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Jun 29, 2005
Nosey No More
Recently I found out Helen-in the neighborhood of about eighty-five years old-had a relapse of skin cancer. My mom explained that Helen didn't want to have the surgery, but her sons kept pushing her to do it. I hear stories like this all the time from the residents at my mom's nursing home. Something really serious happens to them such getting Cancer or having a heart condition and they want nature to take its course and leave them out of it. It's almost as if they're telling Death, "Go ahead. Surprise me."
I did end up visiting with Helen when we returned. She was propped up in her chair watching Law&Order and enjoying the cool breeze outside. Her left eye was bruised and shut from the surgery and her nose was completely concealed in white bandages with crusty bits of blood from a pretty vicious nosebleed earlier in the day. She looked horrible. I said, "Helen, you look like you've been in one hell of a fight." She replied, "Yea, but you should see the other guy." I laughed knowing that it was a good sign she could make a joke being in so much pain.
But Helen was in pretty good spirits and I think her pain meds had kicked in full force by the time I talked with her. She said she was feeling much better, but was having trouble blowing her nose because it kept bleeding. (My mom whispered loudly in my ear, "I bet she doesn't even know she's got half a nose!") I glanced sharply back at my mom to let her know she should shush about the lack of nose.
Helen went on to tell me how she only had the surgery for the sake of her sons and that she didn't want to be bothered. "Let me die and then they can have my money." I brushed off her comment and tried to change the subject. The rest of our visit went okay, but I could really tell that she had no idea just how rough of shape she was in with her nose.
Helen told me they still had one little spot of cancer that they couldn't get to because it was too close to her eye. "Hey. If I go blind then I go blind. I don't care."
I can't help but feel badly for Helen. I wish her sons would have respected her wishes and not pressured her into the surgery for their sake. I told my own mother that I would never do something like that. I may not agree with her decision, but after all--it's her body and her choice to make. As her daughter and legal guardian, it's my duty to make sure she understands the consequences of her decisions.
Helen is the one suffering with post-surgical pain and bloody nosebleeds--not her sons. How do you think she's going to feel when she finds out that surgery took away half of her nose? She's going to be constantly reminded of what she lost everytime a new resident enters the home and meets her for the first time. They will ask, "What the hell happened to your nose?" And I continue to wonder what her sons were thinking knowing the doctor wouldn't be successful at removing 100% of the cancer.
On the surface it's easy to guilt a loved-one into doing something you want if you say the right words. But my advice is before you do that, take a moment to put yourself in their situation to try and see things from another perspective other than your own.
In the case of Helen, she didn't even have a visit from her sons after letting the doctors take half of her nose and that's just wrong!
Jun 28, 2005
Sometimes I post items myself and get great responses from people who are happy to drive to my door to pick up what I'm offering for free. The only effort needed is posting the item, sending the interested party directions to my house and placing the stuff outside near my mailbox for pickup. Easy Peasy. I come home at the end of the day and my stuff has gone to someone who can use it more than I can.
But I've noticed that as the popularity of this list has increased--so have the annoying posts from people looking for a handout. Someone will post, "Unwed pregnant daughter needs diapers" or "Son wants to take drum lessons-anyone have a nice set of drums I could have?" Regardless of the hardluck stories, I always think to myself that these people can't be hurting too badly when they can afford the cost of an internet connection and many have AOL email addresses. I don't feel too badly when someone asked for a "laptop-must be WI-FI compatible".
What sparked my blog today was this post: "Wanted-someone to install my car CD stereo I bought at a yard sale. I live in holden and have a 1989 cavalier Z24. Can anyone help?" Is this person for real? C'mon. Posting something like that on a freecycle list takes a lot of nerve. Hell, maybe I'm just resentful that I don't have the guts to post stuff like that. I can think of a few things I need in the way of services:
- Wanted-someone to tear down an old wooden fence on the side of my yard and put up a new one. You can have the old wood if you can haul it.
- Wanted-someone to install my XM Satellite radio that I bought for a good deal at Best Buy (but I just can't afford the installation charge...but I was smart enough to buy a service plan!)
- Wanted-someone to paint my iron railing on the back entrance of my house. I have the scrubber brush, steel wool pads and black paint.
- Wanted-someone to make a nice pine octagonal picnic table for my backyard
- Wanted-someone to install my new pool.
I know my fictional wanted list is strictly to make a point, but I think these people who post things like asking for a service need to go to Craigslist or some other place to share their hardluck stories.
The person looking for someone to install a car stereo shouldn't have bought the stereo unless he/she knew how to install it. The person looking for diapers should have bought a condom and the mother wanting a drum set for her son should go to Kurlan Music to rent one. Enough already!
Jun 26, 2005
The Fruit is Always Sweeter...
Our lunch was actually pretty underwhelming, but that's for another blog. What I want to tell you about today is our little side trip to a grocery store called Hannaford which is next to Longhorns. I love shopping for fruit and right now my Holy Grail is a big juicy piece of watermelon priced right at about 55 cents a pound. It's not gonna happen and believe me, I know that. But it's the thrill of the chase because after all, Summer means delicious watermelon and next up is Pomegranate season (the most holy of seasons).
Hannaford is my new favorite grocery store. The aisles are wide, the selection is plentiful and the floors aren't sticky. The was no dust to be found on their canned goods and we found a rippled no-salt bag of potato chips about four aisles into our browsing. (My mom is going to be psyched and I can't wait to present her with my new find when I visit her this Tuesday! She loves no-salt chips and can't understand why the selection is so minimal anytime we go into a superstore like Wal-Mart or Target. I keep trying to tell her no-salt anything is difficult to find, but when she wants something her needs must be met--or I'll be nagged to death.)
Spencer is all about the price and I think he was pleased that the prices were surprisingly good-especially on their health & beauty products. We didn't even have to add another one of those annoying plastic discount cards to our already overloaded keychains to benefit from their prices.
We walked the aisles of Hannaford like tourists in Disneyland. But what cinched it for me was the yogurt section. Amazingly, they were charging $.55 cents for Breyer's Creme Savers yogurt! It's normally about $.89 or more at Price Chopper and Stop & Shop so I snagged a few containers and moved (or shall I be corny and say MOOOOved) over to the dairy section to price the Bunny Milk. Although they were charging $1.29 for it, they still redeemed themselves because they had Garelick Coffee Milk. I can never find coffee milk anywhere.
Did I mention the store was completely dead? I didn't have to maneuver around annoying customers leaving their shopping carts in the middle of the aisle or deal with screaming kids in the cereal aisle demanding Cookie Crisp cereal. I expected to see pallets of food in the aisles waiting to be put away by stocking clerks hoping to take advantage of down time. Nothing. The aisles were free and clear. Come to think of it, I don't recall seeing too many cardboard displays taking up aisle space either.
Since I'm a shopper who purposely shops in the dead of the night to avoid being stressed when I want to browse the salad dressing aisle for an undiscovered flavor (to stoke my salad dressing fetish), Hannaford scores points for the discerning shopper who wants to spend time experiencing what it's like to have such a grand amount of food choices. At Hannaford, it's perfectly okay to shuffle through your coupons with ease never worrying about the agitation from a stressed out, low-on-patience mom eager to push past you to get their cans of spaghettio's. The aisles are just that spacious.
The checkout was wonderful and free of any confrontation from apathetic cashiers. I was actually asked if my two flavors of Skinny Cow ice cream was the same price and when I confirmed it--the cashier nodded, punched in the price and moved on to my next item on the belt. No price checks or surly behavior whatsoever.
But here's the best part. They give you plastic bags that are study (about the thickness of a Target bag) and say cheeky things like:
Jun 25, 2005
Long Live Ant Music
Spencer was able to snag The Essential Adam Ant cd from our local library and let me tell you...it rocks! I listened to it at work about five times in a row and just couldn't get enough of it. I don't know much about Adam Ant. I do recall recently hearing he had a nervous breakdown, but after having newly rediscovered him...I've got to Google him to find out his story.
Any man who can sing these lyrics from the song "Prince Charming" is a master in my book:
Don't you ever...
Don't you ever...
Stop being dandy...
Showing me your handsome.
Out-of-Office Nightmare
This was his out-of-office message in Outlook:
From: John Doe
Sent: Monday, June 20, 2005 8:22 AM
To: Jane Doe
Subject: Out of Office AutoReply: Tech Team Monday 6/20/05 & Tuesday 6/21
I will be out of the office on Monday June 20th, making the annual pilgrimage to pay homage to the patron diety of Hedonism, Jimmy Buffett. Depending on the hang-over....I might be out Tuesday too.
If this is an important product sourcing issue please contact the product sourcing help desk.
If you are mailing about an outstanding PID request please contact John Doe II at ext XXX. Outstanding E-Form, John Doe at XXXXX
"Wastin' away again in Margaritaville....."
John Doe
Can you imagine getting that out-of-office? If people can start quoting Jimmy Buffett lyrics in their messages, here's what mine is going to say:
I will be out of the office on July 4th soaking up sun and cheeseburgers to celebrate this great country of ours. Depending on if I over-indulge on sour Skittles and midori sours watching Live8...I may be in the office on Tuesday.
Holla Back, Kim
Jun 23, 2005
Sign(s) of the Times
Karen began telling me how her niece Rebecca LOVES the cartoon Dora the Explorer. Apparently the little girl is getting pretty adept at speaking Spanish just from watching cartoons. We both laughed and said these cartoons should have been around when I was growing up and I would have never failed Spanish class. Things are so much better now. If I had Bob the Builder as a kid, my house would be so much nicer because I would know how to use all those tools in my garage collecting dust.
And what's up with the ice cream truck merrily rolling though my neighborhood each night at 6:30 with the annoying "Hello!" jingle? I never had that luxury when I was a kid. If I wanted a popsicle or an ice cream, I had to open up the freezer or wait to be taken to Friendlys for a special treat. I never just had it delivered right to my front door with such occasion.
These days kids have it too good and I feel like such an old person for saying it. They learn sign language in daycare so they can demand a cookie, can speak Spanish by the age of three from cartoons and expect cell phones by the fifth grade for their growing social web. The only way I could communicate in elementary school was to figure out how to fold those maddening origami- type things to ask questions if a boy liked me and depending on how many snaps of the paper, well--you get the picture. Today it's all about text messaging and ring-tones.
As Dora might say by the time she reaches the tender age of 35, "Soy tan viejo"
Jun 19, 2005
Happy Father's Day...Dad
I got to thinking tonight about how I'm my father's daughter. He taught me that the glass is always half full when my mom would lead me to believe otherwise. Thankfully his version of the truth always stuck. I am grateful that I am as good-natured and even tempered as my father. My dad taught me to go with the flow. He liked the phrase, "Don't let the turkeys get you down."
He drove an 18-wheel tractor trailer until I was 13 years old and made the decision to stop driving when he realized that he missed out on too much of my childhood being on the road. But he was never ashamed that he made his living driving a truck because he never really wanted to do anything else. He fulfilled his life long dream to drive across the country and left driving behind to work as a janitor.
He always wanted to visit Alaska and see the Grand Canyon. He told me that when he got older he wanted to rent an RV and just drive.
I know my dad was proud of me because he would tell me all the time. He was never uncomfortable about it. I think it was especially important to him that I knew how much he loved and was proud of me because his dad never told him anything like that when he was growing up other than negatively comparing him to his older brothers. My dad and I had an affectionate relationship and I miss hugging him.
One of the hardest things to come to terms with after he died was that I couldn't sit across the kitchen table from him anymore to share crazy work stories or just talk. I was on my own.
My dad loved a good steak. I can remember that he knew where his priorities were when payday hit-visit the downtown butcher for meat and pay the bills last. He was a simple guy and never had any problem doing the things that made him happy.
He cried like a baby the day I gave him the huge framed print of him and I on my wedding day. He said it was the best present he ever received in his life and I knew he meant it.
I bet Father's Day is tough on the people who don't have good memories of their dad. I bet they wish the holiday didn't even exist. As painful as this day is on me every year, the tears I cry are worth it because they remind me of how lucky I was growing up with such an amazing father.
I live every day of my life to honor his memory. I do it by looking after my mom and protecting her when he cannot. I appreciate the beauty in my own life knowing how much he loved beautiful things like flowers and Harley Davidson motorcycles.
And most importantly, I honor my father by experiencing the fresh pain of his loss every June 19th because it was one of his favorite days of the year. He loved being my father.
I love you, Dad. Happy Father's Day. I will always remember…..
Jun 17, 2005
Lawn Party
Recently they added a spiffy new marquee sign on the front lawn which has announcements like, "Happy Memorial Day" or "Don't forget to Read!" To me, the sign looks really out of place given it's newness set against the backdrop of a school that hasn't had many structural changes over the past 25 years. (I wouldn't be surprised to find that old bird's nest still tucked away near the recess bell if I cared to look more closely...)
But yesterday I experienced a change of heart because it said simply, "Lawn Party" and suddenly I was flooded with all the great memories of my six years spent at Lincoln Street School.
Lawn Party's were my favorite part of school aside from the White Elephant Tables during Christmas! Lawn Party Day was great simply for the sheer anticipation of what you could do with your friends outside once classes ended.
Mother's would make trays of carefully decorated cup cakes and we could gorge ourselves on penny candy, slices of watermelon, fruit punch and hot dogs. It was the ONLY time the school allowed us to play with silly abandon on the huge side lawn rather than the blacktop out back with the line dividing the boys from the girls.
For me, Lawn Party was about hanging out all day with my best friend Lisa. We didn't spend our time on lawn games or other silly things that would amuse most kids. Lisa was the type of friend who took delight in making me laugh so hard that milk would painfully shoot out my nose. Her dad worked as the janitor of the school and somehow I remember that she was cooler because of it.
But since all good parties must come to an end-Lawn Party signified the end of the school year and the beginning of summer vacation.
If you were in 5th grade, Lawn Party was the day you could let it all hang out because you were officially in 6th grade next year. This meant no one could boss you around. 6th grade meant our time had finally come to lord over the entire student body and we still had a whole year to worry about taking showers with the big kids once we hit middle school.
I love that I live so close to Lincoln Street School. Seeing that old brick building reminds me of how far I've come in life since being a big sixth grader on Lawn Party Day.
Jun 16, 2005
Trouble with the Sweet Stuff
I love candy. I love learning about the history of candy, following candy trends and most importantly--eating candy. Thank God I am not diabetic...yet. So to find a picture of a collage of candy wrappers is a big deal to me.
Turns out it must have been hanging in the former supply manager's office and when he moved to another part of the building he chose not to take it with him. People do stuff like that all the time. They put out samples of office products or cast-off goodies on these communal department banquet tables and pretty much everyone around the area dives into the offerings like buzzards on road-kill and all the free stuff is gone in like five minutes.
This poor little print apparently had been sitting there collecting dust for months and Heather told me to just take it. "Are you sure?" I asked tentatively while secretly hoping it was MINE, MINE, MINE!
So I took it. I casually walked back to my own cube and examined it a bit closer. There was a little story about the print taped to the back of the frame basically explaining that this pop artist named Michael Albert created the collage from candy wrappers he collected in 2002 from various corner stores, supermarkets, video stores and pharmacies. But cooler than that is that all the wrappers are arranged alphabetically from A to Z in the collage. Can you imagine?
I managed to get the print into my car without corporate security grabbing me and now this amazing print is hanging in my kitchen. It's now one of my prized possessions-like if my house caught on fire this is one of the things I would save from the ashes. It's just that cool.
I did lots of research online to see if I could find out more about the artist. I had to dig a little bit, but it was worth it. He is an amazing talent and I've decided that I have officially adopted him as my favorite ARTIST of cubist pop-art. I emailed him asking if I could buy a print of his Cap'n Crunch artwork last night and he actually wrote back the next day. He wonders how I've heard about him? I'm afraid to email back because I'm in a gushing mode right now and really need to calm myself down.
It just goes to prove that you can be having an awfully bad day at work and still something good can come out of it. My friend Ginny listened to my long-winded explanation how I scored such an amazing print and she said what happened to me reminded her about a great quote from the movie Rat Race (2001) spoken by the character of Nick Schaffer:
My grandfather used to say that good things take time, but great things happen all at once.
He's got that right!
Jun 14, 2005
Corporate Whore
Corporate Speak is bullshit talk. That's about as precise and to-the-point as I can manage today just coming back from vacation.
Here is the latest catch-phrases that I've collected since the beginning of this month:
- Looking left and looking right (The corporate equivalent of the children's rhyme "Look up, Look Down, Look all around--your pants are falling down!"?)
- Confronting the brutal facts
- pressure-testing
- How can we do this without more paddling?
- Triage your time
- How do you want your pain?
So from time to time, I'm going to post more of these phrases just for the fun of it. I hope you'll be mindful of corporate speak and jot down some good ones that you hear during the day and send them along to me, too. Please email me at email@example.com with your favorites.


text:
Solutions by application
No two applications are the same
It's an obvious concept, but one that guides everything we do. For material handling applications, simply lifting, lowering, moving or otherwise conveying products and people can involve very different operating demands. SKF has the tools, technologies and services to meet them all. See how advanced conveyor, crane, escalator and elevator solutions from SKF are helping manufacturers and operators do more with less.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Most people prefer home care - and for good reason. Home is a place of emotional and physical associations, memories and comfort.
Here are ten reasons why home care is a good choice for you and your family:
1 - FASTER RELEASE FROM THE HOSPITAL With home care, patients can come home sooner from the hospital. Quality home care can aid the healing process and help avoid hospital re-admissions.
2 - A VERY GOOD SUBSTITUTE FOR INSTITUTIONAL CARE In some cases - depending on the severity of an illness or disability - home care can substitute for other forms of institutionalized care, including hospitals, nursing homes, and assisted living facilities. People are clearly happier when they can live in the comfort of home.
3 - INVOLVEMENT WITH TREATMENT Both the client and family members can be more intimately involved with the plan of care treatment at home.
4 - MORE INDEPENDENCE You make the decisions. You are in control. This is, perhaps, the greatest plus for receiving care at home.
5 - CLIENT COMFORT Being at home is simply more comfortable for most people than being in an unfamiliar place. They have their photographs, books, bed, bath, kitchen, telephone, television; everything in its place, which in studies has proven to be an effective emotional healer.
6 - MORE ACCESS AND CLOSER TO FAMILY AND FRIENDS Unlike the restricted visiting hours at hospitals and nursing homes, home provides a place where family and friends can be close to the person at all hours, whenever needed.
7 - BETTER MORALE Patients tend to have a greater sense of well-being and overall morale when they are in the comfortable surroundings of their own home.
8 - FASTER RECOVERY Research has shown that recovery can be faster at home than in the hospital, particularly if there is good quality, skilled home health care availble to the patient.
9 - LOWER COST Depending on the hours needed, home care can be much more affordable than nursing homes or other institutions.
10 - HOME PROMOTES HEALING Patients enjoy a much better quality of life which many families have said helped to extend the lives, health & happiness of their loved ones. They are in a familiar environment around their family in both their home and community in which they've lived for many years. This is particularly true with individuals suffering from dementia.


text:
With downsizing plus the emphasis on healthy diets, vending programs are becoming more than snacks.
Vending is beginning to play a larger and more diverse role in noncommercial foodservice operations these days, as operators in various segments respond to such challenges as corporate downsizing and customers' desire for higher quality, more healthful and/or ethnic offerings, and even more national brands.
"In many instances," notes Tom Smith, senior vice president of business development for Sodexho Vending and Refreshment Services, "particularly in the B&I segment and in healthcare, in third-shift dining service operations where they're not making it [financially], clients are asking us to come up with a vending solution."
Smith, who sits on the board of the National Automatic Merchandising Association, adds that the most typical reasons for operators switching from traditional foodservice to a vending operation are because a company has reduced its work force or is tightening its purse strings. In such cases, vending is becoming a viable option because of the choices now available.
Typically, Smith points out, what the switch involves is bringing in either a cold-food merchandiser "or a frozen food option, which I like a lot better. When you go into a grocery store, where you used to have maybe one or two aisles of frozen product to choose from, today you've got seven or eight. You've also got every national brand, from Chili's to Friday's to Taco Bell, trying to get in front of your consumer at the retail level in the frozen food section."
Meeting the challenge: Ed Mugnani, Midwest regional vice president for the Eurest division of Compass Group, says vending today more than meets the challenge of serving declining customer bases.
Pointing to one Eurest account that dates back to the days of the dot.com boom, Mugnani notes, "It's a beautiful facility at which we have two cafes and one kiosk. Over time, the population was reduced by 25%, 50% then 75%. So here we had this state-of-the-art facility with all these serving points that really don't look too good based on the product selection we could provide on a daily basis."
So Eurest decided to increase the number of vending machines available, which mainly were snack and beverage machines. Over the last 12 months, the number of machines has been increased from 16 to 28, Mugnani says, including more glass-front units. As a result, the menu variety available in the machines at all hours is now comparable to that in the cafeteria. "As the program has changed in the cafeteria, we've further enhanced the vending to meet the needs of [employees in] evening or off hours."
"What we ended up doing on our end was reducing our operating hours," says Michael Coffey, regional director for Compass Group's Canteen division for the greater Chicagoland area, "then we reduced service points. In doing that, we transitioned to these other machines with Canteen." Revenue, Coffey adds, remained "somewhat static. If anything, I should have somewhat of a decrease in the café, but it became more efficient to run the operation, so it made more sense."
In fact, total foodservice revenue at this account has risen by 5%. "When you take into consideration the population decline of between 15% and 20%, that's a very positive trend," Coffey notes.
National brands are enhancing vending's menu mix. Coffey says he is having success selling products from Blimpie's—a Canteen partner since 1998—and Tony Roma. Indeed, he contends, Canteen sells more Blimpie sub sandwiches than any other franchisee.
"We're putting national branded products through our vending machines where you never had that before," he says, adding that Canteen soon will bring in a third major brand.
When it comes to vending machines themselves, technology is "way out in front of the industry," according to Smith.
"The vending machines themselves are so well built that if they're maintained, and not in an area in which the elements get to them, they'll last," he explains. "There is no planned obsolescence." As a result, however, vending companies are less motivated to pay for technological improvements. Still, Smith says, "a lot of real-time, remote monitoring technology" is waiting in the wings.
Healthy, ethnic: Wellness and nutrition are "becoming more and more a focus of vending, even outside of schools," Smith reports. In the beverage and snack categories, he adds, the changing demographics in America have resulted in the introduction of a number of regional and ethnic beverages, such as Jarritos; made with fruit flavors and containing less carbonation than American soft drinks, it is the number one beverage in Mexico and among Hispanics in the U.S.
But healthy vending isn't always what customers are looking for. A healthful snack-and-beverage vending program introduced at a major food company a year ago saw "good results initially," according to Sodexho spokesperson Stacy Hade. "However, many consumers expressed their preference for indulgence options." Sodexho eventually limited the number of healthful items to 20% to 30% of the total.
Vend Marketing Institute, LLC (VMI) is implementing a comprehensive nutrition guideline program for vending clients throughout the country. The program, named "The Right Choice… for a Healthier You!," focuses on nutrition education, promoting an active lifestyle and making more nutritious choices available in vending machines.
The nutrition guideline program encompasses beverages, snacks and food products vended at B&I client locations serviced by VMI member companies. Dietitian Carmen Gorniak, RD, developed the comprehensive guidelines based on recommendations and studies from several organizations.
In a similar vein the issue of childhood obesity is being tackled by a few equipment manufacturers, who recently introduced vending machines in schools across the country capable of serving healthy reimbursable meals and/or a la carte items from the same machine. Software built into the machines can identify students making purchases and track which items they are buying.
Taking Vending Cashless
Wisconsin publisher buys into cashless society, sees value in testing technology.
Cygnus Business Media, a B2B magazine publisher in Janesville, WI, has taken its vending program cashless, the better to suit a workforce that has grown accustomed to not carrying cash.
Through its various divisions, Cygnus, which is based in Westport, CT, publishes 67 trade publications, 11 industry directories and 15 custom-marketing publications; manages 68 web sites, and produces 50 expositions annually. The company has 260 employees in Janesville.
White and pink: "We're very white- and pink-collar here, and comprise a rather young age group," explains Gloria Cosby, publisher of Automatic Merchandiser, a trade magazine that covers the vending industry. "I just had a gut feeling that cashless would work well, and it is working quite well. There are several folks I know of here at Cygnus who do not carry cash, period, or use only their credit cards for the vending machines, in order to track their purchases."
In addition to serving as the publication's publisher, Cosby is also in charge of managing the break rooms' vending operation, "a sick joke that a president of the company did to me many, many years ago," she notes.
The Janesville offices contain a pair of break rooms: the larger one contains eight vending machines; the smaller, seven. The units dispense everything from cold and hot beverages to sandwiches, salads, hot entrees like lasagna, and snacks. Products are heated in nearby microwave ovens, and range in price from $1.10 to $2.25.
The units also accept debit cards. "I use my debit card in the machines all the time," says Cosby, "and occasionally I'll use my American Express card when I lose my debit card."
Cygnus collects no revenue from its vending machines, Cosby points out. Central Vending places, fills, maintains, services and collects all sales from the vending units. "We get nothing. We forsake our commission. Generally an operator will pay a commission to a location, [but] we said we didn't want a commission if we could keep our prices lower."
Vending contractor Central Vending Co. Inc., also based in Janesville, has "a fantastic commissary," says Cosby, "so a lot of the sandwich and entrée items in the machines are packaged in its own commissary facility. But then along with that, too, there are also brand-name sandwiches available, like Deli Express and Pierre Foods' 'Big AZ Burger.'"
Another reason Cygnus wanted the cashless system was that it provides the publisher of Automatic Merchandiser with an up-close look at the latest vending technologies. "We cover the vending industry," Cosby explains, "and installing this cashless system has brought us a lot of insight about our marketplace, to have been able to see it from the perspective of the consumer at the machine, if you will."
Vendor Surrounded and Outgunned
College foodservice overseer laments challenge of urban campus; speculates on vending as solution.
Joseph Benedict, executive director, auxiliary services, for Brooklyn College in Brooklyn, NY, finds himself surrounded and outgunned in his battle to feed this commuter college's 15,000 students. His weapons: a 650-seat cafeteria and 60 vending machines. Just outside the campus: a swarm of restaurants of nearly every description and ethnicity. Could improved vending provide an advantage?
"I don't think vending is doing as well here as I think it could be doing. The college's vending machines are scattered around 10 buildings. Revenue from vending is not quite $400,000 a year, and it's pretty much staying the same.
In our machines you'll find mostly sandwiches, candy, soda, and snacks. We have three or four machines that dispense cold sandwiches—egg salad, tuna fish, and ham & cheese—for about $1.50 each. There are no entrées because we don't have microwave ovens, due to the risk to people with pacemakers and other stuff.
Our main hope with vending is that we are able to provide the convenience of foodservice in all the other buildings so students don't have to walk all the way to the cafeteria. Also, when the cafeteria is closed, particularly on the weekends, we want students to have access to some food without having to go off campus to [Nostrand] Junction.
The truth of the matter is that we are so close to every major fast-food operation that the cafeteria itself is just barely breaking even. That's why the vending is incorporated into the foodservice contract, in order to subsidize the [cafeteria] operation.
At the Junction, which is only a block and a half away, we have every major fast feeder you can think of. We have Burger King, two pizza places, a sub sandwich place, Dunkin' Donuts, McDonald's. There're also a couple of Caribbean fast-food places, a couple of Chinese fast-food places and a Starbucks right around the corner. And of course students are allowed to bring their own food onto the campus.
Competing against all those guys is tough. I've been here since 1990, and we've gone through five foodservice companies since then. We're not vending anything they can't get elsewhere. I don't know what unique things we could put in those machines. The students today are pretty much traditional and fast-food oriented. At one point I was thinking that since we have large Caribbean and West Indian populations on campus that a Roti bar would do very well. Roti is almost like a Caribbean burrito, made with curried goat and things of that nature. People enjoy it.
I think the potential is there for vending to be taking in close to $500,000. There are some machines out there that can make things like French fries, soups and other hot foods. I think a lot of our students would jump into that."


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乐彩论坛you may not think about it all the time, but your booth education and experience play an integral part of your lives as alumni - affecting how you think, how you lead, how you handle challenges, the friends you have, and the network that supports you.
乐彩论坛as interested and engaged alumni, you are vital members of the chicago booth community. your work as volunteers builds ties with your fellow alumni, provides support for our students and prospects, and plays a critical role in sustaining and strengthening the school's mission. we encourage you to take a few minutes to read about all the ways you can continue to be involved.
"I volunteer because there's nothing more inspiring than to spend time with younger people who are at the beginning of their careers and excited about what they're going to go do. I love coming back just for that." - Sunil Garg, AB '89, MBA '00
This section highlights several (but by no means all) volunteer opportunities. If you aren't sure which opportunity is just right for you, contact Alumni Relations to discuss your interests and identify the best fit.
The University of Chicago Booth School of Business |
Privacy Notice


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When I checked out Tiffany Whitehead's (@librarian_tiff) post "Ditching Dewey Choosing Genre Categories" I noticed the really cool posters she had to go along with her genre sections. They had a kind of word cloud feel to them that I really liked. And I thought it would be neat to combine a word cloud that described the section with a picture of the genre sticker I used. That way my signs would be informative and model a consistent design.
Not Your Ordinary Word Clouds
For this particular design concept, Wordle, my go-to word cloud generator, just wasn't going to do. The Edudemic post "9 Word Cloud Generators that Aren't Wordle" led me to Tagul. You can set up a free account and then create word clouds in recognizable shapes in custom colors. After playing around with it for a bit, I really started to get a feel for how things worked.
This is actually one of the word cloud shapes they have available to use. I couldn't believe how great the word clouds were turning out.
You can check out (and grab) all of the word clouds I created [here].
Creating the SignsWith my word clouds finished, I had to come up with an appealing design that clearly identified genre sections. I played around with some photo editing software that I had, but really wasn't coming up with anything I liked. I finally decided to keep it simple and stick with what I know and use a lot - Canva.
Canva is a super easy, online graphic design program that lets you create designs and save them as PDFs or JPEGs. They have plenty of free design elements you can use to create original posters, images and logos, and it's super user friendly. In no time I had combined my word cloud with fun text and pictures of the genre stickers I was using.
I saved each Canva I made as both a PDF and JPEG. PDFs are large and could be printed out on poster sized paper, but at $17.99 a piece plus framing, that wasn't going to be in my budget for this year. Instead I printed the PDFs out on regular size paper and put them in plastic frames.
Section Dividers: The Last Big ChallengeAll that was really left at this point was to come up with a way to share them on the shelves as a way to clearly delineate the new sections.
I've seen some great examples of people using empty binders to separate sections, and of course you can buy really nice shelf dividers from some place like Demco, but I wanted something fairly unique, inexpensive, and height in my fiction section is pretty short, so binders - even if they were customized - weren't going to fit.
For a few weeks I was tossing around the idea of custom cutting wood and then using some sort of mod podge collage to represent the section. I still think that would've been a pretty fun idea, but I was worried about the time and expense to try to do something like that, just to fail or run out of time before the start of school.
That's about the time that I realized that I had tons of VHS tapes that needed to be weeded, and VHS tape have really sweet, durable plastic containers. I mean these VHS tapes had to have been from the 1990s and the containers were still in mint condition! They're the perfect height and width for section dividers, and they have an excellent plastic cover with removable insert!
|Getting ready to repurpose!
|Expo marker takes off magic marker.
I have to say, I'm pretty happy with the results. The spines stand out pretty clearly at the beginning of each section, and once kids start checking out books, I'll be able to face them out on the shelf to make them even more visible.
I've also ordered some 3/4 inch clip on sign holders that I can use to draw attention to popular series and authors. Those aren't in yet, which is good because I need a bit of time to figure out exactly what I'm going to feature using those.


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What You Think You Know About Establishment Candidates Is Probably Wrong
I see is all the time. Supporters of Establishment candidates complain that their opponents are establishment, too.
We saw it in the Missouri 2nd District. We see in the GOP Presidential primary. The last refuge of the Establishment's candidates is to spread the pain of the Establishment label.
What many people don't get is what the Establishment label actually means. It's time everyone understood this.
**The Establishment's candidate is the candidate the Establishment chooses for us. **
Got that? Please repeat it. Say it out loud. Write it down if you have to. Just don't forget it. If it helps, add an apostrophe-s to Establishment, as in "Mitt Romney is the Establishment's candidate."
Remember the Frank Capra movie, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington? Mr. Smith was the Establishment's appointment to the US Senate. (In that case, the Establishment chose the wrong guy for their own narrow interests.) ** Indeed, the Establishment's candidate might be as un-establishment or anti-establishment as you can get.**
Everyone who works with, for, on behalf of an established political party is part of the establishment. For that matter, anyone who votes in a primary in which he must choose a party's ballot joins the establishment. Every candidate who runs as a Republican or as a Democrat is a member of the establishment. Libertarian candidate? Libertarian establishment.
Simply running for a party's nomination does not make one the Establishment's candidate, though. Nor does having been an office holder. Or an appointee. The Establishment's candidate one year can be the Establishment's enemy in another election.
When people reject the Establishment's candidates, they're not rejecting party affiliation; they're rejecting political elites telling them whom to vote for.
If you reject government telling you how to live, you should reject a Party telling you how to vote.


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Dad was released from hospital on Friday, on the condition that he has 24 hour care organised at home.
We have carers that come in every morning and every evening to get him out and put him to bed and a nurse to check up every day. He's incredibly stubborn and so is determined to come downstairs every day to the living room, but the toilet is upstairs so it means a rather scary ascent of the stairs. He's still dizzy and wobbly and incredibly weak.
Dad is of the opinion that his first dose of chemo hasn't made any difference, but I disagree - he seems a bit more stable and sometimes his speech is a lot better (it comes and goes), but I imagine sitting around all day drinking coffee from a sippy cup can't exactly feel like 'much better'.
He's back in hospital on Wednesday to see if he's any better and then he'll have chemo again a week after for another dose (I think).
He says I have to add "thank you for all the support and messages from all my readers - it has been a great comfort in a difficult time, as you can imagine"
Link to The First Post. (New Readers)
Every day is a battle
Dad was released from hospital on Friday, on the condition that he has 24 hour care organised at home.
6 comments:
- Deniz Bevan said...
Glad to hear he's home - hope everything goes smoothly on Wednesday.
- May 29, 2011
Hang in there! We're all rooting for you all.
- May 29, 2011
Hope everything goes well, missing your blog, hope this is just a nasty hiccup on the road of life and it will soon be back to smooth sailing. Best wishes
- May 30, 2011
Hope the weekend at home does you good & you feel better soon.
Remembering you all in prayer
- May 30, 2011
- world war 1 said...
Everyday truly is a battle and to find ways to survive this is a great way to combat this experiences because there are no problems without solutions and men are created to have the ability to find this solutions.
- October 24, 2011
- Brian Kerslake said...
Hi Harry (a.k.a. Bill). Brian here from Topologika Software Ltd (www.topologika.com). I've emailed you separately but wanted to post something here in case your personal emails aren't being checked. I'm got to thinking about you today because I've just started editing my father's WWII book 'Coxswain In The Northern Convoys" which I mentioned to you once. Suddenly thought of Harry's blog. Really sorry not to have been in touch for ages, and even more so to discover your problems (but glad to see that, judging by Catherine's posts, you sound as stubborn as ever. Keep fighting, Sir, best wishes, and regards to Catherine for keeping people in touch.
- February 10, 2012


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During a return visit to Liberia in 2008, former Peace Corps Volunteer, Brian
Richardson, there from 1964 to 1966, traveled with friends to Nimba County,
which is located in the eastern part of the country near the Cote D'Ivoire
border. At a very small and remote settlement, Duopu Village, located five miles
north of the town of Tappita , he noted one of the children, a girl in her early
teens who is crippled. Her name is Diaworseh Duopu. Diaworseh walks only by the
aid of a pole about her height. She hugs and uses the pole as a tripod for
support, sort of like poling a boat. The pole is a stick about 2-inches in
diameter and is polished to a shine by her hands. She walks on the side of her
left foot, and on her right foot, she walks on the extreme tops of her toes.
Nevertheless, she had on flip-flops.
During the following year, Brian and his wife, Marsha, both of Winterport,
Maine, followed up on Diaworseh with family members. They made arrangements with
a Massachusetts General Hospital pediatrician, Dr. Brett Nelson, M.D., to
examine Diaworseh. She had never seen a physician before that time. Dr. Nelson
was then assisting at the JFK Hospital in Monrovia, the capital city. His
diagnosis is that she has cerebral palsy.
Mass General has agreed to perform surgery and to treat her at their location in
Boston. While full recovery is not likely, surgery and physical therapy are
projected to provide improved ability to walk, increased mobility, and ability
to lead a more full life. Diaworseh, who is now sixteen, is expected to be in
the USA for about a year for treatment.
The Richardsons and friends in Liberia, Harry T. Yuan and his wife, Mai Quipu
Yuan, are arranging visas, a passport, a matron to accompany Diaworseh to the
US, and housing in a Boston-area home. They have made arrangements living,
board, room, and in-country transportation with a Liberian family that speaks
Diaworseh's language.
With her parents' agreement, the country of Liberia has granted the Richardsons
temporary legal guardianship to look after Diaworseh's best interests and to
make needed medical decisions during her stay and to make arrangement for her
safe return to her home in Liberia. Brian Richardson will be traveling to
Liberia in the near future, to return with Diaworseh.
The Richardson's are raising supplementary funds to provide for expenses and will
be soliciting donations for transportation and living expenses. They have set up
an independently-administered irrevocable trust at TDBank in Bangor for
donations, called, "THE DIAWORSEH DUOPU TRUST" and have prepared a detailed
budget. Their goal is to raise a total of between $40,000 and $50,000. Pledges
of over $25,000 have been made so far.
Marsha and Brian ask that you consider
making a donation to help fund the transportation and living expenses for
Diaworseh. For more information and for a downloadable pledge form
please click on this link. Visitors to this website may also
Diaworseh's progress by visiting this page.


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In the third quarter, an unusual situation arose in U.S. financial markets: dividend yield on stocks surpassed the interest rate on the 10-year Treasury bond. While some technical analysts saw this as a strong "buy" signal, and the market did subsequently rally, the real explanation is probably far less favorable for stocks over the long run.
Since early July, financial markets have been characterized by extreme volatility and risk aversion. Fears of a euro-zone break-up and an ensuing banking crisis, as well as forecasts of a possible recession in the United States, triggered a flight to Treasuries. Investors ignored a downgrade of the U.S. sovereign debt rating by Standard & Poor's and pushed the rate on the long bond to record lows. At one point, the 10-year bond yielded less than 1.75 percent. Meanwhile, a sell-off in stocks boosted dividend yield on the S&P 500 to 2.2 percent. That on the 30 stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average was even higher.
Not that these are attractive yields. They remain solidly negative in inflation-adjusted terms. Moreover, even the yields offered by Altria (over 6 percent) and Eli Lilly (over 5 percent) were small consolation for battered investors.
Pricing Shares
Dividends are fundamental to stock investment. Conceptually, they determine the price of a share, which is defined by economists as the discounted present value of all future dividend flows from owning that stock. This accounts for the difference between the company's book value and its market capitalization. Since future dividend flows can't be known for certain, stock prices fluctuate as market participants guess at their values.
But ever since Wall Street began to rally in the early 1980s, initiating a major bull market, actual dividends played only a minor part of the stock-ownership revolution of the past few decades. Some of the most attractive and widely held stocks of the era never paid dividends at all, and some household names still don't, including Google and Apple.
The traditional explanation for this is that new companies, active in new markets, need to invest and grow their business. Their cash resources should be deployed to gain a competitive advantage, build a brand and increase market share. Accordingly, few of the innovative companies that trade on Nasdaq pay dividends.
On the other hand, companies in mature sectors are supposed to generate steady, predictable profits and reward their shareholders with stable dividends. Shares of blue chips that have consistently paid cash to their shareholders over many years can be valued in relation to bonds, based on their respective yields. Economist Gary Shilling calls such shares "stocks that look like bonds."
However, the traditional approach to dividend policy has gone out the window in recent decades. Many start-ups have been able to build global brands relatively quickly and acquired extraordinary pricing power even in rapidly changing markets. They are consistently and highly profitable, debt-free and generate a lot of cash. As a result, they are sitting on large holdings of cash. Google, for example, has over $40 billion even after buying Motorola Mobility for $12 billion in August.
Then again, "mature" industries have gone through dramatic technological and competitive changes. The auto industry is a case in point: Ford and GM, which still have solid global market shares and pricing power, had to suspend dividends and GM even sought bankruptcy protection in 2008.
Automotive parts suppliers have had to reinvent themselves as high-tech operations and to invest heavily to maintain sales. Johnson Controls, which makes interiors and batteries for original equipment manufacturers, has become a global leader in the lithium-ion battery technology for electric cars. It is competing with a variety of green-tech start-ups. Yet, it has been paying regular quarterly dividends since 1887 — for nearly a century and a quarter!
Apple, on the other hand, suspended dividends when it ran into trouble in the mid-1990s. Since then it has bounced back and in mid-2011 it even surpassed Exxon Mobil as the world's largest industrial corporation in terms of market capitalization. Yet, no dividend is in the offing.
Dividends = Risk
A period of intense stock price volatility in mid-2011 suggested one possible explanation for higher dividend yields relative to bonds: volatility is a market measure of risk, and stocks have become riskier to hold than bonds. Hence, investors are demanding higher returns from their stock holdings. As a result, companies are faced with a dilemma: if they want to support the value of their shares they will need to increase dividend payouts (or start paying dividends if they currently don't.) Those who don't increase their dividends risk seeing intensified volatility of their share prices.
This is already happening. Stock analysts have noted an increase in dividend payouts by companies in the S&P 500 index, which collectively are sitting on several trillion dollars of cash holdings. Other companies have been announcing stock repurchase programs. Several articles in recent months have predicted that a flood of dividends and other cash to stockholders will be unleashed in 2012 and beyond.
The connection between dividends and risk needs to be explored in greater detail. Companies in mature industries can be viewed as riskier than the ones that are active in new markets, which is why they have to offer dividends. After a period of stagnation they are likely to become subject to technological change and to increased competition from newcomers with better ideas. The automotive industry once again provides a textbook example of how it can happen. Meanwhile, high-tech companies, especially highly profitable ones, offer investors such strong guarantees of continued profitability that they do not need to return any cash to investors at this time.
To think that stocks have gotten riskier in comparison to U.S. Treasuries flies in the face of logic. The U.S. government is heavily in debt and S&P did cut its AAA credit rating, even though investors seem to ignore this fact. The government in Washington is dysfunctional and the idea of default was raised over the summer. The threat of a government shutdown arises every few months. Finally, bonds are at a tail end of a 30-year rally, with bond yields at record lows and bond prices at record highs. Their upside pales in comparison to their downside.
The gap between low bond yields and higher stock dividends can mean only one thing: that investors have no expectations of an economic recovery that would reduce the safe-haven premium on U.S. Treasuries or raise the specter of higher inflation.
Profits Paradox
In this environment, who could blame companies for not hiring or investing? Just like investors in financial markets, they expect little demand growth in the future that would justify any substantial investment. So even though the corporate sector has seen remarkable profits growth in recent periods, businesses have been simply accumulating cash on their balance sheets.
There is an interesting paradox concerning profits: stock prices do not reflect past or present profits, only future ones. Nor is excess cash on the balance sheet especially useful in driving up a share price. Investors want the company to invest in order to assure future dividend flows. In the absence of profit-generating investment opportunities, share prices are certain to stagnate, reflecting expectations of stagnating profits. Share prices may be supported by higher dividends for a while, but if higher dividends do not reflect a plausible steady increase in future profitability, their effect will be only temporarily.
The dearth of investment opportunities is the result of sluggish demand. Middle class incomes have been stagnating for some time, and now the U.S. economy appears to have been additionally saddled by confidence-sapping long-term unemployment. As each company individually controls its costs to maximize profits, collectively they hollow out their own markets, because the universe of employees is also their customer base. None of that is good news for equities.
Alexei Bayer is an economist and author based in New York City.


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Join Nanci on Mondays, October 7, 14, 21 & 28 from 10 – 12pm. $105 plus materials.
This beginner's class is a complete knitting primer that will start you off with perfect technique and lots of inspiration. It will prepare you for many of our fabulous other classes offered throughout the year. This four-session class will teach you how to cast on, knit, purl, increase, decrease and bind off. You'll make your first project and learn enough about the basics of pattern reading and gauge to dive into more complicated patterns. Class size is limited to allow for lots of individual attention.
Advance preparation may be required depending on the class topic. Details will be provided one week in advance or upon sign-up. Each weekly class session includes two hours of hands-on instruction, and extra help outside of class if needed and our time allows (it almost always does!). Yarn for classes must come from Compatto Yarn Salon, and we are always happy to help you choose the best yarn for your class or project. If you have questions about this or any other class, please give us a call at 310-453-2130.


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SUGAR GROVE – Greg Zanis said he drove 2,000 miles in less than two days to put up three crosses at the bombing site in Boston where three people were killed this week.
Zanis, a Sugar Grove Township resident, has become known for placing crosses in crisis situations as a way of remembering those who have died. He often travels long distances to do so.
"We did the same thing we did at Newtown [Conn.], where we put up 26 crosses," Zanis said.
Newtown was the site of a school shooting in December that left 26 people dead, including 20 children.
"I got 18 calls from people in Massachusetts who wanted me to do this," Zanis said. "It was a horrific scene. There was not a piece of glass anywhere because the glass was blown into the buildings. The National Guard took me around the yellow tape. There were so many police officers around."
Zanis said as soon as he got back, he received a call requesting him to return and put up a cross for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology officer who was killed in a shootout early Friday with the suspected bombers.
"I'll wait until Monday to go back," Zanis said.


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October 24, 2017
Blog: John Varvatos Dinner at PAMM
On October 19, 2017, an intimate group of guests enjoyed a starlit, private dinner hosted by designer John Varvatos on Pérez Art Museum Miami's breath-taking third floor terraces. The dinner was held in recognition of PAMM's exhibition Haroon Mirza: A C I D G E S T, a commissioned work that brings together audiovisual materials, electronic equipment, amplifiers, and found objects to create immersive environments and kinetic sculptures. The exhibition has been generously underwritten by John Varvatos and his company.


text:
Zoning Code Update Packet #133
Contents of Update Packet #133 (effective 7/31/09)
This Code update is the result of Ordinance No. 182962, passed 07/01/09, which establishes a new Original Art Mural regulatory and permitting program.
Code Update Packet: 133
Effective Date: July 31, 2009
Contact: Phil Nameny, 503-823-7709
Amends Chapters: 420, 445, 663, 730, 930
Substantive Changes:
Amends Title 33, Planning and Zoning, Sections 33.420.045, 33.445.320, and 33.445.420.
Currently, there are two ways that murals can be installed in the City. The first is through the City's Public Art Mural Program which is administered by the Regional Arts and Culture Council (RACC). Through this program, murals can gain funding and are incorporated into the City's public art collection. Murals that do not go through the City's Public Art Program are regulated as signs through Title 32, Signs and Related Regulations.
Click here to download Zoning Code Update Pages #133. Subsequent updates may have modified some of these pages. The links to chapters in the chart below will provide the current version of the chapter.
The official Title 33, Planning and Zoning (Zoning Code) is the printed copy in the Development Services Center. PDFs available on PortlandOnline are not the official text of Title 33, Planning and Zoning. Although every effort is made to ensure that the two texts are identical, errors or differences may remain. It is the user's responsibility to verify the legal accuracy of all provisions.
Click here to email the Bureau of Planning if you have suggestions about how to improve these notifications.


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AWT ▷ news ▷ Details
SkyNRG program enables corporations to invest in sustainable fuels .
09 Oct 2019, 1:10 PM
Summary...Biofuel supplier SkyNRG has introduced a program enabling corporations to reduce emissions from their business air travel by contributing to development of a production facility for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) to be built in the Netherlands. read m... more from this item's website
Some publishers don't keep their feeds for long. But that's ok, just... Google It! .
** This facility may be regarded as a dedicated search-engine for retrieving news-items from within the aviation industry. These items are gathered, in "real-time" from carefully selected, highly authoritative, RSS feeds from all over the world. All items, reported on this website, are, therefore, freely available to the public and AWT does not make any claim of ownership for them nor claim of exclusivity for their use.


text:
I was at mum's the other day, and on the book shelf were these little, coloured birds placed in an ornamental tree – on closer inspection I realised that these little birds were made from seed pods! Bernice then took over, and began demanding answers – who made those birds? Where did the seed pods come from? How did you know how to make them? What tree/vine are the seed pods from?
…I was really impressed!
I don't mean to sound surprised by mum's artistic talents… but she always says she doesn't know where mine come from (and insists it is from her mother!), and continues to say that she isn't creative at all – I don't agree with her, mum shows her creativity in different ways to me, but I don't bother to argue the point.


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We go to Jerez.
Up the N340, onto the the A396 at Vejer and onwards towards Medina Sidonia looking for the A389 to Arcos. Not finding the A389, we bicker and then we switch on the satnav bitch and let her guide us onto the A381 towards Jerez. It's too soon to be there though and we have a day trip to Arcos planned so we slip onto the A4 and then eastwards on the A382. Jesus Christ, it's like algebra. One moment we're whizzing along on a grand adventure, the next we've missed our exit and it instantly becomes an exercise in failure and inadequacy. Anyway, we get to Arcos. Jesus.
We enjoy Arcos, a town draped over a couple of heights along a sandstone ridge and very well endowed with pueblo blanco charm and tourists, and after a couple of hours we find our way back to the car and head for Jerez. Arcos facts for the interested; it used to be Berber, it's very big for a pueblo blanco, it does indeed boast many arches (arcos).
It is impossible for us to near Jerez feeling anything but carefree optimism. We love it. We came to Spain more excited about places like Seville and Granada, Cádiz and Córdoba but we have never had a bad time in Jerez. It is a sleepy, More


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I visited the Maryland State Archives for a client this week, in search of an elusive marriage record that the client's family had sought for more than 60 years. I did my homework beforehand and knew exactly what to ask for when I showed up. The archives website provided all the information I needed to prepare ahead of time.
From the homepage, I clicked on Reference and Research in the left-hand sidebar. In the How to Find Specific Records section, I clicked on the link for Marriage Records.
There is an enormous amount of historical background available on this page! Be sure to read the information on how and when the state and counties started tracking marriages — it will make your search that much more fruitful if you are armed with this knowledge.
Since I knew the exact date and county of the marriage record I sought, I found the appropriate date range (Marriage Records 1776-1886) and then clicked on the links for the appropriate county (in this case, Talbot).
Here's an example "Pull Slip" for one of the records I needed to search. I printed these pull slips out and took them with me to the archives. It was hard for me to tell from the information given in what format the records would be, so I was able to go over the pull slips with one of the archives staff. Some of the records were available online (some password protected and some not; the archives staff make the password available upon request).
In this particular case, I found two records referring to the marriage in question. One was a hand-written copy of the index and licenses transcribed from the original in the year 1861. I was able to view scans of this index online at the Archives and printed out the pertinent pages for my client. The other record contained the original pages from the county marriage license files, preserved and stored at the Archives. I was able to page through the book and take photos of the pages my client needed.
It was useful for my client to have both versions of the record. Why? She had found the marriage license indexed on Ancestry.com, but one of the surnames was spelled completely different. The client felt certain it was the right record because the other name, the date and the location all were correct. It appears the Ancestry.com record was indexed based on the 1861 hand-written copy, where we could see that a spelling error was introduced after comparing it to the original record, which showed the correct spelling of the name.
My email to the client after my trip to the archives elicited a "Yippee!" and "That's it!!!!! This is the proof my mother was seeking in 1950!!!!" (What a priceless feeling!)
If you are seeking similar records from a Marylander ancestor, I highly recommend exploring their site to see if you too can find the tools there to break down your brickwall. There are folks like me who can go to the archives for you to search for records (advisable if you need someone to do a bit of extra hunting because of missing or misinformation, as in the case above) or you can order them yourself.
I've posted previously on how to order death records from the MSA. If you live in Maryland, I highly recommend stopping by the archives and getting acquainted with all they have to offer. Be sure to use their web site first to make your trip a productive one!


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Carrabba's Italian Grill is offering a lucky Food Blogga reader a chance to win dinner for two at Carrabba's Italian Grill. (Click here for locations nearest you.)
In the event that you win, but you're not near one of the restaurants, then you will receive one of Carraba's Italian cookbooks.
Here's how to win the dinner for two:
I will contact the winner Tuesday morning, so he or she will have time to get the certificate to Dad (unless, that is, you decide to keep it for yourself and give Dad a golf shirt instead).
Good luck, everybody!


text: Can YOU freeze during winter hibernation, thaw, and continue on? Yeah, we didn't think so... In celebration of World Frog Day, we've put together an infographic that highlights some of our favorite amphibian facts! Did you know? The word amphibian comes from the Greek word amphibios, which refers to the fact that the early life stages of many frogs are aquatic and that the adult stages are generally terrestrial. There are approximately 6,000 known species of frog found worldwide (on every continent except Antarctica)! Frogs are especially prevalent in North and South America! Not all frogs are poisonous, but run-ins with those that do posses toxins can be fatal. Join us in sharing your love for frogs on Facebook and Twitter! Tags: amphibians, animal-facts, frog-facts, frogs, infographics, poison-dart-frogs, video-2, world-frog-day Categories: Animals Previous Post Next Post


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KDE 2.0 is Out!
It's official! KDE 2.0 has been released! Run, don't walk, to your nearest mirror or go directly to the source.
New KDE Release Is a Major Advance for Linux®
Next Generation of Leading Desktop for Linux®
October 23, 2000 (The INTERNET). The KDE
"With the experience gained from developing KDE 1, we
"KDE 2.0 is an important release," stated Ransom Love, president and
"SuSE Linux views KDE 2 as one of
"As Linux-Mandrake focuses on making Linux easy to use, we are very
"Corel has had a long, successful relationship with the KDE project, and
Kopernicus includes the core KDE libraries,
All of KDE 2.0 is available for free under an Open Source license.
More information about KDE 2 is available in a
KDE 2: The K Desktop Environment.
KDE 2 also ships with the highly anticipated initial release of
In addition, KIO's network transparency offers
KDE 2 introduces a new multimedia architecture based on aRts, the Analog Realtime Synthesizer. ARts enables
KDE's customizability touches every
Besides the exceptional compliance with Internet and file-sharing standards
KDE 2: The K Development Environment.
DCOP is a client-to-client communications
KIO implements application I/O in a separate
KParts, KDE 2's component object model, allows
The XML GUI employs XML to create and position
KHTML is an HTML 4.0 compliant rendering
Downloading and Compiling Kopernicus
The source packages for Kopernicus are available for free download at
For further instructions on compiling and installing Kopernicus, please consult
Installing Binary Packages
Some distributors choose to provide binary packages of KDE for certain
Kopernicus requires qt-2.2.1, the free version of which is available
At the time of this release, pre-compiled packages are available for:
Please check the servers periodically for pre-compiled packages for other
About KDE
KDE is an independent, collaborative project by hundreds of developers
For more information about KDE, please visit KDE's
Press Contacts:
United States:
Kurt Granroth
Europe (French and English):
David Faure
Europe (English and German):
Martin Konold
Re: KDE2 Doesn't work on my Red Hat 7
Hi dudez,
You seemed to have a gnome working, is it starting in runlevel 5 using gdm/xdm/xfs etc. etc.?? When i use gdm it keeps returning to the login screen whatever i do. I've read about it, rpm'd back and forth (over 40 by now), config'd here 'n there and now this girl is drooolin by the sight of Apple's beautiful Cube alternative and according to my human environment i'm no longer sane. Either that or back - back to pristine rh7 - no experiments nothing - just wait ... and hope for better wheater ... birds outside ... stroking my apple .. mumbling
By francine broekhove at Wed, 2001/03/28 - 6:00am
Desktop disappears?!
This has happened to me twice in less than two days: When I start KDE2 ("startx") Kicker boots, but there are no desktop?! Its all gray. Some applications still start (like Konquer, thats why Im able to write this now), but several of the "preferences" apps wont start anymore, like "Keyboard Layout".
I have absolutely no clue as to how to fix this, The last time it happened I created a new user, and moved all the personal files (no system files, nothing fro ".kde" etc) from the old to the new account. However this is obviously not a good solution.
I've installed the "final" RPMs for rh70 on a clean, non KDE1.2/gnome RH70.
Please, does anyone know that I'm talking about here, and - most important - hav some suggestions as to how to "unlock" this situation?
KDE2 is quite simply the greatest desktop Ive ever seen & used - when it works. The network transparency is beatiful. However, an experience like this makes me scared!
By Espen K at Thu, 2000/10/26 - 5:00am
Re: Desktop disappears?!
To answer my own post here :-) the tip for newbies, from Zank Frappa a couple of postings above were helpful:
It seems like it was a crash of the DCOP server that caused the hangup. Removed the file .DCOPserver_ and my desktop reappeared. Such a quick fix once you know it... But this should have been cleaned up automatically...!
By Espen K at Thu, 2000/10/26 - 5:00am
Re: Desktop disappears?!
This happened to me once I was logging out from KDE2 and got a bit impatient and pressed log out twice.
This results in some processes still running until the next time you log in. Therefore you should kill these processes before logging in again(everything that starts with K is a good guess).
By yngve at Fri, 2000/10/27 - 5:00am
Re: KDE 2.0 is Out!
I have installed kde2 from sources, with compilation of qt-2.2.1, libz from zlib-1.1.3, and all work better than 1.94 that I have compiled some weeks ago...
one bug:..:??? Konsole doesn't work...
a little crash via kcontrol...
I don't so...istead konqueror work fine!
By Lorenzo Delana at Thu, 2000/10/26 - 5:00am
Re: KDE 2.0 is Out!
By KSteuck at Thu, 2000/10/26 - 5:00am
Re: KDE 2.0 is Out!
Just finished compiling and installing kde2... WOW! I've been running an early beta for a while, comfortably. The final release is so polished! When compiled correctly, it's also *very* fast. I'm stunned!!
By tq123 at Thu, 2000/10/26 - 5:00am
Re: One more thing
It's BEAUTIFUL! What a pleasant working environment! The look and feel folks deserve a raise ;) The icons are wonderful, as are the widget styles and the startup graphic... I'm truly impressed.
Can't say it enough: THANKS!
By tq123 at Thu, 2000/10/26 - 5:00am
Re: KDE 2.0 is Out! How I can install?
I have a lot of problem with the installation of KDE2, my linux box:RH6.2 Kde 1 and Helix Gnome 1.2.
With Kandidat RPM for RH 6.2 I receive dependencies error, so I can't try this, now what I have to do?
Download the TAR and compile it on a clean linux box without Gnome and KDE 1?
And after this wath is the file or files that i should modify for start KDE2?
Can someone help me? I want to use always KDE2! :-)
Sorry for my english I'm an italian people!
By miky at Thu, 2000/10/26 - 5:00am
Re: KDE 2.0 is Out! How I can install?
A good place to start would be http://www.kde.org/install-source.html. Those are the installation instructions. Also check out the mailing list archives at lists.kde.org and the newsgroup comp.windows.x.kde. You may find useful info there.
You may also want to read the LinuxPlanet review for some hints, such as compiling Qt for maximum speed (first seen here on the dot). In my personal experience, compiling with the right options has made kde much faster. I don't think I'll ever install a binary again ;)
Good Luck!
By tq123 at Thu, 2000/10/26 - 5:00am
Re: KDE 2.0 is Out! How I can install?
Thx a lot :-)
Last questions:
- How much time is necessary approximately in order compiling sources?
- Where i can find the list of command for optimizzing the compiling for my system? I ha ve a [email protected]!
Now i download! Thx! :-)
By miky at Thu, 2000/10/26 - 5:00am
Re: KDE 2.0 is Out! How I can install?
I don't know of a list, but I picked up tips from around the net that seemed appropriate (I'm not an expert, myself). I think the most important thing is to disable exceptions when compiling Qt. See this thread for more info.
I also increased the optimization level from O2 to O6. It takes more time to compile with O6 and some people would say it's a waste of time, but it's working well here. Your call. You can disable exceptions and change the O level by editing the file $QTDIR/configs/yourplatform ($QTDIR is the directory where the new Qt is installed and yourplatform is probably "linux-g++-shared") and looking for lines under the comment "# Compiling application source". Mine look like this:
SYSCONF_CXXFLAGS = -pipe -O6 -fno-exceptions -mpentium
When you configure KDE2, you will probably want to optimize for a pentium and disable the debug code. The command will look something like:
CXXFLAGS=' -mpentium' ./configure --prefix=/opt/kde --disable-debug
Compiling takes a *long* time. On my P2-300, it took hours to compile and install KDE2. It was worth it, though :)
Once you've compiled and installed kde2, you need to set up your login manager to let you use it. I would look at the document the kde folks prepared regarding this.
Happy KDEing!
By tq123 at Fri, 2000/10/27 - 5:00am
Re: KDE 2.0 is Out! How I can install?
I try to compile qt o a Mandrake 7.1 with gcc and egcs but using gcc, and without KDE and gnome only console :-), I receive a lot of error about a minutes until i type make. :(
I try to modify the file linux-g++-shared as you tell me with O2 and O6 and exceptions but I receive always this error that stop de compiling.
What can I do? Where is the error?
These are some of lines error that I receive not in order:
......(first are this function)
cpp output pipe has been closed
:( help me!
By miky at Fri, 2000/10/27 - 5:00am
Re: KDE 2.0 is Out! How I can install?
I'd like to help you, but I'm really not experienced in these matters. :( I'll do my best... two heads are better than one, as they say.
Let's start at the beginning. Did you set your QTDIR to the appropriate directory? Let's say you want to install Qt into /usr/local/qt-2.2.1, you would have to type:
export QTDIR='/usr/local/qt-2.2.1'
Alternatively, many people choose to create a symlink to the directory where Qt resides and call it /usr/local/qt. If you do, set your QTDIR to that instead.
OK, assuming QTDIR is set and you've modifed the configs to your taste, you need to run "configure". It looks like you've already done that, though. The command looked something like this, right?:
./configure -sm -gif -system-jpeg -no-opengl
If configure worked ok, then all that's left is to type "make" and wait for Qt to build. If configure gave your errors, you probably need to install some other library that Qt depends on.
Maybe it would help if you post a little more detail about what went wrong. If you send more of the error message and describe what you did, then maybe it will give some clues. Even if it doesn't, then at least I could help you search for more info from other sources. It would also be worth checking if you have downloaded the right file (I've made that mistake before :). You want qt-2.2.1. It should be in the same directory as the kde stuff.
Well, let me know how it goes. I'm sure you'll get it going eventually!
By tq123 at Sat, 2000/10/28 - 5:00am
Re: KDE 2.0 is Out! How I can install?
Ok thx a lot!
I have see some FAQ about installation and compiling of KDE2.
But I haven't 2 CD of Mandrake so what libraries I need?
I just downloaded:
The command "configure" work exatly but when I type "make" after about one minute there was an error in compilation, I haven't already try the librarie that I've download. This is my configure string:
CXXFLAGS=' -mpentium' ./configure -sm -gif -system-jpeg -system-libpng
I have to add -no-opengl?
The errors show some functions like Kwin and write (fisrt use the function)
I cannnot show exatly the text :-(
So this is all thank for all at now tq123 :-)
I try to download a new Qt version? I download my from:
By miky at Sat, 2000/10/28 - 5:00am
Re: KDE 2.0 is Out! How I can install?
Well, if configure worked ok then you probably don't need to install additional libraries. It also appears that you have the correct version of Qt. You mentioned kwin, does that mean you're compiling kde2 and qt is already compiled?? You do need to add the -no-opengl flag when compiling Qt, or you'll have problems later.
If Qt's installed and you're working on kde then maybe you're not compiling in the correct order? kdesupport must be compiled and installed first. Then kdelibs must be compiled and installed second. After that, you can compile and install in any order. For any of this to work, QTDIR and KDEDIR must be set. Also, don't forget that /usr/local/qt/lib (or whatever directory you used) must be added to /etc/ld.so.conf. Once you change /etc/ld.so.conf, be sure to run "ldconfig".
Hmmm, I can't think of anything else right now. Hopefully you'll get it running before Mandrake 7.2 comes out with kde2 included :)
Good Luck!
By tq123 at Sat, 2000/10/28 - 5:00am
Re: KDE 2.0 is Out! How I can install?
No I haven't already compiled QT :-) Now I have reinstalled Mandrake 7.1 with X11 Dev library, in TroolTech site in the FAQ I read that for compiling QT must be installed this library and infact the error that I have is some about X11 :-) that before I haven't, I have also install libjpeg, libgif, libpng and libz I think now is all ready for compiling with success:-).
Last questions:
- I would make a script for do all this night while I am sleeping :D I can?
CXXFLAGS=' -mpentium' ./configure -sm -gif -system-jpeg -system-libpng -system-libmng -no-opengl
and for KDE package :
CXXFLAGS=' -mpentium' --prefix=/opt/kde2 --disable-debug
Are OK?
I hope that's all, really thx tq123! :-)
By miky at Sat, 2000/10/28 - 5:00am
Re: KDE 2.0 is Out! How I can install?
I'm glad you've figured it out! You could certainly make a script... building each package requires the same steps, so it should be fairly easy.
As for checking what version of libpng you're using, one way would be to use an rpm query:
rpm -qa | grep libpng
Mandrake installs libpng in /usr/lib, so you could also "ls /usr/lib/libpng*". I can't remember if I used the libpng flag, so I don't know what version is needed. The kde installation instructions don't indicate that you have to.
I, personally, don't have a libmng installed. I don't even know what it is, but it doesn't appear to be necessary for kde2.
The QTDIR should be /usr/local/qt, for example, while in /etc/ld.so.conf you would put "/usr/local/qt/lib" and then run /sbin/ldconfig (works here, anyway :)
Your configure commands look good to me, but I don't know what libmng is. What does it do? Anyway, it sounds like you're ready to start compiling. I hope it goes well. Let me know what happens.
By tq123 at Sun, 2000/10/29 - 5:00am
Re: KDE 2.0 is Out! How I can install?
Ok thx tq123, QT compiled.
But now I receive an error with KdeSupport: library iostream.h not found. :-(
Who can post a list of "ALL LIBRARY" need for compiling right KDE2?
Bye. :-)
By miky at Mon, 2000/10/30 - 6:00am
Re: KDE 2.0 is Out! How I can install?
iostream.h is a standard I/O stream library for c++ . It should come with your compiler (gcc or g++) when you first installed it. The default location is /usr/include.
By jamal at Tue, 2000/10/31 - 6:00am
Re: KDE 2.0 is Out! How I can install?
Yes! Now work right! On RH 6.2 I compiled KDE2!
Thx all in particular tq123 and KDE Team GREAT WORK! Thx :-)
By miky at Thu, 2000/11/02 - 6:00am
Re: KDE 2.0 is Out! How I can install?
rpm -U qt2/* for the files in the qt2 directory
rpm -U kdegames/*
Right now I am trying to do the same as you, only from source...I am getting very frustrated at times, but I learn something every time I try, and some day it will all come together...so much to learn, eh?
By Todd Benson at Mon, 2001/12/10 - 6:00am
Kicker Crashes
i downloaded the src .tars and compiled / installed them. then i use "xinit", and from there typed "startkde &" Kde starts up, But then Kicker crashes, 100% of the time. the little hint window comes up, but without a hint. Kdesktop works, but once i try to open the trash (its the only icon that shows up), KDesktop freezes. Does anyone know what im doing wrong?
By Enix at Fri, 2000/10/27 - 5:00am
Re: Kicker Crashes
I am having same problem. If any one reply or know any thing please let me know.
By Snehal Panchal at Fri, 2004/07/30 - 5:00am
Arranging icons on desktop
Am I missing something obvious, or should I send this in as a wishlist? ---
I can't find a way to arrange the desktop icons to my
By D. D. Brierton at Fri, 2000/10/27 - 5:00am
Re: Arranging icons on desktop
Well maybe you should upgrade to Windows XP then! Shmuck!
By Dumbass at Wed, 2003/12/03 - 6:00am
Re: Arranging icons on desktop
Maybe you should FOAD, his reply was THREE YEARS+ before your nasty reply.
By jackass at Mon, 2005/10/31 - 6:00am
Re: Arranging icons on desktop
How do I make the Icons on my desktop smaller, and hold
I have changed everything I know to change in Control Panel,
Help, please !!
By Gary Reynolds at Mon, 2004/10/25 - 5:00am
Re: Arranging icons on desktop
u probably dont have write access to ~/.kde
By ganja_guru at Thu, 2004/11/04 - 6:00am
Hey ! Where went the KDE 1.1.2 sources ?
KDE2 is wonderful, but I need KDE 1.1.2....
By thomas at Fri, 2000/10/27 - 5:00am
Re: KDE 2.0 is Out!
By doganello at Sat, 2000/10/28 - 5:00am
Re: KDE 2.0 is Out!
Dear KDE Team,
First of all I wish to make it quite clear that I am indeed a very strong supporter of KDE. Regarding the release of KDE2 though I wish to make the following comments:-
What the hell happened to being able to set the window size to maximum?
This was one of the best features of KDE1.1.2 over the alternative Gnome desktop!
The new File Manager:
The biggest problem is in trying to set and save your customise default view colors and settings. Example background color settings in different windows and icon layout views that get lost on closedown of File Manager no mater what you do with the save view settings!
Sound problems:
My Yamaha XG sound works really well on KDE1.1.2 but on KDE2 it's distorted and crackles and pops and as for the multi-media players the MIDI is totally useless!
I am using the same Alsa drivers that work very well in KDE1.1.2 so what has changed!
In general now the control of toolbar Icon positions, background color, window shading and window layout is very poor or missing compared to KDE1.1.2 and it seems now with no save or make new theme settings! What happened to all the new vertical/horizontal color shading settings that was talked about time and time again?
I can't help but wonder if KDE2 got rushed out as a counter to the new Gnome desktop rather that being fully thought out!
My gut feeling is that this present release will harm the good name of KDE long-term.
For Info:
System: A-open AX59 pro Motherboard, AMD K6 III 400, 256 Meg P100 SDRAM,
KDE2 was installed on a total clean re-formatted new install without any KDE 1 files on system. It proved to be very unstable and Koffice crashed out several times even trying to do very basic word processor tasks. There is no way it would be of any real working use to me in it's present state!
I have now re-formatted and re-installed KDE1.1.2 and all works fine again!
By James Alan Brow... at Sun, 2000/10/29 - 5:00am
Re: KDE 2.0 is Out!
By Hans M Krüger at Sun, 2000/10/29 - 5:00am
Re: KDE 2.0 is Out!
The moment KDE2.0 came out I grabbed the sources,
Now for the dark side, it seems that a lot of old KDE programs don't compile correctly on KDE 2.0(my own problem is klyx , I know I have kword but this is nove very good at math).
Any how big thanks for any one involved with the KDE project
By Marc Mertens at Mon, 2000/10/30 - 6:00am


text:
Super Bowl XLVII Champions Ravens Personalized Men's Ring
Stainless steel men's ring honors Ravens win! Features NFL and Super Bowl logos, enameled color, and engraving. Personalized with initials. Gift box.
Available in sizes 8 to 15 (includes half sizes)
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text:
Nike Sportswear Case Study Adspy Report of Best Ads - BigSpy
Facebook is the world's largest social media platform, with 60% of brands marketing on Facebook.Facebook is a platform full of business opportunities. Whether it is individual users, small and medium enterprises, or large enterprises, they have established brand pages on Facebook for advertising and promotion. "Nike Sportswear" chose to advertise on Facebook and achieved success. Now we analyze its successful advertising experience through BigSpy.
BigSpy is an adspy tool. BigSpy can capture ads from multiple social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. It can spy ad information in 40 countries and store 160 million ad data. It is the world's largest ad database.
BigSpy tracks "Nike Sportswear" ads and analyzes advertising data to help "Nike Sportswear" find the best conversion creatives and ad copy.BigSpy makes the advertising world transparent, allowing more businesses to increase sales conversions through advertising spies. Now BigSpy generates an advertisement report for "Nike Sportswear", and the link is "advertiser report". In this report, we analyze in detail the best advertising cases of "Nike Sportswear".
Nike Sportswear Facebook adspy
"Nike Sportswear" introduction:Sport Style Innovation www.nike.com/sportswear
"Nike Sportswear" Facebook ads last run:2020-02-17 05:16:33
Top3 Advertising Case Study:
|Nike Sportswear
|Nike Sportswear
|Nike Sportswear
|Ad title
|Nike Sportswear
|Triple Black
|The Nike Air Shop
|Ad text
|Las nuevas Nike Air Max 90 no son una nueva versión, son un recordatorio.
|Paying homage to the 1s who are empowering the next generation. All for 1.
|Introducing where to find your Air.
|CTA type
|Ad format
|40 days
|1 days
|1 days
Nike Sportswear facebook ad case analytics and study
1.Advertising format and material analysis:
The advertising formats used by "Nike Sportswear" top 3 ads are Carousel,Video, and Carousel.
Ad Format Optimization Suggestions:
The Facebook algorithm indicates that Facebook will give priority to displaying videos to user news sources. So, to get more advertising reach, consider video advertising.
In summary: Facebook's creatives determine the user's first sense of advertising. A / B testing of different creatives is required, and different creatives are used for different audiences. In addition, you can also use BigSpy to spy the industry's latest ads and competitors' ads. BigSpy provides the material download function to help you solve your creative troubles.
2. Advertising copy analysis and study:
|Ad title
|Nike Sportswear
|Triple Black
|The Nike Air Shop
|Ad text
|Las nuevas Nike Air Max 90 no son una nueva versión, son un recordatorio.
|Paying homage to the 1s who are empowering the next generation. All for 1.
|Introducing where to find your Air.
|Ad type
|Ad word count
Ad copy optimization suggestions:
Although copywriting accounts for a small part of advertising, copywriting can directly affect the click-through rate of ads. Among all the ads of "Nike Sportswear", the text type used is other to obtain the best advertising results. "Nike Sportswear" can use this copy style more. On the other hand, Advertising copy requires A / B testing, because the length of copy, spacing, and size of fonts, white space, etc. are all different.
Summary: Different copywriting effects are different. The core of designing copywriting is to capture the user's psychology and the selling point of the product and retain the user with clever language. In addition, BigSpy monitors user responses for different copywriting. Before designing ad copy, advertisers can learn how to design good ad copy.
3. Type of CTA analytics and study:
The types of CTA used by "Nike Sportswear" are:SHOP_NOW,SHOP_NOW,SHOP_NOW.
CTA optimization recommendations:
Without the CTA button, the conversion cost per ad will increase by almost 2.5 times. Selecting the CTA button is better than not selecting it. Adding a call to action to your Facebook ad lets users know what to expect from the other side of the ad.
In the 1st advertising case, the use of "SHOP_NOW" help "Nike Sportswear" gets a higher conversion.
In summary: Facebook ads must be tested in the final round of CTA when performing A / B testing. This detail may help you save a lot of budgets. In addition, BigSpy can filter competitors' CTA types of Facebook ads through filtering, which can be used as a reference for your test.
4. Advertising schedule:
"Nike Sportswear" When Facebook ads are placed on Facebook, the ad schedules are 40 days,1 days, and 1 days.
Ad scheduling optimization suggestions:
Your ads are not valuable 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Check your Facebook advertising report, which day and time will you get the results. With this, you can set the schedule for your ads so that they only run during valuable time periods.
Finally, the above is the analysis and optimization suggestions for the Facebook ads of "Nike Sportswear". The analysis and optimization of Facebook ads is a long-term accumulation process. In this report, the basic design of ads was learned through Bigspy. In real advertising marketing, marketers also need to have in-depth analysis of products through BigSpy, grasp the audience's psychology, learn about marketing, and make precise calculations of data.


text:
REDDINESS helped Gabon and the Republic of Congo to get ready for a future REDD+ mechanism.
The REDDiness project, led by Eurosense, responded to the European Commissions (EC) call for increased collaboration between African and European partners through Specific International Cooperation Actions (SICA).
REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) aims at decreasing carbon losses from the forest sector through five activities: reducing deforestation, reducing forest degradation, forest enhancement, sustainable management of forests and forest conservations. Obtaining compensations due to REDD+ presupposes the development of a robust, reliable and transparent forest monitoring system and requires an accurate Measuring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) system at the national level.
During two years (2011-2013), REDDiness offered support in the definition and set up of this MRV system in the Republic of Congo and Gabon. The main impact has been the stimulation of the exchange of EO (Earth Observation) knowledge and capacity in the context of forest monitoring between European and African partners.
The project revised the state-of-the-art forest monitoring methods, especially in the field of forest degradation and helped the Central African countries further towards an operational use of EO products and solutions, supporting the sustainable management of forests. This has been performed by analyzing the capacity gaps first and subsequently, building the needed capacity for the exploitation of existing or future GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) and by developing and customizing EO methodologies according to local user needs.
For more information about the project and its outcomes, please visit the REDDiness website.
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