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Battlezone Series Real-Time Strategy Video Games
Top: Games: Video Games: Strategy: Real-Time: Battlezone Series
See Also:
Editor's Picks:
PlanetBattlezone - Offers news, screenshots, patches and downloads, an FAQs, unit summaries, strategy guides, and game information.
- Battlezone - Features a storyline, cheats, an FAQ, and unit and general game information. Also has map and demo downloads.
- BattleZone Maps Page - Features maps and vehicle sets.
- Battlezone for Wiseguys Gaming Clan - Includes cheat codes, descriptions of weapons and units, and screen real-time shots. [Requires Java]
- Bailey's Battlezone Page - Features cheats, hints, unit reports, and an FAQ.
MySQL - Cache Direct


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I only have 1 laptop, and want to play with another person.
No joystick/mouse/anything.
What games can I use?
As per meta: Don't add a new answer, but edit the Community Wiki answer.
- Fun with two players
- Enjoyable without spending an hour learning the rules
- Free, open source is ideal
- Usable offline, no flash-based nor online-based games.
- Link to Ubuntu package appreciated
- two-players-at-one-keyboard or hotseat or anything else OK

subset: commoncrawl


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SANHUA Automotive offers a wide array of products, with an emphasis on thermal management systems and new-energy vehicle HVAC systems. Our complete line of high-quality thermal management products gives us the opportunity to design solutions to our customers' specific needs while maintaining a competitive price.
Contact SANHUA Automotive to see how our
thermal management expertise can empower your business
Download the SANHUA Automotive Brochure to learn more about our technology solutions and industry advancement.view and download


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Immerse your senses in Dianthus 'Scented Mix'! We've hand selected a range of modern dianthus plants to offer bright colours, strong garden performance and multi-flowering stems, while retaining the vintage spicy fragrance of garden pinks. The extreme flower power of these hardy perennials means you'll enjoy 100s of cut flower blooms through the summer, every year, with plenty left on the plants to keep them looking good in the garden. Height and spread: 30cm (12").
Culinary note: Use the clove like tasting petals for adding to cakes, either for flavour or decorating, suitable for soups, salads and sauces too. For more details about edible flowers click here.
20 dianthus jumbo plug plants (KB8559)
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Seeds and garden supplies will normally be delivered within the time period stated against each product as detailed above. Plants, bulbs, corms, tubers, shrubs, trees, potatoes, etc. are delivered at the appropriate time for planting or potting on. Delivery times will be stated on the product page above, or in your order acknowledgement page and email.
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For more information on how we send your plants please visit our Helpful Guide on plant sizes.
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text: HomeSwivel Bar stool. Scratches on back, see photosBar Stool$59.00PriceQuantityAdd to CartPRODUCT INFOH 47"x W 18" x D18" RETURN & REFUND POLICYAll sales are final. Returns and Refunds are not accepted on tent sale items. In the nature of the tent sales items may have imperfections which would be noted in the product info. DELIVERY INFOPick Up Encouraged. Local delivery available for $75. Delivery available in: Center Harbor, Meredith, Moultonboro, Tuftonboro, Wolfeboro, Alton, Gilford, Sandwhich, Holderness & Laconia. We will not be offering delviery outside of these towns.


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William Osler, a Canadian physician and one of the four founding professors of Johns Hopkins Hospital once said:
"The good physician treats the disease; the great physician treats the patient who has the disease."
With an appearance of modern technologies in healthcare, this task is starting to be more easily achievable as they all allow doctors to understand their patients better.
Nowadays orthopedists have access to a variety of diagnostic tests with arthrography, dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, CT scans, ultrasound, nerve conduction study, MRI, and electromyography just to name a few. All of them widen doctors' perception and help them better understand patient's condition before starting treatment. As people vary a lot in their anatomy, overall fitness and even in such basic characteristics as a normal body temperature individual approach is essential. How can 3D printing help doctors respond better to William Osler's call? Let's find out.
3D printing in preoperative planning
Recognition of complex anatomical structures can sometimes be difficult to attain from simple 2D radiographic views. 3D models of patients' anatomy facilitate this task and allow doctors to familiarize themselves with a specific patient. This approach proved to reduce drastically OR time, especially in complex cases[1]. Getting to know patients' anatomy before entering an OR allows to plan the exact approach, helps to predict bottlenecks and even test procedures beforehand. It very often occurs in neurological applications where maneuvering around delicate nerves and vessels are common but can also be beneficial in orthopedics[2].
An amazing example of 3D models created for surgery planning is separation of Siamese twins. Individual variances and complexities of their anatomy make estimation and planning of the surgery very challenging. Surgeons have to agree on organs distribution between two patients beforehand. Having limited information from 2D imaging and also relying only on one's experience might have been a not good enough approach, as all cases are unique. Any mistake or oversight might lead to severe complications that could be very hard to control in the OR as the procedure is occurring a simultaneously on two patients. One of such cases was described in BBC's article on two Chinese twins separation and another one in Imaging Technology News – procedure conducted in Texas Children's Hospital. In each of them accurate 3D models were created to evaluate complexity and validate surgical approach.
Orthopedics can also benefit from planning on 3D models. Some of the most typical use cases are scoliosis or kyphosis surgeries and quite often evaluation of craniosynostosis cases. Some severe bone fractures may be better assessed with use of 3D models. Complex maxillofacial surgical procedures are also a major application for 3D models. Facial reconstruction is a complex procedure often requiring significant time for contouring titanium plates used to link adjacent bones together. The procedure is performed with a patient under anesthesia, and the plates are formed intraoperatively. Increased OR time can increase trauma to a patient. Having a 3D model of patient's bony structure allows to shape the plates beforehand and thus reduce time spent in surgery[3]. There is a lot of scientific and popular articles showing usefulness of this technology in facial reconstruction.
There are some other applications of 3D printed models for evaluation of patient's condition and planning of procedures are presented at Boston's Children Hospital website.
This technology undoubtedly boosts surgeons' confidence as it gives them the opportunity to evaluate all aspects of patient's anatomy without losing time to do this in OR. No standard models nor 2D images can replace 3D printing as the first do not represent the specific case in debate and the latter may hide important details, especially in the spatial relationship between structures[3]. Looking inside patient's body before inventing 3D printing has never been so detailed and clear.
3D printing in education
Three-dimensional print models can improve understanding of anatomy and pathology for both a surgeon and a patient. They supplement images displayed on a computer screen providing tactile and visual experience. Such models may be created as a reference for complex deformities to be shared along specialists.
Studying anatomy is conducted on cadavers of people who decided to donate their bodies to science or were not claimed by their families after passing away. It is not a secret that medical education facilities often lack cadavers for their classes. It is a serious situation as bodies are indispensable study tools for students of medicine. 3D printing might offer a solution here as complex anatomical structures of real patients can be easily reconstructed from CT or MRI data and saved for presentation to students. Of course, it is not a replacement for studying anatomy on cadavers, but it may supplement this type of teaching by providing accurate replicas of real body parts for study. It is especially essential in countries that do not allow for cadaver tests or for people who find such practice unethical. A Monash University has developed a few of such educational tools[4]. It has also been suggested that these models could be kept to build a library or a catalogue of pathology for future educational purposes[5]. What limits their application scope is that one material printing cannot mimic mechanical characteristics of real organs. This can though be overcome by using new multi-material printing as was reported by Waran et al.[6] All types of tissues were separated sequentially resulting in 3D digital models of skin, bone, dura, and tumor. Each model had specific material characteristics assigned and after merging them into one, a 3D multi-material printer was used to create them. It gives hope for the future creation of more adequate training tools that may supersede cadavers.
3D prints may be as well used by a doctor to explain to a patient his or her condition. Such practice is already working. Nicolla Bizotto MD reassures his patients before performing a complex bone fracture surgeries and doctors at Radboud UMC hospital print brain tumors to explain the treatment to their patients. According to these articles, the practice shows high potential in using such tools not only for assessing condition but also to facilitate for a surgeon explanation of the procedure to a patient. An article published at Medscape underlines the importance of using 3D models for explaining ocular pathologies to patients as there are no accurate enough standard models to explain some of these conditions[7]). Offering a patient possibility to understand his case and procedure may be reassuring and produce better treatment outcome by reducing stress and insecurity.
- Hammad H. M. et al., (2015), "Three-Dimensional Printing in Surgery: A Review of Current Surgical Applications", Journal of Surgical Research, 199(2), pp. 512-522
- Schubert, C. et al., (2014), "Review Innovations in 3D Printing: a 3D Overview from Optics to Organs", Br J Ophthalmol, 98(2), pp.159-61
- Marro, A. et al., (2016), "Three-Dimensional Printing and Medical Imaging: A Review of the Methods and Applications", Current Problems in Diagnostic Radiology, 45(1), pp. 2-9
McMenamin, P. G. et al., (2014), "The Production of Anatomical Teaching Resources Using Three-Dimensional (3D) Printing Technology", Anatomical Sciences Education, Volume 7(6), pp. 479–486
Niikura, T. et al., (2014), "Surgical Navigation System for Complex Acetabular Fracture Surgery" Orthopedics, 37, pp. 237-242
- Waran, W. et al., (2014), "Utility of Multimaterial 3D Printers in Creating Models with Pathological Entities to Enhance the Training Experience of Neurosurgeons", Journal of Neurosurgery, 120(2), pp. 489-492
- Hobbs, B. N., (2016), Changing Medical Education With 3D Printing, Available from: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/857065 (accessed 30/04/16)


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3 Natives is a new-age restaurant that focuses on serving delicious, healthy, and natural food and drinks. They see themselves as more than a destination, but a lifestyle too. They focus on serving their customers nutritious foods and drinks while supporting the local economy and helping to protect the environment. The menu at 3 Natives mainly consists of their famous Acai Bowls. The bowls are made with organic acai berries that are rich in antioxidants and healthy omegas. The most popular bowl is the Chronic, which is made with organic acai, granola, banana, strawberry, kiwi, pineapple, organic shaved coconut, and McCoyís honey. The bowls are vegan-friendly and if youíre gluten-free they can swap out the granola for super food chia and hemp seeds. In addition to their Acai Bowls, 3 Natives also offers delicious wraps and salads. One of the most popular picks is the Tuna that is made with tuna salad, romaine, purple cabbage, carrot, red pepper, cucumber, sunflower sprouts, homemade Pico de Gallo, homemade balsamic vinaigrette, and Himalayan pink salt. Everything at 3 Natives is created using locally sourced, fresh ingredients. All the dishes are made fresh to order because the nutrients are most potent the fresher it is. 3 Nativesí other specialty is their cold-pressed juices. Even though cold pressing their juices is more labor intensive, itís worth it in the end because it leads to minimal nutrient degradation. That means that their juices keep all their nutritious value and donít lose any in the process. Their juices are all freshly made every morning using natural, wholesome ingredients and absolutely no other added sugars or preservatives. 3 Natives makes great smoothies alongside their juices too. Two of the most popular are the Chuck Norris and All Hopped Up. Overall, 3 Natives is the perfect place to enjoy delicious, healthy food without sacrificing flavor or variety. The atmosphere is friendly and laid back while the staff is warm and very personable. They work hard to make sure every guest feels special and leaves happy and satisfied. The next time youíre in the area make sure to stop by 3 Natives for a meal and experience you wonít forget!
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Posts in Georgia
Using 511 for Traffic Information and More
Everyone is familiar with dialing 911 for emergency situations. In the past, you may have even dialed 411 for information... View Article
Our Online Driver Ed Guide: What Do We Offer in Your State?
First Time Driver is a resource offered by the American Safety Council designed to equip individuals with the tools and... View Article
Driving in Georgia: Understanding Joshua's Law
As you may know, driver's license laws vary from state to state and unfortunately are oftentimes put into place because... View Article


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The anatomy of an effortless customer interaction
In a forever pandemic-changed world where the quality of your company's customer service and experience means the difference between surviving or thriving, you may be hearing more about the Effortless Experience framework for mitigating customer disloyalty.
While we can talk at a conceptual level about all of the research that's gone into the framework, the research findings and the principles of low-effort service experiences, the question remains — in a volatile market where one customer interaction can compromise an entire customer experience — what does an effortless customer interaction really look like?
And how can you turn customer effort into effortless customer loyalty in every interaction? We'll teach you that and more in "The Anatomy of an effortless service customer interaction."
- One customer interaction can undermine an entire customer experience.
- There's a lot of good from simply delivering what the customer expects.
- Customer loyalty is not guaranteed unless you bridge the gap between expectations and actuals.
- Why your service interactions are 4x more likely to drive disloyalty than any others.
- If you're not examining the micro-interactions (customer feelings in response to agent behaviors), then you're missing the point of effortlessness
- Effort scoring your customer interactions outperforms every other customer experience, satisfaction or loyalty measure in the market.
- The three fastest routes to reduce customer effort in your interactions.
- A cheat-sheet on how to improve your customer effort score with Tethr.
One customer interaction can undermine an entire customer experience. One single, solitary phone call, chat message or customer support email can mean the difference between your customer's positive perception of your brand and experience and their frustration with it, and eventual churn.
Especially the last part of that interaction. How did it go? Did you leave off on sound footing where you came to a natural closing or resolution? Or, did it leave a bad taste in your customer's mouth — and an unfortunate lasting impression for your brand?
In a recent study our partner, Qualtrics, poured through thousands of customer journeys focused on understanding contact center customer experiences through the lense of 2,000 customer perspectives and 100 contact center agent perspectives. Their findings confirm that a whopping "78% of surveyed consumers indicated that a single contact center interaction permanently changed how they felt about a brand."
We're seven months into a global pandemic that's not going anywhere anytime soon. You don't want to be leaving your customers' needs and experiences behind while you rush off to meet sales quotas or try zigging instead of zagging your product or service in an unstable market climate. We invite you to grab a cup of coffee or your favorite loose-leaf tea, find a comfy seat and get ready to anatomize with us, if you will, an effortless customer interaction.
Table of contents:
Chapter 1: What is a customer interaction?
Chapter 2: What makes an interaction "effortless"?
Chapter 3: Typical components of an effortless customer interaction
Chapter 4: The quickest ways companies can reduce customer effort in their customer interactions
Chapter 5: Automate effort scoring and close the customer feedback loop to make every customer interaction effortless
Chapter 1: What is a customer interaction?
Customer interactions come in many shapes and sizes these days — from the long and often drawn-out phone call to the quick chat message that you key in with all of your thumbs from your mobile phone on the way to pick up your kids from school finally (of course, never texting while driving!). But you get the idea.
What used to be just a visit to your brick-and-mortar or a phone call from a customer has evolved into a multitude of methods to interact with customers across a variety of virtual channels. Today's customers are engaging everywhere: from social media and open text messengers to live chatbots, email and SMS. Add in the tools your front-line staff use to respond (customer support ticketing systems and entire enterprise CRM solutions for the contact center), and you've got plenty of touchpoints where a customer interaction can potentially occur.
And a customer's journey (a.k.a. all the micro-interactions they have with your company across every channel, department and team) touches many parts of your business. From a customer service interaction over the phone with a customer care rep. in your contact center, to a live chat with your product support team online to a customer prospecting or account maintenance interaction via email with a business development manager or an account manager.
Even more, there are so many influencing factors that lead customers to choose a specific channel to communicate with companies:
- Social posts, comments and messengers: our customers know that using a little social pressure can work to their advantage, getting them a faster response, and potentially, a more speedy resolution. With more than half the world's population using some form of social media in 2020 (anywhere from 1.5 to 3.5 hours per day), it's a channel your customer base is likely engaging with. You should be showing up to the conversation too.
- Email and live chat: Customers shoot an email or hop on a chat when their issue or questions isn't time-sensitive. And for those of us who like a paper trail to refer back to, these channels offer a written record of the conversation.
- Text messages: Customers prefer text messages for quick replies and reminders, like appointments and scheduling. And with an increasingly tech-savvy population, according to business text messaging provider, Snapdesk, "67% of people would rather text with a business than talk to them on the phone." SMS is used best for on-the-go replies to a business (for example, 58% of consumers have tried to reply with a text message after missing a call from a business). And, consumers are four times more likely to respond to a text message than call back a business voicemail.
- A good, old fashioned phone call: contrary to the days of old when picking up the rotary phone was one of our quickest forms of communication; nowadays our customers pick up the phone when we don't have a digital channel or we have a cumbersome one and it's their last resort. Our customers also typically call when they're dealing with more complex or sensitive issues that may need expert help.
In a post-COVID world where we've all been forced online, and with so many more ways to interact with your customers than ever… how do you know what you should be doing to keep happy customers happy? And what you should not be doing to keep them at all?
Chapter 2: What makes an interaction "effortless"?
Providing an exceptional customer experience is supposed to be the one thing that encourages happy customers who are loyal more than anything, right?
Well, it's half-right.
What the Effortless Experience* research (of more than 100 thousand customers) tells us is that "customers who are delighted are actually no more loyal than those whose expectations are simply met," explains Matt Dixon, Tethr's Chief Product and Research Officer, and one of the key researchers on the project. So, "actually delivering a good, straightforward, frictionless, effortless customer experience is what our customers are really looking for," he goes on to say.
* The Effortless Experience is a trademark of Challenger, Inc. To learn more about Effortless Experience solutions, contact Challenger.
To sum it all up for you, two of the big takeaways from the Effortless Experience research:
- There's a lot of good from simply delivering what the customer expects.
- When we do more than the customer expects (like freebies, giveaways, longer calls and escalations), customers don't pay us back with their loyalty.
In actuality, where the effortful friction is happening the most in your business is an even more surprising outcome of the research. "When we look at the impact of a service interaction on loyalty," Dixon expands, "what we found is that a service interaction is almost 4x more likely to drive disloyalty than loyalty."
Why? The seven critical drivers of high-effort customer interactions, and therefore disloyalty, tend to happen with frequency in a company's service operations. This is where your customer care and support staff typically shoulder the burden of upstream and downstream business strategy, process and resourcing issues.
Effort drivers can come from every angle around your customer service delivery. A few questions to reflect on for your business:
- Are you putting your customers in high-effort binds (like having to call you back multiple times)?
- Are you forcing them to switch channels to get their needs met?
- Are you passing the buck by transferring their calls across departments with no facilitation or orientation… so they have to repeat information?
Placing the burden of your inhumane or robotic service practices on them or forcing them into onerous and constraining company policies and procedures.
And don't forget the overall hassle of having to call you in the first place! All of these disloyalty drivers make your customer's experience worse, never better.
We suggest you start by looking at your customer service interactions — the stuff that's happening in the contact center or with your customer care and quality assurance or support teams.
As CX and Customer Care or Quality Assurance leaders, what questions should we be asking ourselves about "effort" in each of our customer interactions?
- How are our customer interactions lending themselves to a low-effort customer experience?
- What's the level of customer satisfaction in our service operation?
- Do our customer relations bridge the gap between our customer's pain point, their expectations and the actual service experience they have with us?
- Are we easy to do business with for our customers in every interaction we have with them?
- Are our customer interactions creating happy customers, loyal brand ambassadors?
- What's our employee's experience like and how's that impacting our customer interactions?
- What's our employees' behavior and how's that impacting our customers' experience with us?
Chapter 3: Typical components of an effortless customer interaction
Our research reveals: if you want to improve your customer relationships, shore-up customer expectations, fine-tune your customer service operations or full-on practice the tenets of effortless service to re-architect an effortless customer experience from the ground up in your organization, you'll want to start with the smallest incremental component — the customer interaction.
And regardless of the scale of the initiative you want to undertake, effortlessness begins within each individual interaction. And an effortless experience is made up of hundreds and thousands of effortless customer micro-interactions happening at any given moment across every team and customer touchpoint in your org. So, let's dig into the common components of an effortless customer interaction.
Tracing an effortless customer experience by the quality of each interaction over time
As humans we're built to want to show and see improvement over time — in ourselves and in our relationships. So much so that forecasters expect the $38B global personal development market to grow by more than 5% over the next seven years due, in part, to the rise of advanced digital platforms for self-improvement, indicates Grand View Research's Personal Development Market segment forecast.
And it's no different from our relationships with our customers. To measure our customers' experience we look at two axes: Quality of the CX (represented vertically above) and Time (illustrated horizontally above). You can switch the Time axis out for many other measures to paint the picture of our customers' experience, including by industry, team, channel or platform or touchpoint in the customer journey.
The point(s) where those axes meet in the example graph above indicate the quality of a touchpoint, or customer interaction, in the experience over a period of time. The data will ultimately paint a picture of the ideal customer experience by touchpoint, or interaction, or the current customer experience by comparison.
Managing both customer expectations and your experience actuals
The reality is that as humans who lead businesses, it's as hard to see our own blind spots as it is to see them in our business. And it's especially hard to see blind spots in each individual customer interaction happening across our business.
When you're looking at the quality of a customer interaction over time, you'll naturally see a rise in your customer's expectations of your product, service or of doing business with you.
This rise can be attributed to market shifts, technological innovation, broader-than-ever access to information and sharing, domain maturation, and generational norms. Below are a few stats that sum up these ever-evolving shifts impacting your customer interactions and your experience as a whole:
- 54% of customers have higher expectations for service today compared to a year ago.
- 86% of buyers will pay more for a great customer experience.
- 66% of 18-34-year-olds admit their customer service expectations have risen in the last year.
- 65% of customers aged 18-44 use mobile for service 1+ times a month.
- 86% of millennials say negative reviews influence them when buying a product or service.
- 52% of people globally believe companies should take action on feedback provided by their customers.
- 57% of customers prefer using text-based customer support (email, chat or social media) rather voice-based customer support.
- 65% of Millenials believe social media is an effective customer service channel, while 75% of Baby Boomers and over don't.
So when you're tracing the reality of your customer's experience — interaction-by-interaction — it's easy to see how a gap can emerge between their evolving needs and expectations and what you're delivering.
So, how are you addressing that gap currently? Answer that question honestly.
Are you investing in coaching for your customer care and support teams?
Are you investing internally in the employee experience?
Have you built a customer experience technology stack that invests not only in listening, but also in closing the loop with customers?
And, are you getting a return on these investments?
To gain insight from a human interaction, you must consider both perceived feelings and behaviors
Let's face it, we're all human. So, suppose you're not examining the micro-interactions (customer feelings and perceptions in response to agent behaviors) in your customer interactions. In that case, you're going to miss the nuances that can immediately elicit a customer's emotions and drive-up customer-perceived effort.
This scale measures low-to-high customer effort perception on the vertical axis happening over customer interaction flow. In the example above, we're looking at the flow of a customer call. And what our research shows is that some common reactions/responses differentiate high-effort interactions with low-performing agent behaviors from low-effort customer interactions with high-performing agent behaviors.
Let's look at two examples of high-effort and low-effort customer interactions below.
For each example, we'll break the call down into the three parts that are important to consider when analyzing the customer experience's quality and effort across your interactions: beginning, middle and end or what's often referred to as greeting, middle, closing.
Example 1: The qualities of high-effort interactions with low-performing agent behaviors
First, let's focus on the beginning of this example customer interaction shown above. Here we see the customer call starts well with the customer care agent making an apologetic acknowledgment of the customer's pain point that probably sounds something like, "Oh, I'm sorry to hear you're experiencing x."
Next, what happens is the key points of differentiation between an effortful and an effortless customer interaction. It's where the customer gets real about how your company missed their expectations. And it's here that we find low-performing agents identifying themselves.
Low-performing customer service agents aren't skilled at handling the difference that arises when customer expectations don't match up with experience. What they do instead is to defer, or avoid, the issue at hand. Acknowledging a problem, but actively avoiding addressing it with deferral is a sure-fire way to watch the rest of the interaction plummet into the depths of low-quality and high-effort.
By the middle of a high-effort customer interaction, what was acknowledged, but deferred turns into customer confusion. What that looks like in a customer interaction is the customer expressing something like, "I just don't understand why your company cannot get this right."
And what they're met with in a high-effort experience is none other than equal confusion from the customer support rep. Agent confusion can look something like this: "Hmmm… you know, I'm not sure about that…" or "That's never happened before. Can I put you on hold to figure x out?"
Now, what could be more frustrating than reaching out to a professional representative of a company — whose job it is to help you as a customer and help you understand — and being met with equal levels of confusion while they figure it out?
The end of a high-effort customer interaction is no different. Quality progressively plunges as the contact center agent escalates the call internally, feigning powerless to help the customer. Ultimately, like a deer caught in car headlights, their unfortunate tactic is to deflect.
Deflection has other names you may recognize, like "passing the buck" or "hiding behind a company's policies." What this sounds like is the contact center agent saying, "I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do to help," or even "Our company policy prevents us from doing it that way."
As a customer, you've likely experienced these unfortunate tactics yourself. So, how did you feel at the end of an interaction like this with a brand you trusted? Frustrated much? We get it.
What's the real value/ROI of resolving a call?
It might surprise you to read this, but "I don't think service leaders need to be sold on the notion that issue resolution is important," shares our SVP of Product Research, Ted McKenna. While we acknowledge that ROI is one of the main things call centers measure, often using a metric referred to as FCR, or first-call resolution, our research indicates it's more nuanced than that.
What we've learned from dissecting thousands of customer interactions shows that the components of an interaction that have been long-considered as negative from a performance standpoint are the very choice points where your customer sales and service staff can completely turn an interaction around. (For example, these are things like asking probing questions and making the customer repeat information, allowing them to air out their frustrations or taking more time to handle the pain points the customer is presenting)
Not only is first-call resolution a bit unrealistic for both companies and their customer service and support staff, but it's also missing the bigger picture. Literally. From our perspective, and what we suggest companies do to help their customers avoid future issues, use a more realistic resolution measure that takes into account the themes across multiple customer points of contact and prepares customer care agents to actively listen and take an offensive approach. Using Next Issue Avoidance (NIA), customer service staff listen in the present while doing a bit of predicting the future downstream customer impacts that could trigger another call, chat or support case.
And using NIA may very well mean your support staff needs to dig in a little bit more deeply and a little longer to offer that kind of preventative guidance. We've found that high-performing sales, service and support agents get higher scores on these commonly negatively-weighted variables in a customer call (27% higher scores) while generally taking 5% longer on the call. Why? We'll show you in the next example below.
Example 2: The qualities of effortless customer interactions with high-performing agent behaviors
Like we did in the high-effort customer interaction above, let's break this low-effort example into its three parts (beginning, middle, end) and start at the beginning. What's interesting to note about this one may have immediately become apparent if you're looking at the call flow illustration above. What? Wait. So, an effortless customer interaction begins with the very things I've been coaching my customer care team, my call center floor managers and supervisors (or maybe even been coached myself!) to NOT DO?! What gives?
This is where the research gets exciting and might initially even seem counterintuitive to what you've learned about good customer interactions. In the customer call scenario illustrated above, the customer's effort perception immediately takes a skydive. So, wait (you may be asking yourself)… let me get this straight — is this a trick example? Did you accidentally switch the high-effort and low-effort examples of a customer interaction?
Nope. We didn't. In a low-effort customer interaction with a service rep. who is practicing Next Issue Avoidance, for example, you're going to wade through the murk of the customer's unmet needs well before you crawl ashore to the island oasis of customer happiness on the other side. (We all wish it felt like an island oasis right now!) The "murk" looks like asking your customer lots of questions and listening to their answers. Which might sound like, "Tell me more about what's going on?" Or "What's it been like for you?"
And to make sure you got it right, you may need to have them repeat some information to you, which can certainly end up creating customer perceived frustration at its lowest point because you're actually allowing the customer to get it all out on the table.
But, that's all just before the dawn.
By the middle of a low-effort customer interaction, right when it seems the sun will never rise again on your island oasis of customer happiness, a high-performing service or support rep. with all the customer's frustration out on the table will pull out two of the sturdiest skills in their toolkit. And no, they don't involve busting apart coconut husks, digging up seashells or recovering old fisherman's wire that's washed ashore. They are advocacy and proactive guidance.
High-performing agents not only commit to holding space for the differences that can naturally arise when your customer's expectations and your company's actuals don't line up, they embrace it. With all of the murkiest details of the customer's frustrating experience in hand, they take ownership of the customer's problem as if it were their own using the power of advocacy and guiding them toward a resolution.
The end of a low-effort customer interaction employs acknowledgment again, but it's not the kind you might be used to coaching or receiving. As the agent eases the customer's perception of effort, it rises steadily in this last service phase. A high-performing service agent isn't going to give empty "I'm sorries" to their customer. Instead, they'll more confidently acknowledge their shared relief at being able to work through the frustration and find a resolution. Assertive acknowledgment sounds like, "I am so relieved that we were able to work together to fix this issue for you today!"
What happens next might also surprise you, but in a low-effort customer interaction, the customer — feeling met in their moments of frustration — will give what we call promoter signals. These are verbal signals where relieved and unburdened customers then actively advocate for the agent or your company. Promoter signals sound like, "OMG, you were awesome! I am not going anywhere." Or, "You got me, I'm a customer for life!"
Add drivers and contributors to create depth and dimension in your understanding of the interaction
The last quintessential component of an effortless customer interaction will focus on what we call drivers, or the events that elicit effort, disloyalty or increase business cost.
Understanding these drivers on your customer interaction and, ultimately, the driver themes across your customer's journey creates the context for both the service agent's behavior or the customer's response. Drivers give your interaction traceable dimension.
They also give the interaction more traceable depth. Take the example of the seven key drivers of disloyalty above. Tracing these as structured customer data on your customer interaction will help you understand a lot more about the contexts and situations across your business that are currently (and have the potential to) increase disloyalty from your customers.
Now, take our five buckets of effort drivers: Customer sentiment, Call handling effort, Self-service effort, Rep-related effort, Non-service effort. You may notice how broad these buckets are, and there's a reason. Our effort research has borne more than 50 different nuances of effort that can occur on an interaction and across a customer experience! Imagine diving 50 levels deep into all the shades of effort across your channels, stages in a customer service interaction, customer responses like Confusion, Frustration or Missed Expectations, and customer and agent behaviors like Channel Switching, Repeat Contacts, Proactive Guidance and Escalations.
Chapter 4: What are the quickest ways companies can reduce customer effort in their customer interactions?
- Focus your ROI where it actually counts. For instance, don't expect to get a return on your investment with 'customer delight' strategies and tactics.
- Start small and get specific. Concentrate your attention on the places (and the specific customer interactions) in your business that significantly drive-up customer disloyalty first before expanding to all the customer interactions across your entire organization. (hint: they'll be the high-effort interactions with low-performing service agents. What we call Difficult interactions.)
- Get to know your customers' pain points by listening. Then start simple by targeting at least one of the top five customer effort drivers or one of the top seven drivers of customer disloyalty first. (pssst: they are all a function of your customers' effort, or the friction they feel, in doing business with you.)
For more on the how to get started reducing customer effort quickly and effectively, check out these tips from our Chief Product & Research Officer, Matt Dixon.
Chapter 5: Automate effort scoring and close the feedback loops to make every customer interaction effortless
First, a word about the importance of measuring effort below in case you're still unconvinced.
Why is scoring customer effort important for my business?
If you're still asking yourself why customer effort is an important measure for reducing effort in your customer interactions, let us explain. For starters (and enders) measuring customer effort has been shown to outperform the NPS and CSAT scores in predicting actual customer behavior. And what more do you want than to understand and predict customer behavior?
But at Tethr we take that effort scoring quite a few steps further than the original Customer Effort Score. Our platform removes the natural limitations of a survey-based score and increases your ability to score both effort and agent behaviors at-scale across all of your customer interactions. And our integrations allow you to automate internal and customer follow-up workflows across some of the industry's best CX and CRM tools (pssst… Qualtrics and Salesforce).
So what's a good effort score for a customer interaction?
To calculate perceived customer effort and identify common themes and behaviors on the part of your agent, your business and your customer, start with your interactions.
We dive into the Tethr Effort Index (TEI) model's details, how we tuned it and a ton more in our Complete Guide to the Tethr Effort Index. But for our purposes in this article, let's start simple with a single customer interaction.
First, it's necessary to understand that "we built TEI as a disloyalty detector," states McKenna, and "the research tells us it's the disloyal situations worth paying attention to — where negative word of mouth becomes an issue and customer churn becomes real."
So, looking at the typical TEI distribution across a customer interaction, a score between 0 and 4 is what you want to watch out for. These are red-flagging your Difficult customer interactions, or those that indicate high-effort from the customer's perception. Typically around 10-15% of customer interactions fall into this range.
On the opposite side of the range, and experience, are your effortless customer interactions, what we term Easy that fall into the 7 to 10 score range. These are the ones you want to sit back, listen to and learn from. What are the themes you're seeing? The behaviors of your service agents? The perceptions of your customers implied in their tone and sentiment? And what can you put on repeat?
But what about those ~70% of Moderate scores in the middle, yellow range? "Moderate scores basically say it was neither great nor terrible with respect to perceived effort," adds McKenna.
"While it's far more impactful to think about the best and worst customer interactions through an effort lense and how to replicate or fix them," explains McKenna. What he's found is that "when scores hover in the middle, it almost always means the agent isn't doing much to engineer a great experience. So, you want to ask yourself, why was that not an Easy interaction? What could have made it so?"
Customer effort score: industry benchmarks and best practices
"While the Customer Effort Score (CES) is a better predictor of loyalty in transactional settings than the Net Promoter Score (NPS) or Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT); understanding customer loyalty is about more than just the experience," cautions McKenna.
"We recommend you continue using things like CSAT to pick up on positive CX indicators like product affinity," he shares. Still, survey-based scoring methods have natural limitations as they rely on, well, someone putting forth the extra effort to complete a survey when they may just have told you their pain point over the phone, in the live chatbot or via the email they sent.
Did you realize that the most widely-known survey-based methods for analyzing your customer interactions to get at customer satisfaction, loyalty or effort can actually drive more effort for your customer? Here's a quick look at the industry-standard measures, what they measure, how they're calculated, what that means and suggested uses.
Survey-based customer effort, satisfaction and loyalty scores: CES vs CSAT vs NPS by comparison
What it measures:
Customer effort with an organization (short-term, per interaction)
How it's calculated:
(No. of satisfied and very satisfied customers / No. of survey responses) x 100 = % of satisfied customers
What's the question:
"On a scale of 'very easy' to 'very difficult', how easy was it to interact with (Company X)."
What it means:
Short-term amount of effort a customer had to exert in a single interaction
Suggested uses:
Incomplete picture; use with NPS for a more holistic view
What it measures:
Customer satisfaction with products or services (short-term, per interaction)
How it's calculated:
(No. of satisfied and very satisfied customers / No. of survey responses) x 100 = % of satisfied customers
Or use this handy CSAT calculator
What's the question:
"How would you rate your overall satisfaction with the (X Product/Y Service) you received?"
What it means:
Short-term customer satisfaction with a product, service or event in a single interaction or channel
Suggested uses:
Incomplete picture; tie to costs of product/service and ROI
What it measures:
Customer loyalty with an organization (long-term, all interactions)
How it's calculated:
(% of promoters – % of detractors) / No. of promoter responses or / No. of detractor responses x 100 = % of promoters or detractors
Or use this handy NPS calculator
What's the question:
"How likely is it that you would recommend (Company X/Product Y/Service Z) to a friend or colleague?"
What it means:
Longer-term customer loyalty; indicates brand (product, price, service) ambassadors or brand detractors to other products/services
Suggested uses:
Experience as a whole, use with CES for insight into individual interaction trends
No matter which score you use, measuring customer effort is a critical component of building a successful, and effortless, customer experience. How do we know? Our research spells it out quite plainly. We've found that 96% of customers who've had a difficult, high-effort experience report back that they are unlikely to repurchase, unlikely to spend more and very likely to spread negative word of mouth. By major contrast, only 9% of customers who had easy, low-effort experiences say the same.
How to improve your customer effort score
Perceived customer effort isn't just about what they're saying on the interaction. As we've demonstrated in chapter 3: the common components of an effortless customer interaction, it's also about what they're feeling and perceiving, what they're doing, what the service agent is doing and what the context is within which everything takes place.
So, what do you do once you have all of this insight about your customer's effort? In the same Qualtrics study, more than 80 percent of customers who'd had a high-effort experience wanted a callback so they could share about their experience. And customers the business intentionally recovered using a closed-loop action were found to be 2x more loyal.
You're going to need to do some automating to close the loop at scale. Luckily you can automate effort scoring using Tethr to surface difficult interactions at scale. Then, automate closing the loop on those difficult customer interactions in your service practice and with your customers.
Using scoring to sift out your high-effort and effortless customer interactions at scale is more than just a number on a call, chat or support case message. Taking chapter 4 a few steps further, here's a quick cheat-sheet on how we look at the effort on a customer interaction using Tethr's powerful conversation intelligence engine, AI and machine learning. And if you're checking off these same boxes, you can be sure to improve your customer effort score:
Cheat-sheet: how to improve your customer effort score with Tethr
Start small and get specific:
◯ Step 1: choose one service group in your organization; let's say it's your support team, to focus on initially. You may start with some theories that you'll prove out using Tethr's conversation analytics.
Use customer listening to understand what customers are feeling, perceiving and doing:
◯ Step 2: quantify your customer's perceived effort across interactions. Utilizing Tethr's subscription service of research-backed effort categories plus Tethr Effort Index, quickly surface all of your customer calls, chats and support cases scored as Difficult.
◯ Step 3: explore the themes in your customer's perceived effort across interactions, agents, teams or any other custom metadata you define. You'll do this by choosing one or two of the most prominent themes, or drivers, you see in your VoC data. With Tethr's built-in customer effort score dashboards, you can visualize customer sentiment across effort and disloyalty drivers using our extensive subscription library of more than 50 effort-tuned categories.
Layer in the other party: the service agent and their behaviors in response to the customer:
◯ Step 4: using the latest agent-focused derivative of TEI, the Agent Impact Score (AIS), measure quality, improve rep performance and track changes in how your support team handles those Difficult customer interactions.
Finally, close the loop to turn difficult into effortless customer interactions:
◯ Step 5: using our powerful integrations with Qualtrics Voice iQ and Salesforce Service Cloud chat, create action-triggered automated workflows that allow you to
◯ Quickly find other customers who had similarly Difficult experiences
◯ Automate internal notifications across your business to track similar experiences across customers and teams
◯ Create automated workflows to head-off similar scenarios in the future by addressing specific customer disloyalty and churn drivers directly with your frustrated customers
Ready to get started making your customer interactions effortless?
Then drop us a message or reach out for a free demo to get started automating your effort scoring interaction-by-interaction at scale and perfecting your organization's closed-loop CX practices.


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Sometimes airports bring to mind a horde of mice on a treadmill. Everyone's running in circles, and late getting there. The food isn't very good, and is served in such small portions. Ever felt slightly trapped? So have I.
It got me thinking about how to build myself a better trip than trap.
For me, the way off the treadmill has been to make business trips less of a rat race. Mixing business with pleasure is supposed to be a no-no, but I'm sure the person who thought up that rule hadn't dealt much with airlines.
In fact, if you travel as much as I do, you get philosophical. As they say in business, my philosophy "aligns" with what John Lennon said about the time-stressed: "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."
The road warrior who is less warrior and more philosopher-king knows pleasurable business is not only possible, it is positively the only way to travel. I believe you can easily make a point of seeing one new thing in each new city on every business trip you take. It merely requires determination and planning, qualities every road warrior has in abundance.
Being away on business shouldn't mean doing away with enjoyment. It should mean doing things differently. By that I mean doing and seeing the stuff that wouldn't be on the agenda of a family trip. So, maybe your kids are too young to take in the ballet or opera or the latest pop art exhibition. But why should you put off until the kids grow up chances to see and do those things? Being on your own hook gives you the opportunity to indulge.
Are you a list-maker? One of my many lists is of spots I want to see, or things I want to do, before that last trip. I get great satisfaction from checking off a place I've previously only dreamed of experiencing. While some are off the beaten path, many checkmarks may be found in cities I frequent on business.
How many times have you told yourself, "I'll come back some other time," but you never have? Too often for comfort, I'll bet. Life goes fast. So start that life list of dream destinations. A great guide to getting going is Patricia Schultz's 1000 Places to See Before You Die: A Traveler's Life List.
If you're in sync with my Beatles philosophy, take it a step further. As they say in show biz, break a leg — a leg of your trip, that is. If you do your research, you'll discover that you often can book an overnight in another city along the way without a change in ticket price. If you're flying internationally, say, to Hong Kong, you may be able to book a free stopover in Tokyo. Check with your airline to see which cities qualify for stopovers. Realize it's a myth that adding a city makes a business trip more expensive; actually, you can save money breaking a leg in your itinerary if you book at the right travel times.
Realize too that every business trip is a chance to reconnect with old friends or connect with new ones Business travel gives you an unmatched opportunity to keep your network alive and growing.
I especially love to use my trips as a way to prospect cities. No, I'm not looking for gold, but for how a new city matches up against what they say about it in the guidebook. Since I am already there, I want to stop and decide for myself whether it would be a good place to return to with my family and friends.
A final philosophical note: When I'm traveling with colleagues, I recognize we're spending important social time together. Working in a strange city can be a real team-building experience. Often the best times are when the team is taking a time-out to go golfing, try a new restaurant, or see a show. These are activities that many tunnel-visioned road warriors wouldn't think of adding to their itinerary. Be different. Take off the blinders and start enjoying the biz travel life.
Following are websites that have helped me build a better business trip.
Find a movie, pick a restaurant, get a haircut.
Lets you download city guides on your PDA.
Great menu sample pages and prices in Chicago, SF, Boston, Philly, NYC.
Terrific restaurant reviews.
View a restaurant and make reservations.
When a taxi is not enough.
Destination reviews and recommendations from real travelers like you.


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Quickly access thousands of the world's top (vetted) freelance writers — any industry or vertical.
nDash for Marketers
How nDash helps marketing teams of all sizes
scale content (without sacrificing quality).
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Resumes, writing samples, rate negotiations. Finding the ideal writer is an extremely time-consuming process — but not with nDash. We'll quickly introduce you to writers that meet your needs around expertise, budget, availability and other criteria.
World-Class Support
Most freelance platforms are designed to be high-volume, self-serve tools. Great them, bad for you. At nDash, we make ourselves available to all companies that want our help with technical setup, writer recommendations and other critical tasks.
Powerful Tools
nDash isn't just a freelancing tool — it's a platform to manage content production at scale. Organize content projects with both your in-house staff and freelancers, while leveraging tools like calendars, Kanban boards, ideation and other features.
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Happy Independence Day! Since it's Thursday, do you take Friday off and make it an extra long holiday? How do you celebrate? Last year we were in Wisconsin at our friend's lake house (Paul & Ts) and at around 9pm we boated out to the middle of the lake and watched the most amazing fireworks–it was awesome!
Speaking of awesome, if you want your guests to see fireworks in their heads, THIS is the dessert to serve. It's a perfect summer dessert combining popular tropical flavours: pineapple, rum and coconut. You can't go wrong, and it's very impressive making it the perfect dessert to serve on such an important holiday.
The first time I saw this recipe was at Jed, the Sports Glutton's blog and I knew I would make it, I just didn't realize how soon! We were entertaining my uni BFF and her hubby a while back and I needed a gluten free desert (she is gluten intolerant) and I wanted something that wasn't too bad for you…so I chose fruit but even better it was sweet, caramelized Pineapple. I loved the grilled pineapple salsa we made for the grilled shrimp so I knew this dessert would be a hit; it turned out so well, JT suggested that I make it for our next progressive dinner, so I did! What was super cool about the latest progressive dinner was that each course had to be made on the BBQ! This is the perfect summertime dessert, not having to heat the house up by turning on the oven — there are better ways to heat things up ;)!
So, I present to you, an inspired version of Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
Deconstructed Piña Colada: Grilled Buttered Rum Pineapple with Grilled Coconut Pound Cake
Serves 8 (1 cm or 1/2″ slices of cake, with lots left over)
- 1 cup fat free Greek yogurt
- 1 tbsp vanilla
- 3 tbsp powdered sugar
- the rind of one lemon
- 1 /4 cup of unsalted butter
- 1/8 cup dark rum
- 1/2 tbsp brown sugar
- pinch of salt
- 2 pineapples, peeled and cored and cut into 8 spears each
- 24 smallish strawberries
- 1 Coconut pound cake (recipe can be found here).
- pineapple sage finely julienned (or mint)
- Combine the Greek yogurt, vanilla, powdered sugar and lemon rind and stir well. Refrigerate.
- In a small saucepan, melt the butter and then add the rum, brown sugar and salt and give it a good boil (to burn off the alcohol).
- Using the buttered rum sauce, baste the pineapple spears and grill until you have achieved grill marks, you can baste throughout the grilling process but make sure you reserve some sauce for drizzling. Keep the grilled pineapple spears warm.
- Slice the coconut pound cake into 1-2 cm (1/2″-3/4″) slices, brush lightly with the buttered rum sauce and grill until you have achieved grill marks.
- Place the slice of grilled coconut pound cake on the plate, arrange the spears so that they overlap the pound cake and each other.
- Add three washed strawberries clustered together.
- Add a dollop of the Greek Yogurt sauce and finally drizzle with the remaining buttered rum.
- Garnish with the pineapple sage julienne. Serve immediately.
*Clip art from Microsoft Clip Art.


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'Touch of Pink' White Diamond Solitaire Engagement RingCullen & Co
A white diamond solitaire stone is subtly contrasted against an 18ct Rose Gold Band set with Natural Pink Diamonds elevating this classic style with personal flair.
Available in all Carat Weights and Shapes.
Details of this particular ring are;
- Cushion Cut White Diamond Centre Stone 0.51ct
- GIA Certified stone.
- with additional Pink Diamonds on the band.
- Platinum head setting, with 18ct Rose Gold Band


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Cities Build Too: Getting Paid On Public Improvements
Iowa law provides a remedy if you are unpaid, but subcontractors and sub-subcontractors must pay close attention to the provisions of Iowa Code § 573.
With the recession behind us, even cities are beginning to spend money. Construction projects for new buildings and infrastructure are being proposed by many municipalities. That's a good thing for contractors and subcontractors—unless you don't know how to get paid.
Most Iowa contractors, subcontractors, as well as sub-subcontractors are familiar with Iowa Code § 572, which provides for mechanic's liens against private commercial and residential construction. Section 572, however, does not apply to public improvements, those payable from taxes or other funds under the control of a "public corporation", such as the state, all counties, cities, public school corporations, and all officers, boards, or commissions empowered by law to enter into contracts for construction of public improvements.
While a traditional mechanic's lien cannot be obtained against a public improvement, Iowa Code § 573 provides a remedy for contractors, subcontractors, and those furnishing materials to the contractor or a subcontractor actually performing the work on the improvement. Those who simply furnish materials to a subcontractor who in turn only provides supplies are not protected by Iowa Code § 573.
The provisions of Iowa Code § 573 differ from § 572. Under § 573, general contractors are required to provide a payment bond, with surety, on contracts at or over $25,000, or make a deposit equaling the amount of the required bond, unless the public corporation waives the requirement for a contractor qualifying as a "targeted small business."
This bond and the code provides a remedy for unpaid subcontractors or sub-subcontractors, while protecting the public corporation. In order for subcontractors or sub-subcontractors to avail themselves of the remedy, they must carefully comply with the provisions of § 573.
For subcontractors or sub-subcontractors only furnishing supplies or materials, the ability to seek payment under § 573 depends on actions before non-payment even becomes an issue. Such subcontractors should make it a practice to send copies of invoices to the general contractor during the progress of the work or within thirty days after the materials are furnished, specifying the materials supplied, the amount supplied, and the value of the material supplied.
When nonpayment becomes an issue, the party seeking payment must file a notarized claim against the contractor at any time by no later than the thirtieth (30th) day after "final acceptance" of the project by the public corporation. The claim must be filed with the "officer, board, or commission authorized by law to let contracts" for the improvement and must contain an itemized, sworn, written statement of the claim for labor, material, service or transportation.
In the case of a sub-subcontractor or subcontractor who only furnished materials, the claim must include a certified statement the general contractor was notified within thirty days of the material being furnished or with itemized invoices during the progress of the work.
After filing the claim, an action to enforce the claim may be brought in the district court in the county in which the improvement is located thirty days after final acceptance of the project by the public corporation, and no more than sixty days following final acceptance. The action must name the board, officer, or commission letting the contract, the general contractor, all claimants who have filed a claim, and the surety on the bond.
Cities are a great source of construction work and every indication is that we will be seeing more of it. But the rules for getting paid are different from those for private construction, and you need to know this before you bid on a city project, not after.


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PHS hockey team may add Newmarket students
NEWMARKET — The town's high schoolers may have the opportunity to compete in ice hockey thanks to a proposed cooperative agreement with Portsmouth High School.
The School Board voted unanimously Thursday to participate in the co-op and put forth up to $4,000 for students wishing to participate in the program.
Newmarket Athletic Director Kristin Krantz told board members the proposal would have the schools sharing equally in participation costs, $1,000 per student and asked the school district to cover $400 of that cost with the remainder being picked up by the participants. The cost would cover equipment, busing and ice time. The Portsmouth athletic director would handle game scheduling and busing, while Newmarket would have a say in any coaching changes that occur.
The proposal must go to the New Hampshire Interscholastic Athletic Association for final approval.
Newmarket School Board Chairwoman Gail Durocher-Wentworth asked how many students are currently interested in the program. Krantz said six are interested and with a program in place, that number could increase.
"I think by offering it, it could grow interest," she said. "The kids that play hockey that's their primary sport and just by offering it will pique interest in the younger kids."
"How many of our kids can be on this team?" asked board member Elizabeth McKinney.
Krantz said that would be determined by tryouts.
Portsmouth Athletic Director Rus Wilson, who was present at Thursday night's meeting, said a full team is made up of 22 players. He said most years, Portsmouth yields between 12 to 16 student-athletes. "We'll take everybody you've got," he said.
The subject has yet to go before the Portsmouth School Board.


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We will be reading three diverse, prize winning African authors, all of whom had something important to say about their beloved but unstable countries on the continent of Africa. We will begin with Alan Paton's Cry the Beloved Country of 1948, move on to Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart published to great acclaim in 1958 and then discuss J.M. Coetzee's Disgrace of 1999. We will also read Achebe's trenchant critique of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness," published in 1977. At their core and though separated by decades, all three authors are concerned with the chaos unleashed by prejudice, racism, and inequality, and they explore where the promise may be found to move the agenda forward to redress and rebuild.
"Although he's writing good sentences, he's also writing about a people, and their life. And he says about these people that they are rudimentary souls… The Africans are the rudimentaries, and then on top are the good whites. Now I don't accept that, as a basis for… As a basis for anything."
– Chinua Achebe comments on Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness


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Browsing Master of Education by Subject "parenting education programs"
Now showing items 1-1 of 1
A Quantitative and Qualitative Inquiry Into Positive Involvement Trends of Contemporary Fathers and Influence of Parenting ProgramsParent education programs offered by a variety of public health services are effective support and knowledge resources that enhance positive parenting competencies in early childhood and adolescence. However, parenting education programs are less effective and encompass fewer benefits for fathers in comparison to mothers. This study sought to investigate trends of paternal involvement in early childhood and to compare the influence of parenting education programs on paternal involvement and conceptualization of fathers. A sample of 52 fathers, between the ages of 19 to 54, with children 6 years old and younger completed an electronic or hard copy version of a survey questionnaire reporting on their fathering and experiences as a dad. Findings indicate the sample of Canadian fathers self-reported high levels of paternal involvement, including many who favoured play-based interactions with their children. Although no significant difference in levels of involvement was noted between fathers who had versus those who had not previously participated in a parenting education program, half of the Canadian fathers indicated that supports are needed to strengthen their role as fathers. Results suggest that future initiatives to strengthen parent education program services available in Canada should specifically consider the father's role.


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By Maria Soomro
Now a days , many so called experts have been laying stress on the building of dams as the solution to energy crisis.The stress has been seemingly laid on building Kalabag dam in order to generate more energy and increase agricultural productivity. Reality is different.The best experts in the science of Hydrology consider Building dams an obsolete approach towards controlling floods, energy generation and enhancing agricultural productivity.
Continue reading Focusing on an obsolete approach of energy generation


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We will use humor and short words to get interested – and knowledgeable – about oceans issues.
Owner: Gilliard
Listed in: Environment
Language: English
Tags: ocean, marine, conservation, Pacific, fishing
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- How to Sort the Wheat from the Chaff in the High-Stakes Game of Canadian Voter Approvalon Nov 18, 2014The next few months should see a marked increase in the amount of media coverage and advertising attacking opponents of pipeline and tanker projects, according to leaked documents obtained by our colleagues at Greenpeace. "Promote. Respond. P...
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[box type="shadow"] Name: ZORAN SCEKIC
Date of birth: 15/ 07/ 1972 (Djakovo, Croatia)
Occupation: composer, arranger, and innovator
Zoran Šćekić received his BFA in Jazz Guitar at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz (Austria). As a recipient of the Bruxelles Stipendium in 1998, he went to Helsinki and to Vienna where he completed his MA in Jazz Theory, Composition and Arrangement and participate at the International Summit of Music Academies as a representative of the Sibelius Music Academia.
His works as a composer, arranger and guitarist in the field of written and improvised music are available on several official and unofficial studio and live recorded CD albums as a result of playing jazz guitar in duo, trio and quartet, collaborating with light and stage designers, choreographers and visual artists in the creation of theatre and film music, participating in jazz and free jazz festivals, music biennials, writing scores in standard, graphic and hybrid notation for different orchestras (jazz orchestra, chamber orchestra, symphony orchestra, choir, tambura orchestra etc.) and working with some international names such as Miroslav Vitouš, Pascal Rophe, Chriss Jarrett, Michael Abenne, Bill Dobbins, Bob Brookmeyer, Jon Irabagon etc.
Within his microtonal work, Zoran Šćekić had composition premiers in European capitals, seminars on micro tonal harmony based on his book Five Limit Intervals – Theory & Praxis and presentations of a microtonal keyboard prototype (Z-board) built in San Diego after his construction. He authored the multimedia project Panmonism premiered in Concert Hall Vatroslav Lisinski in Zagreb during spring 2015. The project consisted of a concert with original compositions for piano in five limit Just intonation, an animated movie about the connection between mathematics and music, a lecture on Just intonation harmony and exhibition of a harmonograph prototype (Lira Spectrum) built in Bari, Italy after his construction. The Lira Spectrum is now permanently exhibited at the Museum of Nikola Tesla in Zagreb, Croatia. As the winner of the Croatian Composer Society competition International 2015, he released in cooperation with USA Ravello Recordings and NAXOS "Just music" his first CD album of microtonal pieces written for solo piano in Just intonation, which was one of the 15 CD albums on Grammy-awarded winner John Schneider's list The Best of 2015, next to Harry Partch, Essa Pekka Salonen, Wynton Marsalis and Brad Mehldau. He is the leader of the project Adria Microtonalis, established in May 2016, to initiate the first microtonal analysis of a Croatian traditional intonation system from the north Adriatic region, protected as UNESCO cultural heritage.
He is also one of the founders and chairperson of the Croatian Association of Microtonal Art dedicated to promotion, development and advancing traditional and contemporary microtonal music; to initiate and promote systematic and detailed research and promotion of traditional microtonal systems as an important part of cultural heritage; to compose and to interpret within microtonal systems as one of the key directions of further development of music in general; and to promote an objective connection between science and art.
2018 – Winner of the 'Franjo Ksaver Kuhač' in Zagreb, Croatia with a concert for orchestra and choir "Harmony of dissonance"
2016 – Winner of the '3rd Annual European Big band Composer Competition' with a piece "Sphinx Avenue" in Copenhagen, Denmark
2015 – Winner of the Croatian Composer Society contest 'International' for the CD album "Just Music"
2009 – 'Porin for the Jazz song of the year' with a piece "Boy Joe" by Maja Grgić, Big Band arrangement by Zoran Šćekić
2004 – 'Croatian Theatre Award for best dance performance' for 'Sjena' by Histeria Nova, music composed and performed by Zoran Scekic
1998 – Bruxelles Stipendium for best student of the year
1994. – Wynton Marsallis – group improvisation
1995. – Barry Haris – harmony
1997. – Bill Frissell – free improvisation
1999/2000. – Michael Abenne, Bill Dobbins and Bob Brookmeyer – Big Band
Languages: – Croatian, English, German, Slovenian [/box]
2019 – World premiere of "Slavonian dance No.2" performed by Croatian Radio Television Symphony Orchestra, conducted by maestro Pascal Rophe at Big Concert Hall Vatroslav Lisinski, Zagreb
2019 – Releasing CD album "Harmony of dissonance" with Navona Records
2019 – author of article "Introduction to the five limit intervals harmony" from the book "Mikrotone: Small is Beautiful" and author of composition "Hybrid states" from the CD album "Vom Leben das Beste". The book and the CD is published by University Mozarteum Salzburg and Internationai Ekmelic Music Society
2019 – 30th Music Biennale Zagreb – Composer of the "Construction 5.1" for Zagreb Saxophone Quartet featuring Jon Irabagon. Premiere concert at Gavella Drama Theatre on 10th April 2019.; Zagreb, Croatia.
2018 – miCROfest – 3rd international festival of microtonal music in Croatia, Artistic director (info)
2018 – "J.K." music for "Process" by F.Kafka – directed by Rene Medvešek for Gavella Drama Theater, Zagreb (info), (press), (press)
2017 – THE HARMONY OF DISSONANCE – concert of ensembles of the Musical Academy Zagreb (press)
2017 – miCROfest – international festival of microtonal music in Croatia, Artistic director (info)
2017 – International symposium of microtonality, Microtones – small is beautiful, Salzburg, Austria – Holding lecture "Hybrid Harp Tuning" (info)
2017 – The XIII Moscow International Slavic Musical Festival, Russia – member of the jury at contest and holding masterclasses about microtonal music
2017 – 10th Europe Week & 4th International Music Week @ Yaşar Üniversitesi, Izmir, Turkey – holding masterclasses about improvised and microtonal music
2017 – Chris Jarrett & Abstract Construction Collective @29. Music Biennale Zagreb (info)
2017 – Modèles: Microtonal Music for Violin and Viola organized by Boston Microtonal Society @Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA – world première of the composition"Tempus Spectrale" for violin and viola (info)
2017 – The Hidden Gem Concert 2017 in Warwick, UK – composition "Hybrid States" performed by the harpist Vera Khait
2016 – 53. Music Festival; Opatija – world première of the composition "Tiki" for solo guitar by Tomislav Vasilj & première of the composition "Sphinx Avenue", winner of the 3.rd European Bigband composers competition, by Croatian radio television Jazz orchestra & vocals (Jazz orchestra | Andreas Marinello, conductor | Ana Jembrek, soprano | Martina Borse, alto | Siniša Galović, tenor | Želimir Panić, tenor)
2016 – Concert and CD promotion «ŠAFRUN»; Samobor city band; (press) – Premier of the composition "Istrian dance for big orchestra"
2016 – miCROfest – international festival of microtonal music in Croatia, Artistic director
2016 – Presenting Panmonism @ AudioArt 07 – experimental and improvised music festival
2016 – Winner of the 3. annual European composer competition for the BigBand, in Denmark with a composition "Sphinx Avenue"
2016 – Presenting Panmonism within Science Festival in Zagreb dedicated to the Art & Science theme in technical museum Nikola Tesla in Zagreb (press, from 52.min)
2016 – Releasing CD album 'JUST MUSIC – music for piano in five limit Just intonation' with Ravello Records (press)
2015 – International symposium of microtonality, Microtones – small is beautiful, Salzburg, Austria
Holding lecture "Introduction to the Five Limit Harmony" (recording)
2015 – Founder of the Croatian Association of Microtonal Art (CAMA)/Hrvatska Udruga Mikrotonalnog Umjetničkog Stvaralaštva (HUMUS)
2015 – Premiere of multimedia project PANMONISM in partnership with EUROMicroFest 2015, Zagreb, Croatia
Author of multimedia project 'Panmonism' – (music – innovation – education) read more about Panmonism
2015 – CD "Fragments" by Berislav Antica, Croatia Records
Composing microtonal piece "Nine fragments for alto sax" – inspired by the traditional chant from island Hvar.
2014 – 51. Music Festival; Opatija (press)
'Five limit intervals' – microtonal lecture;
2014 – "Sky, Apples & Dance" – Concert for Big Bend and Plucked strings orchestra (press, audio)
Premiere of the concert with Croatian National Television Jazz and Plucked strings orchestra
2014 – 50. Anniversary of music highschool "Stevan Mokranjac"; Kraljevo
'Five limit intervals' – microtonal lecture;
2014 – Croatian National Television Jazz orchestra for EBU jazz season (press)
Presenting 4 pieces: Old Ringelspiel, When Stalker becomes a Walker, One – 1st piece, and Istrian dance
2013 – Co-author with prof.dr. Zvonimir Šikić on book: 'Mathematics and Music'; Profil, Zagreb (buy a book)
2012 – (DA)(NE)S Festival; Maribor (press)
'Five limit intervals' – microtonal workshop;
2012 – Concert with Amira Medunjanin and band REKA; London, UK
2012 – Concert with Renza Bo; Centre International de Deauville; France
2012 – Concert and CD promotion «U sredi naseg sela»; HRT Big Band; Zagreb; (audio)
Premier of the two traditional pieces arrangement for Big Band: "Istarski ples" and "Nebesko kolo"
2012 – Concert «Studio Bajsic – HRT»; HRT Big Band; Zagreb (audio, press)
Premiere of the concert 'Spiral Chronicles' – eleven pieces for Big Band
2011 – Concert «Art Academy»; Osijek
Premiere of 'Five pieces for solo piano in Just intonation'; piano – Ana Zgur
2010 – «ARTMUSFAIR» Warshaw (audio, press)
Premiere of the composition '23.10.' for solo piano in Just intonation
Seminar on the theme: 'Geometrical Scale System'
2009 – «International symposium on microtonality» Vienna (press)
Presentation and seminar about 'Geometrical Scale System'
2008 – «The best soup, the best soup!» (audio)
Composition, arrangement and performance of the music for theater piece by Rene
Medvešek. Premiere: 29th March 2008. – "ZKM" – Zagreb, Croatia
2007 – «Geometrical Scale System» (press)
Author of the project – prototype of the microtonal keyboard was built by 'StarrLabs'
(San Diego), according to authors instructions.
2007 – «Music Biennale 2007» (audio, press)
Composer and performer of the "Rhythm of Low Harmony"
Premiere concert played at "Theater & TD" 22nd April 2007.; Zagreb, Croatia.
2005 – «Music Biennale 2005» (audio, press)
Composer and performer of the "Music for chamber orchestra and free jazz quintet"
Premiere concert played at "Mimara Museum" 16th April 2005.; Zagreb, Croatia.
2005 – «Ludic Space» (audio)
Composer, performer and music director / interactive theater; Introducing new self-made electric string instrument
Premiere: 15th January 2005. – "Lika" cinema- Zagreb, Croatia
2004 – «SJENA» (audio, press)
Music composition and interpretation for contemporary dance& Butoh performance –
introduction to the new technique of playing string instruments. Premiere: 18th July 2004. Osijek Summer Festival of culture. Produced by Histeria NOVA Dance Prod.
2003 – «GRAZ-Kultur Hauptstadt 2003»
Composing «Music for metal percussion» performed by "Studio Percussion", Graz (Austria)
2002 – «JEDNO» (audio, press)
Composing 'Five pieces for string quartet' – Collaboration with contemporary dance choreographer Marija Šćekić. Premiered at «19th Week of Contemporary Dance» in Zagreb, 7th-8th July 2002. Produced by Histeria NOVA Dance Prod.
2001-2002 – «Zoran Scekic Quintet» (audio)
Founder of the experimental band which works on performing Šćekić's original written «free» compositions in terms of melody and harmony, defined by other musical parameters and then written by colors and graphics. In 2001 the band participated at «Free Jazz Festival», Graz 2001.
1993-2000 – «Zoran Scekic Duo/Trio» (audio)
Founder, guitarist and bandleader. The band became a home band at Jazz Club «At Rene's» in Graz and was soon reformed into duo (Zoran Šćekić-guitar, Nenad Vasilić-double bass) and actively worked in that formation until 1999. when 1st CD «Live in Wist», Graz (A) was recorded with Balkans Etno music in the Jazz arrangement.


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Did you know?
Among the challenges people being released from correctional facilities face is not having the resources to obtain the health care services they need to be successful in their communities. Inmates have a higher prevalence of behavioral health disorders and chronic and infectious diseases than the general population. These include issues such as mental illness, substance abuse, AIDS and hepatitis C. Most former inmates lack health insurance or the financial means to purchase services such as behavioral health counseling, medication or visits with a health care provider. They also may not have the knowledge or navigational skills needed to access services through the state's publicly funded behavioral health programs, which are often over-crowded.
According to a recent report from the Pew Charitable Trusts, Managing Prison Health Care Spending, "effective health care, particularly treatment for substance abuse and certain mental health conditions, can … reduce the likelihood that offenders will return to prison for new crimes or parole violations." Research from states supports this finding. A study in Monterey County, Calif., found that inmates who received treatment for behavioral health disorders after being released spent an average of 51.74 fewer days in jail for the year compared to those receiving no treatment. A transition program for inmates in Macomb County, Mich., reduced the annual number of days in jail for participants and increased the average time between incarcerations from 128 days to 309 days.
Provisions in the Affordable Care Act allow many released prisoners to be eligible for free or subsidized health coverage. At least 26 states and the District of Columbia implemented the optional Medicaid expansion, which covers people with incomes effectively up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level. This means people recently released from correctional facilities will be "newly eligible" in many states, with those states receiving the Medicaid enhanced federal financial participation for their medical services—100 percent from 2014 to 2016, gradually decreasing to 90 percent in 2020 and beyond. People with incomes between 100 percent and 400 percent of poverty are eligible for subsidized coverage through the health insurance exchanges or marketplaces in every state. Policymakers and others are working to connect former inmates to coverage as a way to increase access to needed health services, decrease admissions to hospitals and emergency rooms, and reduce recidivism
Federal law does not require states to terminate Medicaid eligibility status for inmates, but it does prohibit states from obtaining federal matching funds for services provided to people while in jail or prison. However, states may use federal matching funds for services rendered by an inpatient facility to incarcerated persons who have Medicaid coverage and who have been at the facility for more than 24 hours. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) sent letters to members of Congress and Medicaid directors urging states to return inmates to the Medicaid eligibility rolls immediately upon release from a correctional facility. CMS also provided resources to corrections systems, probation and parole officers to help link former inmates to new health insurance opportunities.
States, cities and counties have been exploring ways to get parolees covered by Medicaid and the health insurance exchanges before they leave prison to ensure that medical therapies continue without interruption when they return to their communities. Research shows that successful programs have at least three things in common—collaboration between Medicaid, corrections and other agencies; staff dedicated to connecting parolees with health care services; and timely initiation and approval of the application for coverage. Examples of state strategies include the following.
Sharing Information. Strong collaboration and data sharing between corrections and the health and human services departments are necessary to coordinate timely coverage. For example, Texas permits the exchange of medical information among the departments.
Screening Incoming Inmates. In several states—including Illinois, Minnesota, Oklahoma and Oregon— planning for health care coverage upon release begins when a person enters the correctional system. Minnesota, for example, screens new inmates for mental health disorders and flags inmates who are eligible for Medicaid.
Suspending Medicaid Benefits. Suspending, rather than terminating, an inmate's Medicaid eligibility (for those who are already enrolled in Medicaid) during their incarceration helps facilitate coverage upon parole. At least 12 states take this approach—California, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Texas and Washington. Some counties also suspend benefits. An agreement between Arizona's Maricopa County and the state's Medicaid agency allows an inmate's Medicaid eligibility to be suspended upon incarceration in the county's correctional facilities.
Assisting with Applications and Ensuring Coverage Is in Place Before Release. Inmates may not be aware of their coverage options post-release and may need assistance in completing Medicaid and disability benefit applications. In Connecticut and Massachusetts, Medicaid and the department of corrections operate statewide programs to enroll all eligible parolees in public health insurance. In Connecticut, "discharge planners" based in correctional facilities complete Medicaid applications that are processed and "held" by the state Medicaid agency until the inmate is paroled. Both states have dedicated employees who process applications on site. Massachusetts enrolls about 90 percent of parolees in coverage upon re-entry to the community.
Focusing on Inmates with Behavioral Health Needs. Other states—such as Maryland (Baltimore), Minnesota, New York, Pennsylvania and Texas—assist inmates with behavioral health disorders in securing coverage or health care services upon their release. Rhode Island is developing a program to enroll parolees in coverage with a goal of ending the cycle of incarceration for inmates with unmet behavioral health needs.
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Laminate flooring (also called floating wood tile in the United States) is a multi-layer synthetic flooring product fused together with a lamination process. Laminate flooring simulates wood or sometimes stone with a photographic applique layer under a clear protective layer. The inner core layer is usually composed of melamine resin and fiber board materials.
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This article describe how to protect your Laminate Flooring.
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Laminate Floor Cleaner
Laminate Floor Cleaner
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We recommends the use of Laminate Floor Cleaner. Laminate Floor Cleaner easily removes dirt, traces of wear, heel marks and rubber abrasion as well as greasy and oily soiling. Laminate Floor Cleaner also freshens up flooring and maintains the natural appearance of the laminate.
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1. First vacuum your floor to remove loose dirt.
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Dorino Fantin, 1973
Dorino Fantin, 1973
Solid modularity: Uno is a versatile and potentially infinite system.
The click-fastening assembly system means extended shelving systems can be put up in no time, safely and without the use of screws or bolts. The reinforced shelves are built to withstand heavy loads and, when placed side-by-side, they guarantee convenient continuity. A host of accessories and a broad range of colours mean that Uno can be used in any setting and, when you move, the system can be taken down and adapted to the new environment, even in different configurations.


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Jocelio Drummond, Regional Secretary, ISP Brasil
What happened in between the original Earth Summit in 1992 and Rio+20 Rio+20 Rio+20 was a UN conference of the highest possible level, including the heads of state and government or other high-level representatives. It was coordinated by UN Department of Social and Economic Affairs (DESA). Rio+20 was a follow up of two important events: the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), in Rio de Janeiro, and the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg. The conference took place 20 to 22 June 2012 and was accompanied by a number of side events (People's Summit, Dialogue Days, Trade Union Assembly on Labour and Environment, etc.). One of the outputs of Rio+20 was the Sustainable Development Goals. in 2012 – 20 years later?