-house meals service provider.
where there are humans or machines, there are problems. if you remember any of the team names that were mentioned during early parts of this blog, you would have identified that some teams exist to work behind the scenes to keep the ecosystem running flawlessly. these teams - hr, finance, it, facility management make sure the rest of us can focus on our work without having to worry.
things still go wrong though, and when they do, we don’t want to breathe down their neck or keep calling them till the time all coyotes have been shooed away from the premises. we have an electronic ticket logging and management system that folks use to raise their issues. since grid is powered by rbac, we can easily add / change first responders and create escalation queues to ensure timely resolution of all tickets logged. descriptive analytics and a variety of reports (aging, ttl, mtbf etc.) ensure everyone is on their a-game. bite me zendesk.
with grid, one of the focus areas has been to give everyone the information they need to do their jobs while keeping it fun and engaging. with blue collars getting what they need, the white collars also need something. monarchy and democracy need to be balanced, remember?
the cxo dashboard gives the economic view on the projects being developed. which projects are in red vs black? which projects have the most number of bugs open? which projects are unlikely to meet the timelines and do we send nine potential mothers to create that baby in one month? there are plenty of other markers, several proprietary, which i cannot discuss here.
the idea being that this dashboard provides an unadulterated, unfiltered view of what’s happening on the floor. those found guilty are called for an inquest on fridays.
this, ladies and gents, is our grid. there are companion mobile apps for ios and android distributed through enterprise deployment. there are several other components of grid such as predictive analytics, forecasting, profitability metrics etc., which i will cover in another post, someday.


text:
Earn 10% of all revenue on the lifetime of customers you refer to Goldfish.
Do you want to earn generous revenue for customer that your refer?
Then join our generous affiliate programme and we will pay you for customers that you refer to us. What’s more, we won’t simply pay you a one off fee; as many others do. We will pay you a 10% share of the revenue from every customer you refer to us for the lifetime of that customer. That’s the whole time they are with us.
Right now, we’re offering our affiliates 10% of the revenue received from any customer that they refer to us.
That’s 10% of all revenues that we receive from any customer that you refer to us through the affiliate program for as long as that customer is with us.
Click on ‘sign up now’ to register your details with us and get started.
Sign up now – click here.

lowercased:
earn 10% of all revenue on the lifetime of customers you refer to goldfish.
do you want to earn generous revenue for customer that your refer?
then join our generous affiliate programme and we will pay you for customers that you refer to us. what’s more, we won’t simply pay you a one off fee; as many others do. we will pay you a 10% share of the revenue from every customer you refer to us for the lifetime of that customer. that’s the whole time they are with us.
right now, we’re offering our affiliates 10% of the revenue received from any customer that they refer to us.
that’s 10% of all revenues that we receive from any customer that you refer to us through the affiliate program for as long as that customer is with us.
click on ‘sign up now’ to register your details with us and get started.
sign up now – click here.


text: Investment Casting Systems one of the only AS9100 accredited toolmakers in the world are currently looking for experienced toolmakers to join it’s team due to increased demand for its tools and services. We offer competetive rates of pay and benefits and would like to hear from anybody who would be interested in joining our highly skilled and motivated team. email your CV to us at info@investmentcastingsystems.co.uk.

lowercased: investment casting systems one of the only as9100 accredited toolmakers in the world are currently looking for experienced toolmakers to join it’s team due to increased demand for its tools and services. we offer competetive rates of pay and benefits and would like to hear from anybody who would be interested in joining our highly skilled and motivated team. email your cv to us at info@investmentcastingsystems.co.uk.


text:
I thoroughly enjoyed this article. I think there were great pictures painted in my mind through the words even without the great photos that were included.
Looking forward to Baileys next story.

lowercased:
i thoroughly enjoyed this article. i think there were great pictures painted in my mind through the words even without the great photos that were included.
looking forward to baileys next story.


text: Jennifer has served as CEO of the legal marketing firm, Integrity Marketing Solutions, for more than 20 years. She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia and a master’s degree in Business Strategy, Management & Leadership from Michigan State University. She specializes in helping lawyers discover their passion, develop a guiding strategy for growth and tell their brand stories in compelling ways. As a digital marketing agency, IMS leads the marketing implementation with comprehensive digital media — from website design and hosting to search engine optimization, social media management and automated online client intake. The agency offers a powerful marketing CRM with automated client intake and integrations with the most popular case and practice management programs.

lowercased: jennifer has served as ceo of the legal marketing firm, integrity marketing solutions, for more than 20 years. she has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the university of missouri-columbia and a master’s degree in business strategy, management & leadership from michigan state university. she specializes in helping lawyers discover their passion, develop a guiding strategy for growth and tell their brand stories in compelling ways. as a digital marketing agency, ims leads the marketing implementation with comprehensive digital media — from website design and hosting to search engine optimization, social media management and automated online client intake. the agency offers a powerful marketing crm with automated client intake and integrations with the most popular case and practice management programs.


text:
real madrid football soccer jersey large. selling a kaka # 8 real madrid home jersey, size large white adidas.
Nike kaka #10 brazil away soccer jersey (s). You are bidding on a kaka jersey card. selling a real madrid kaka jersey # 8 home adidas large size.
Nike kaka #10 brazil home soccer jersey (2xl). Selling a kaka #8 real madrid home jersey, size large white adidas. for sale today is a used, vintage replica team brazil world cup soccer jersey, featuring kaka'.
From the era of ronaldo, ronaldinho, roberto carlos, kaka and may more legends. This AC Milan KAKA #22 Champions is in superior condition. Have a close look on the photos to have right idea of condition.Offered at 76.59.
kaka jersey . overall in good conditionâ€ A steal at 53.6 O.B.O. Please look at the photos to have the right idea of condition.

lowercased:
real madrid football soccer jersey large. selling a kaka # 8 real madrid home jersey, size large white adidas.
nike kaka #10 brazil away soccer jersey (s). you are bidding on a kaka jersey card. selling a real madrid kaka jersey # 8 home adidas large size.
nike kaka #10 brazil home soccer jersey (2xl). selling a kaka #8 real madrid home jersey, size large white adidas. for sale today is a used, vintage replica team brazil world cup soccer jersey, featuring kaka'.
from the era of ronaldo, ronaldinho, roberto carlos, kaka and may more legends. this ac milan kaka #22 champions is in superior condition. have a close look on the photos to have right idea of condition.offered at 76.59.
kaka jersey . overall in good conditionâ€ a steal at 53.6 o.b.o. please look at the photos to have the right idea of condition.


text:
PREGNANCY DISCRIMINATION: WHEN GETTING PREGNANT GETS YOU FIRED.
Although terminating someone’s employment because they are pregnant has been against the law since 1978 when the Pregnancy Discrimination Act was first passed it does not stop some Minnesota employers from blatantly firing someone simply for being pregnant. Take the case of a woman who told her employer she was pregnant at the beginning of her second trimester. Her employer’s immediate response was “That’s not going to work.” She was fired the following day for no other reason than announcing her pregnancy.
Her employer simply said that since the company was small, it cannot afford to cover her when she would be on leave to have her baby. Then there are the numerous cases where pregnant workers are forced to take unpaid leave immediately upon announcing their pregnancy status. The forced time off is not based on a medical need or even requests for special accommodations such as lifting or other physical restrictions, but on an employer’s erroneous assumptions about the worker’s ability to do her job.
Then when the worker really needs to take time off, they have already exhausted their allotted time and are fired. Some employees are discriminated against over fears about how customers may perceive or react to, for example a pregnant restaurant server. The majority of female employees subjected to pregnancy discrimination are low-wage workers who really need to work as long as possible throughout their pregnancy.
But there appears to be hope on the horizon for pregnant women. The EEOC commissioner recently said that EEOC has chosen three legal issues involving discrimination where it wants to have an impact. One issue includes whether or not employers should be required to accommodate pregnant workers. Many women’s advocacy groups are pushing for changes to the ADA that in 2008, already expanded the definition of disability to include temporary disabilities.
No one should be discriminated against based on a disability, temporary or not and employees in Minnesota and elsewhere do have rights when it comes to the Family and Medical Leave Act as well as the Americans with Disabilities Act. Now the question seems to be whether a woman’s medical needs in relation to her pregnancy should be protected as a temporary disability.
Pregnancy discrimination is illegal and if the EEOC clarifies the language to include pregnancy-related disabilities, perhaps fewer women will be discriminated against in the workplace.

lowercased:
pregnancy discrimination: when getting pregnant gets you fired.
although terminating someone’s employment because they are pregnant has been against the law since 1978 when the pregnancy discrimination act was first passed it does not stop some minnesota employers from blatantly firing someone simply for being pregnant. take the case of a woman who told her employer she was pregnant at the beginning of her second trimester. her employer’s immediate response was “that’s not going to work.” she was fired the following day for no other reason than announcing her pregnancy.
her employer simply said that since the company was small, it cannot afford to cover her when she would be on leave to have her baby. then there are the numerous cases where pregnant workers are forced to take unpaid leave immediately upon announcing their pregnancy status. the forced time off is not based on a medical need or even requests for special accommodations such as lifting or other physical restrictions, but on an employer’s erroneous assumptions about the worker’s ability to do her job.
then when the worker really needs to take time off, they have already exhausted their allotted time and are fired. some employees are discriminated against over fears about how customers may perceive or react to, for example a pregnant restaurant server. the majority of female employees subjected to pregnancy discrimination are low-wage workers who really need to work as long as possible throughout their pregnancy.
but there appears to be hope on the horizon for pregnant women. the eeoc commissioner recently said that eeoc has chosen three legal issues involving discrimination where it wants to have an impact. one issue includes whether or not employers should be required to accommodate pregnant workers. many women’s advocacy groups are pushing for changes to the ada that in 2008, already expanded the definition of disability to include temporary disabilities.
no one should be discriminated against based on a disability, temporary or not and employees in minnesota and elsewhere do have rights when it comes to the family and medical leave act as well as the americans with disabilities act. now the question seems to be whether a woman’s medical needs in relation to her pregnancy should be protected as a temporary disability.
pregnancy discrimination is illegal and if the eeoc clarifies the language to include pregnancy-related disabilities, perhaps fewer women will be discriminated against in the workplace.


text:
What began as a dust-up among a small group of Canadian writers has blown up into a confrontation over an issue that’s long troubled the literary community.
It’s about “cultural appropriation” – the practise of a dominant culture stealing the symbols, ideas and values of an oppressed minority. And it’s been going on for centuries, since long before the German amateur archaeologist, Heinrich Schliemann, desecrated Troy as he blasted his way through Turkish antiquity.
The controversy in Canada is over the use by white writers of Indigenous personalities and settings, thereby – so the argument goes – depriving Indigenous authors of opportunities to tell their own stories.
This is not the first time Indigenous authors have fought to retain control over their heritage. In 1989, Chippewas poet Lenore Keeshig challenged the Writers’ Union of Canada over non-Indigenous writers telling stories in the voice of Indigenous characters. “Stop stealing our stories,” she demanded.
It was a time when author J.P. Kinsella (Shoeless Joe) was writing of disreputable and drunken characters among the Indian tribes of the Hobbema reserve in Alberta. He was loud in defending Dance Me Outside and his right to tell any story, any time, about whomever he wished.
More recently, questions were raised about the authenticity of the Indigenous relationships of Joseph Boyden, author of Three Day Road and other novels set among northern Ontario’s First Nations communities. “Not Indian enough,” it’s been said of Boyden, “to write Indian stories.” (Yes, the term Indian is still being used, sometimes contemptuously, sometimes historically).
The current dust-up arose in the Writers’ Union of Canada (of which I am a member) when an issue of its magazine Write, devoted ironically to Indigenous writing, featured an editorial rejecting the concept of “cultural appropriation.” Write about the things you know nothing about, urged editor Hal Niedzviecki. “Anyone, anywhere, should be encouraged to imagine other peoples, their cultures, other identities.” He thought, satirically, there should be an Appropriation Prize for the best story by a writer of a culture she knows nothing about.
Of course this thoughtless and insensitive commentary soon landed Niedzviecki – and a number of prominent white Canadian writers who voiced support for him –in hot water. He resigned his position, the Writers’ Union issued an apology, and undertook to study a series of demands from its Equity Task Force.
Walrus magazine editor Jon Kay who had tweeted that Niedzviecki was being “mobbed,” resigned. The managing editor of CBC-TV’s The National, Steve Ladurantaye, was reassigned after pledging to contribute to a fund for an Appropriation Prize.
My sentiments are to come down on the side of freedom of expression. In my most recent book, An Act of Injustice, I devote a chapter to an Indigenous character who tells our young protagonist some brutal truths about the mistreatment of his people. In an article to be published in an upcoming issue of Canada’s History magazine, I reveal, through an interview with a Saskatchewan Indigenous chief, how he came up with the term First Nations to describe Canada’s Indian tribes. In my opinion, there’s no cultural appropriation here.
Today’s Indigenous authors – and there are many of them – are properly emboldened by the growing consensus among Canadians that the country must deal fairly, on a people to people basis, with its indigenous population.
It’s understandable that some Indigenous authors who have had trouble getting their work published will feel they’ve been frozen out by white writers who have trespassed on their territory. Honestly, I can’t think of many such examples.
More books are being published today by Indigenous authors that ever before. CBC Books is boasting that during June – Indigenous Book Club Month – it will publish a recommendation a day of a book by an Indigenous author.
This year’s Amazon First Novel Prize of $40,000 has gone to a Metis writer, Katherena Vermette of Winnipeg, for The Break. A deserving winner.
The $5,000 Aboriginal Literary Award will be presented for the third year this month. It’s an award in which I’m proud to say I had a hand in creating, along with the Periodical Marketers of Canada association and the Southern Ontario Library Service.
A Toronto lawyer, Robin Parker, has raised more than $100,000 via online Crowdfunding in support for an Emerging Indigenous Voices award.
There’s no doubt newly empowered Indigenous writers are asserting themselves as creators and as players in the marketplace. A book on an Indigenous topic by a white writer will have to be overwhelmingly compelling before any publisher will take it on. All this suggests the battle about cultural appropriation is over – and it’s clear who’s won.

lowercased:
what began as a dust-up among a small group of canadian writers has blown up into a confrontation over an issue that’s long troubled the literary community.
it’s about “cultural appropriation” – the practise of a dominant culture stealing the symbols, ideas and values of an oppressed minority. and it’s been going on for centuries, since long before the german amateur archaeologist, heinrich schliemann, desecrated troy as he blasted his way through turkish antiquity.
the controversy in canada is over the use by white writers of indigenous personalities and settings, thereby – so the argument goes – depriving indigenous authors of opportunities to tell their own stories.
this is not the first time indigenous authors have fought to retain control over their heritage. in 1989, chippewas poet lenore keeshig challenged the writers’ union of canada over non-indigenous writers telling stories in the voice of indigenous characters. “stop stealing our stories,” she demanded.
it was a time when author j.p. kinsella (shoeless joe) was writing of disreputable and drunken characters among the indian tribes of the hobbema reserve in alberta. he was loud in defending dance me outside and his right to tell any story, any time, about whomever he wished.
more recently, questions were raised about the authenticity of the indigenous relationships of joseph boyden, author of three day road and other novels set among northern ontario’s first nations communities. “not indian enough,” it’s been said of boyden, “to write indian stories.” (yes, the term indian is still being used, sometimes contemptuously, sometimes historically).
the current dust-up arose in the writers’ union of canada (of which i am a member) when an issue of its magazine write, devoted ironically to indigenous writing, featured an editorial rejecting the concept of “cultural appropriation.” write about the things you know nothing about, urged editor hal niedzviecki. “anyone, anywhere, should be encouraged to imagine other peoples, their cultures, other identities.” he thought, satirically, there should be an appropriation prize for the best story by a writer of a culture she knows nothing about.
of course this thoughtless and insensitive commentary soon landed niedzviecki – and a number of prominent white canadian writers who voiced support for him –in hot water. he resigned his position, the writers’ union issued an apology, and undertook to study a series of demands from its equity task force.
walrus magazine editor jon kay who had tweeted that niedzviecki was being “mobbed,” resigned. the managing editor of cbc-tv’s the national, steve ladurantaye, was reassigned after pledging to contribute to a fund for an appropriation prize.
my sentiments are to come down on the side of freedom of expression. in my most recent book, an act of injustice, i devote a chapter to an indigenous character who tells our young protagonist some brutal truths about the mistreatment of his people. in an article to be published in an upcoming issue of canada’s history magazine, i reveal, through an interview with a saskatchewan indigenous chief, how he came up with the term first nations to describe canada’s indian tribes. in my opinion, there’s no cultural appropriation here.
today’s indigenous authors – and there are many of them – are properly emboldened by the growing consensus among canadians that the country must deal fairly, on a people to people basis, with its indigenous population.
it’s understandable that some indigenous authors who have had trouble getting their work published will feel they’ve been frozen out by white writers who have trespassed on their territory. honestly, i can’t think of many such examples.
more books are being published today by indigenous authors that ever before. cbc books is boasting that during june – indigenous book club month – it will publish a recommendation a day of a book by an indigenous author.
this year’s amazon first novel prize of $40,000 has gone to a metis writer, katherena vermette of winnipeg, for the break. a deserving winner.
the $5,000 aboriginal literary award will be presented for the third year this month. it’s an award in which i’m proud to say i had a hand in creating, along with the periodical marketers of canada association and the southern ontario library service.
a toronto lawyer, robin parker, has raised more than $100,000 via online crowdfunding in support for an emerging indigenous voices award.
there’s no doubt newly empowered indigenous writers are asserting themselves as creators and as players in the marketplace. a book on an indigenous topic by a white writer will have to be overwhelmingly compelling before any publisher will take it on. all this suggests the battle about cultural appropriation is over – and it’s clear who’s won.


text: In 1916 a report was written by Friedrich Hrozny in which he dealt with the Hittite language. He claimed that Hittite was Indo-European. If his argument was based on decipherment of the cuneiform, if his translations were impeccable, if the speech permits no other linguistic interpretations than those proposed, and if they do not represent a small selection of Indo-European assonances then Hittite must be Indo-European. Not until 1920 did Hrozny’s full treatise, Die Sprache der Hethiter, come out. On the face value of his text-readings, interpretations, and grammatical estimates Hrozny makes a strong case. As far as the author can see, the Indo-European aspects of Hittite have no basis in any known historic colonizations by Indo-Europeans as part of Asia Minor. Maurice Bloomfield believes that Hittite could show signs of Indo-European, though he does not believe the Hittite language to be a part of this etymological group.

lowercased: in 1916 a report was written by friedrich hrozny in which he dealt with the hittite language. he claimed that hittite was indo-european. if his argument was based on decipherment of the cuneiform, if his translations were impeccable, if the speech permits no other linguistic interpretations than those proposed, and if they do not represent a small selection of indo-european assonances then hittite must be indo-european. not until 1920 did hrozny’s full treatise, die sprache der hethiter, come out. on the face value of his text-readings, interpretations, and grammatical estimates hrozny makes a strong case. as far as the author can see, the indo-european aspects of hittite have no basis in any known historic colonizations by indo-europeans as part of asia minor. maurice bloomfield believes that hittite could show signs of indo-european, though he does not believe the hittite language to be a part of this etymological group.


text:
The Honourable Marc Garneau, Minister of Transport, today announced that Canada has successfully concluded new or expanded air transport agreements with St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Algeria, Qatar, Jordan, Côte-d’Ivoire and Mongolia.
These new and expanded air transport agreements were reached under Canada’s Blue Sky policy, which encourages long-term, sustainable competition and the development of international air services.
Under the Blue Sky Policy, the Government of Canada has concluded new or expanded air transport agreements covering more than 105 countries.

lowercased:
the honourable marc garneau, minister of transport, today announced that canada has successfully concluded new or expanded air transport agreements with st. vincent and the grenadines, algeria, qatar, jordan, côte-d’ivoire and mongolia.
these new and expanded air transport agreements were reached under canada’s blue sky policy, which encourages long-term, sustainable competition and the development of international air services.
under the blue sky policy, the government of canada has concluded new or expanded air transport agreements covering more than 105 countries.