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Is it a plant? Or is it a monkey?

AotusIt should not be hard to recognize the differences between furry night monkeys and the bright yellow flowers of golden peas. But they have something peculiar in common that leads to some confusion once in while: their name. Both genera are officially known as Aotus.

There are about two million known species on the planet, so it should not come to a surprise that scientists accidentally have given certain species, or groups of species, similar names. For instance, Proboscidea is considered an order of elephants, but it is also the name for the genus of devil’s claws. Other examples include Myrmecia pyriformis (insect and green algae), Ficus elegans (mollusc and plant), Ormosia nobilis (insect and plant), and Trigonidium grande (orchid and katydid).

“That has historically been a problem,” says Laura Katz, a professor of biological sciences at Smith College, who is leading an effort to create a single list with all species for the Open Tree of Life database. “Someone in Europe discovers a new insect species and gives it a name, while someone else in United States wants to label a group of bacteria and gives it a similar name. That is often hard to avoid, especially in times when the Internet was not around yet.”

Functioning taxonomy

Those overlapping names generally do not cause any confusion in phylogenetic research, because night monkey experts would not mistake those animals for plants. However, it becomes an issue when you create a database with all known species, because the computer systems must be programmed in such way that it points users to the proper records when they look for Anthrax (the bombyliid flies) and not Anthrax (the bacterium), or any other genus.

The software that is currently being developed should enable users to find information about one or more species instantly and, evenly important, to leave the millions of other species out of the search results. Stephen Smith, an assistant professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Michigan, is one of the technology designers for the Open Tree of Life project. Multiple species with the same name and species that have evolved partly through lateral-gene transfer are causing some of the many difficulties for developing an efficient search engine for the tree of life.

“We really need a functioning taxonomy. It may sound trivial, but you actually want all of the individual trees consistent with the terms that are being used. It needs to be clear what are considered bacteria and what are not, especially when you are dealing with about two million species. We really try to avoid entering data with multiple meanings, because that eventually leads to lots of problems.”

Making a list…

The goal is to produce a tree structure that eventually can encompass all life forms. This includes the life forms characterized thoroughly with both morphological and genetic data, species for which there are only genetic data, as well as species from the early years of systematics where the only information is a physical description or a drawing. Complete molecular data only exist for less than a quarter of a million of all known species. And 90 percent of them have not been sampled with more modern techniques at all.

“The value of our effort is to put a list together that allows for phylogenetic synthesis of all the kinds of data that are available, whether it is a description from 1880 about a microorganism that was studied with a crappy microscope or high-tech molecular sequencing performed today. Right now, there is no resource to get all these data in one computer-readable format,” explains Katz.

“We create a mechanism for the community to make the tree better”

There are some other big challenges to create such comprehensive list besides the homonyms. For instance, scientists from all over the world are not using one uniform label system for all newly discovered species. Naming codes are different for plants, animals, microbes, and other forms of life. This creates some confusion as codes have been used in different ways.

Naming all organisms in a consistent way that can be understood by all users depends on a number of factors: what family the organism comes from, what naming system is used, and what data are available about the organism, to name just a few. One research team might store their data under one scientific name, while another might use a completely different one.

“We really have to deal with all the chaos. Otherwise, we could get the synthesis wrong at the end. Our aim is to allow for a plurality of approaches. We want to try and put all species in context. So that means that we need to disambiguate names,” she maintains.

… and checking it twice (or more often)

The Open Tree of Life team is making considerable progress generating a complete list, according to Katz. “We have captured roughly 1.9 million species and we are adding another 200,000 species, right now. More will follow soon. It is now the only list available with this many species. That is the good news.”

That does not mean that she is satisfied yet with the quality of the list, as many names still need to be standardized. Much additional work is ahead to create order in the colossal taxonomy maze that is caused by the different naming customs and practices that have been evolved for hundreds of years. “Actually, right now, the list is bad. It is awful,” says Katz laughing, poking fun at the long way she and her colleagues still have to go to eventually create their envisioned tree of life. “We are talking about millions of species, not just a few hundred. The scale of this project is massive. So it is only a start and we have a whole lot to do before we present a draft.”

Not only much work for the eleven Open Tree of Life investigators, but also work for the many scientists with an interest in taxonomy and phylogeny. Participation by researchers from all over the world are critical for success of the project.

Currently, scientists can submit their publications of favorite phylogenetic trees on the Open Tree of Life page on Mendeley, and they will be able to help with taxonomic issues as well when the first draft of the database is released next year. “We are trying really hard to continue with some refinement in the upcoming months, but then other researchers can help us cleaning up the data in their individual areas of expertise. We are creating a mechanism for the community to make the tree better, enabling anyone to contribute. That is our overall objective.”

(Rosemary Keane contributed to this article)

Photo sources

Aotus ericoides (Australia) by “Melburnian”

Aotus lemurinus zonalis (Panama) by “dsasso”

5 responses

  1. I’m trying to reconcile the statement that “We have captured roughly 1.9 million species and we are adding another 200,000 species, right now…It is now the only list available with this many species.” with the fact that the latest GBIF classification has more species (2,498,063), and can be downloaded (I don’t see a link to the OpenTree list of species). Given that GBIF have assembled a bigger list, is there a reason why OpenTree is making its own? Does it have data GBIF doesn’t have?

    October 11, 2012 at 7:30 pm

    • Hi Rod,
      The link to the very-much-a-work-progress classification is
      I’ll ask the folks who have been working on the taxonomy about checking out the GBIF list.

      thanks, Mark

      October 11, 2012 at 8:41 pm

      • rdmpage

        Hi Mark,

        If you look at the list of databases GBIF aggregates it’s pretty much got all there are. There will, naturally, be issues, but it might make sense to focus on cleaning that list, rather than recreate the same process. Another advantage is that it gives you GBIF ids, which make it straightforward to link to their distributional data.

        October 11, 2012 at 9:14 pm

  2. Rod,

    Thanks for the comment — we’ll look to see if there are non-synonym genera and species in GBIF that are not yet in pre-OTToL, and then capture these.

    Unfortunately, we could not use GBIF as a starting point as the backbone taxonomy (from CoL) is inconsistent with most views of the tree of life (e.g. has 9 kingdoms (instead of, perhaps, 3 domains); diatoms within Plantae while the rest of the stramenopiles are in the not-well-supported group Chromista; a non-monophyletic group called ‘Protozoa’, etc., etc.). Also, GBIF has parent and offspring taxa with identical names (e.g. look up Thermotoga), which we do not allow in pre-OTToL, and there is no clear treatment of homonyms. Although we surely have more work to do, I think the difference in species number is in part because: 1) we have not included viruses (for now); and 2) we only count unique species, not synonyms.

    October 15, 2012 at 6:43 pm

    • rdmpage

      I agree that the GBIF classification isn’t particularly phylogenetic, most biodiversity databases have pretty much ignored phylogeny. In way this is possibly a good thing as traditional classification and evolutionary history (with all its complexity) are not terribly compatible – put another way, I’m a fan of keeping the two quite distinct.

      Having parent and offspring taxa with the same name seems unavoidable given taxa such as Acanthocephala (animal genus and phylum) and subgenera (NCBI classification has Rana at both generic and subgeneric rank, albeit qualified in the “unique_name” field).

      The GBIF classification species count doesn’t count synonyms (the latest version I downloaded has 3234553 species-level names, of which 2395339 are regarded as valid). Homonyms are always a problem, but GBIF is trying to disambiguate these (with the inevitable errors). They seems to be getting better and better at cleaning up their classification.

      October 16, 2012 at 12:12 pm


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Screaming Garlic Idea Library

What's Up with Whats App - and Your Privacy?

According to a recent report from the Wall Street Journal, the messaging service WhatsApp will start sharing phone numbers and other user data of its one billion users with Facebook Inc. This announcement goes contrary to its promise that little would change when the app was acquired in 2014.

When Your Agency is Doing the Spamming

When your own PR/Marketing firm is using a portion of your monthly retainer to spam the inbox of journalists, it's probably time to re-think your strategy.

Mobile Phones - Advertising and Tracking You

We're not sure where you stand on privacy issues in the consumer advertising space, but we're okay with ads popping up and telling us things they think they want us to know. Then again, we're in the advertising business. But now things are changing in the mobile advertising and tracking space.

Forget the NSA - Predictive Apps Are Scarier

All the recent talk about the leaker and what he leaked about the Government's unfettered access to our personal lives is the stuff of spy novels and Big Brother theory. It's the new mind-reading apps that are available now that may put more fear and awe into our hearts.

sign up for the Screaming Garlic blog

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Video Enabled Collaboration

Video Collaboration Innovations – Polycom Acoustic Bubble

Posted by Liza McCartan on Mar 12, 2015 9:18:50 AM

New from Polycom! Acoustic Bubble technology automatically senses and mutes unwanted background noise.

This is the third in our series about the latest advancements from Polycom – all aimed at improving the user experience of video conferencing.  Our earlier Videocall blogs focused on Noiseblock and Eagle Eye Producer, but in this blog we are focused on Acoustic Bubble technology.

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Topics: RealPresence, Polycom, Video Conferencing Solutions, Workplace of the Future

The Benefits of Virtualising your Video Conferencing Platform

Posted by Liza McCartan on Jun 3, 2014 11:53:00 AM

We speak to lots of IT managers and directors on a day to day basis and have noticed that for many, their focus for 2014 is on tools for collaboration, interoperability and end user experience.  Furthermore, IT departments are involved not only in the technology but in driving user adoption – which in turn ensures that any IT spend is justified by the benefits driven by wide-spread usage.

One of the key tools for collaboration is video conferencing and IT departments are given the technical challenge of figuring out interoperability as well as the business issue of promoting its use.

Virtualising your video conferencing software can address both the technical and user adoption challenges and provide numerous other key benefits along the way.

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Topics: Benefits of Video Conferencing, RealPresence, Polycom

How Centralised Management can Benefit your Business Communications

Posted by Liza McCartan on Jun 2, 2014 12:47:00 PM

Ongoing technological advances in recent years have enhanced the pervasive nature of video conferencing, meaning that organisations of different shapes and sizes are relying more and more on video collaboration for their business communications. Depending on your company’s structure, the team responsible for video operations may not be the same as the team who owns and manages the virtual environment. This requires further coordination and planning in the design, deployment/installation, maintenance, and troubleshooting for the video applications.
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Topics: RealPresence, Polycom, Video Conferencing Solutions


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Promotional Products Holiday Selling 101

Everyone talks about Christmas in July, but we like to talk about it in September. For the promotional products industry, trading in our boat shoes for holiday sweaters is pretty common this time of year—and it’s about to get real busy.

Before we know it, classic jingles will ring from TV ads and customers will craft gift lists full of products they need. From the corporate gifts of appreciation to holiday baking kits, and even the perfect mug for Santa’s milk, end buyers are looking for solutions during the holidays.

With a COVID-19 Christmas on the horizon and massive online marketplace to sell to, customers will be flocking to the internet for all of their holiday needs and you can be the next person they come to if you are willing to put in the work today.

Grab your notebook, here’s ZOOMcatalog’s Holiday Selling 101.

A Christmas Story about COVID-19

Before we can jump in and talk promotional products, let’s first make sure we are on the same page. This holiday season could look a little different than previous years. With COVID-19 still looming and businesses staying closed or remote, customers have different needs and ranging budgets.

Businesses are going to be looking for ways to connect with employees and show appreciation for their work. They’ll want to give some love to clients and ambassadors with holiday bundles and branded merchandise. And don’t forget about those essential businesses that need to keep workers safe during the holiday rush.

As you can see, the potential for selling is massive if you think creatively about your next holiday marketing campaign. Identify the right products, customize a digital catalog or flyer, and share it with the world–that is the recipe for finding success this holiday season.

Allow us to break it down for you…

Make life easier for your customers.

The goal of any promotional product business should be to make the lives of their customers better—simple enough, right? That’s where many overthink it and try to sell more, push further, and add that one extra product to the cart. This is especially amplified during the holidays.

Instead of pushing customers to your products, shape those products as an answer to their particular needs.

Do they want to make it easier to take a corporate Christmas photo? They could send Christmas-colored polos and branded backdrops to all of the employees in their remote locations.

Do your customers want to start a virtual holiday workout program—be the distributor that supplies all the merchandise. What about an at-home activity with their kids? Hook them up with a cookie and brownie baking gift set.

Maybe they want to give the best gift to warm up on a cold winter day. There you are with a personalized holiday mug or cozy blanket.

The goal with your marketing should be to provide your customers with answers to every need they have throughout the holidays. Sometimes, they don’t even know what they need until they see it right in front of them–that’s where your customized catalogs and flyers come into play.

Play to different markets.

A large bank doesn’t have the same holiday needs as a personal training business. That’s why it’s important to craft your marketing to work in different verticals. There are always going to be customers who want to see everything you can source, but more often than not, they want you to recommend the perfect solution. Do the thinking for them and provide ideas that fit their business.

Don’t limit yourself to a single supplier catalog for every client. Look for multiple target markets to serve up your products and customize the right catalogs and flyers to capture those customers.

Pick the proper presents (products) to promote.

Look back at your annual holiday sales and first identify those products that have sold year over year without fail—those are your base items. From there think about what your target market is craving, the current environment, and what’s trending.

For instance, kits are a hot potential this year with everyone doing more at home. These can be baking kits, holiday decoration kits, home movie night kits, you name it. People are going to be in their homes during the holidays and need things to do—a kit keeps people occupied and active during those long days with family. These kits provide an entire experience, something we wrote about in this blog.

Another major focus for businesses is corporate gifts. Every employee and client deserves to be recognized and appreciated. With businesses operating remotely, employee camaraderie is going to be an even bigger holiday priority for employers who want to keep their people engaged.

Get ahead this holiday season.

We can already hear the sleigh bells in the distance, so what are you waiting for? Get ahead of the game this holiday season and serve up customized catalogs and flyers using the ZOOMcatalog holiday marketing tools. Incorporate them into your marketing initiatives and use them on social media, your website, in email campaigns, on your blog, and so on.

If you’re interested in learning more about how you can leverage digital catalogs to crush it this holiday season, set up a meeting with our team and we would be happy to walk through some strategy with you.


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Wednesday , October 21 2020
"Supergirl" is pretty good, should not offend any feminists, and does decent with its bonus material.

Blu-ray Review: ‘Supergirl – The Complete First Season’

sgDisclaimer: Warner Bros. Home entertainment provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray reviewed in this article. The opinions I share are my own.

The first season of CBS’s Supergirl arrives on Blu-ray, DVD, and digital download this week. The 20 episodes set up the titular character just as she becomes a superhero, introducing us to her life both with and without the cape. It’s a rollicking fun time, and while it doesn’t quite hit the quality of some of the other DC Comics shows on the air right now, it is far better than what the comic brand is churning out for the big screen.

Glee‘s Melissa Benoist stars as Kara Danvers, a.k.a. Kara Zor-El, a.k.a. Supergirl, a young woman who has been living on Earth for awhile after her home planet was destroyed. Having had plenty of time to adjust to her new home, Kara is an adult as the series begins, working as an assistant for media mogul Kat Grant (Calista Flockhart, Brothers & Sisters, Ally McBeal) and trying to start a career. This is somewhat derailed when Kara finds she can no longer sit still, creating a costume with the help of her best friend, Winn (Jeremy Jordan, Smash), and saving the day. These actions gets her noticed by the DEO, a military organization devoted to protecting the planet from aliens, and which secretly employs her sister, Alex (Chyler Leigh, Grey’s Anatomy). But even after joining up with DEO leader Hank Henshaw (David Harewood, Homeland) and his crew, Kara manages to balance both lives, a modern woman who can have it all.

The girl vs. woman issue is addressed head-on in episode one. Supergirl is a show to which no feminist should object. Kara is strong, independent, and fierce. She’s also brave and loyal and very capable. The only other character that even comes close to her level of accomplishment is Cat herself, so strong females are well represented on the series, lest anyone think the title is a step backwards for the fairer sex.

Sadly, since production is moving to Canada, Cat will be a less frequent presence in season two, which is a shame because Cat and Kara’s relationship is pretty much a linchpin of the show.

Unlike Superman, her already famous and successful cousin, Kara was old enough to remember their world of Krypton when it was destroyed, which influences the way she sees the world, as well as her hopes and dreams. Due to a flight into the Phantom Zone, Kara’s arrival on Earth (and waking up for her pod to begin aging again) was delayed awhile. Unfortunately, when she arrived, she brought the horrible prisoners of Fort Rozz with her, including her Aunt Astra (Laura Benanti, Go On) and Uncle Non (Chris Vance, Transporter: The Series). This sets the stage for the baddies Kara will face in her new crusade.

There are a lot of fun bits for those already familiar with the world of Superman. While the Man of Steel himself only makes fuzzy and at-a-distance appearances (though he has recently been cast for season two), we see the likes of The Martian Manhunter (no spoilers), Maxwell Lord (Peter Facinelli, Nurse Jackie, Twilight), Lucy Lane (Jenna Dewan Tatum, Witches of East End), and Sam Lane (Glenn Morshower, Bloodline) in this series. Not to mention, Jimmy, sorry, James Olsen (Mehcad Brooks, Necessary Roughness) is a main character and love interest. There are also tributes to previous Superman and Supergirl incarnations, such as casting former Clark Kent, Dean Cain, and former Kara Danvers, Helen Slater, as Kara’s parents. So I appreciate the tributes paid.

But Supergirl is also its own world. It’s very clearly not the same universe as the recent DC films are set in, nor is it on the same Earth as the CW shows take place on. Thanks to a multiple Earths theory, DC has the freedom to portray lots of different versions of the same characters and places at the same time. Which doesn’t prevent a guest appearance from The Flash‘s dimension-hopping Barry Allen (Grant Gustin), nor preclude more crossovers with its small screen peers after Supergirl moves to the CW this fall.

So, while the series starts out as too case-of-the-week, and while it ends with some exaggerated and easy outs, most of this run is pretty good. It’s easy to root for Kara and her friends, and I like the positive approach and outlook the series supports. I look forward to seeing where future seasons go, and can recommend this first season without hesitation.

On The Complete First Season, we get a fair amount of extras. A pair of ten-minute featurettes reveal how the show approached their version of Krypton and The Martian Manhunter, two wonderful elements in the story. We also get a too-short look at the cast attending Comic-Con, a gag reel, and deleted scenes for almost half of the episodes. My complaints are the very outdated menus and the extra padding at the start and end of every deleted scene. But other than that, it’s a decent batch of bonus material.

Supergirl – The Complete First Season is available now.

About JeromeWetzelTV

Jerome is the creator and writer of It's All Been Done Radio Hour, a modern scripted live comedy show and podcast in the style of old-timey radio serials, and the founder of the Columbus-based entertainment network, IABDPresents. He is also the Chief Television Critic for and a long-time contributor for Blogcritics. Plus, he works fiction into his space time. Visit for more of his work.

Check Also

Blu-ray Review: ‘Supergirl – The Complete Second Season’

'Supergirl - The Complete Second Season' can be a bit preachy at times, but is very enjoyable. It did a lot of romance without making the show too focused on it, and its second year is better than its first.


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Throwback Thursday: A new way to lounge

Kick back and relax, or study. Our students had a new space to do both during the 1953-1954 academic year.

Throwback Thursday: A new way to lounge

This photo, courtesy of the Baylor College of Medicine Archives, comes from the 1954 Round Up yearbook, the official yearbook of Baylor University when we were still called Baylor University College of Medicine.

According to the yearbook:

“Thanks to the generous contributions of the Board of Trustees of the Baylor Medical Foundation, students enjoyed a plush new student lounge this year.”

 Additional Resources

Learn more about the College’s history.

See more photos of our past.

-By Audrey M. Marks

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Stacey Faucett

Marketing Communications Content Specialist

Corporate Affairs

Stacey Faucett is a Marketing Communications Content Specialist on Cisco's Corporate Social Responsibility team. She joined Cisco Corporate Affairs after eight years in the nonprofit education sector. Originally from Upstate New York, she now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, mom, and cat named Steve.

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People piled trash in streets, causing filth and disease. While people blamed the government, Nivedha knew there was a solution to sort and recycle all waste and clean the streets.

Virtual volunteering: How I spent 18 hours helping families make ends meet

There was a need for virtual volunteers to help out with the Santa Clara County COVID-19 Financial Assistance Fund. So a member of Cisco's Corporate Affairs team decided to take action.

Reducing food waste and food insecurity one meal at a time

Replate is a nonprofit with a mission to reduce food waste and food insecurity through its food recovery system. Most recently, Cisco and Cisco Foundation donated $1.2 million to help them expand their food recovery services. We sat down with Replate's CEO and founder, Maen Mahfoud, to learn more about Replate’s mission, and its response to business closures.

How a former Global Problem Solver winner is helping to monitor patient vital signs

Neopenda is a social enterprise startup that won the Cisco Global Problem Solver Prize at the 2016 Rice Business Plan Competition. Sona Shah, co-founder and CEO of Neopenda, recently shared with us how their device, neoGuard, is being used on neonatal, pediatric, and adult patients to help monitor their health during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Creating an ethical framework for AI to protect the customer experience

Within five years, AI will have the ability to hyper-personalise the customer experience. Introducing an ethical framework for AI could prove essential for organisations to execute an unbiased CX.

How MIND Research Institute moved quickly to offer free math education to students learning at home

ST Math, MIND Research Institute's flagship visual instructional program, is available at no cost to parents. Since it’s visually-based, students who speak all languages can benefit. We sat down with their CEO, Brett Woudenberg, to learn more.

From diagnostics to masks: How a Cisco Global Problem Solver Challenge winner is helping front-line health workers

OmniVis is a biotechnology company that was a second runner-up in the 2017 Cisco Global Problem Solver Challenge. Now, the team behind OmniVis created OmniMask, a 3D-printed mask that was developed to protect front line health workers who don't have access to enough personal protective equipment (PPE).

Cisco Tactical Operations Team: Offering remote support during crises

Our disaster response team, Tactical Operations (TacOps), deploys trained team members to restore communications—for free—in the wake of disasters and other events where first responders need support.

How TalkingPoints is helping teachers and parents stay connected to enhance student success and well-being

We sat down with Heejae Lim, founder and CEO of TalkingPoints, to learn more about how TalkingPoints is serving as a bridge between teachers and parents right now, as well as serving as a platform that delivers critical information on behalf of schools.


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Meet the EEPA 2017 candidates for the ‘Supporting the Internationalisation of Business’ prize

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What other inspiring projects are competing for an EEPA 2017 title? Today we introduce you to the shortlisted candidates in the ‘Supporting the Internationalisation of Business’ category, which recognises initiatives that give enterprises, particularly small and medium-sized businesses, opportunities and encouragement with regards to both EU and external markets. This year’s candidates are from Austria, Portugal and the United Kingdom.

With the programme “Internationalisation 2015 – 2020”, ecoplus International supports Lower Austrian SMEs in entering foreign markets, from the initial providing of information to realising first export deals or establishing branches, with free and customised services. The aim is to support SMEs in their international business activities and to increase their success in foreign markets. In addition the “High Potential Programme” supports selected enterprises with high internationalisation potential in their development to become “Exportchampions”. This is a new approach for supporting enterprises and start-ups, in their growth strategies and their international expansion, all in keeping with the concept of “start-up to scale-up”.

The all-female team at MADEIRA VINTNERS have spent the last 5 years working to establish their Madeira wine brand, after the last firm which was founded over 80 years ago. The all-female team is not only nationally innovative, but unusual across the sector. The first harvest in 2012 helped with Madeiran grape distribution, producing added value for Madeiran grape producers and vineyards. As an isolated EU territory, the success of this venture, which saw more than 100% increase in sales in 2016-2017, is important for the island’s agribusiness sector, which is a key source of revenue after tourism.

The International Trade Centre at Business West has transformed international trade services, combining regional, national and international expertise, funding and resources. It aligns its Chamber of Commerce objectives with UK and Pan European policy, combining private sector expertise from third party providers and the Banking Sector to benefit businesses and boost export sales in the South West of England. The centre now employs over 100 trade advisers and provides a range of digital solutions and support. To date it has engaged with 5,800 exporters, assisted 2010 companies with overseas sales to the value of £430 million and created 3,800 jobs.

Which project will win the 2017 title? Find out at the SME Assembly 2017 in Tallinn this November! Find out about the Category 1: Promoting the Entrepreneurial Spirit, Category 2: Investing in Entrepreneurial Skills and Category 3: Improving the Business Environment nominees on the Portal, and come back next week to read about Category 6: Responsible and Inclusive Entrepreneurship…

EEPA National Winners 2017 – Supporting the internationalisation of business

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We have already met the national EEPA winners from Categories 1, 2 and 3…time for Category 4: Supporting the internationalisation of business! This category recognises initiatives that encourage enterprises and particularly small and medium-sized businesses to benefit more from the opportunities offered by markets, both inside and outside the EU. In 2016 the prize was won by Human Security Finland for their project that tackles a key issue high on the global agenda, human suffering.

10 projects will be considered for a European title in this category. Well done to all the national winners and we look forward to finding out who is on the EEPA 2017 shortlist!

Austria: Program Internationalization 2015 – 2020

Croatia: Pun ceker – kupujmo lokalno

Germany: Import Promotion Desk (IPD)

Greece: Greek Breakfast

Hungary: InnoTrade Program

Poland: Biznes Lubelskie

Serbia: Private sector Development Project- PSD

Slovenia: SKIS – Smart Key Information Support

Spain: ICEX Next

UK: Business West International Trade Centre

EEPA National Winners 2017 – Investing in entrepreneurial skills

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Time to meet the next category of European projects competing to be on the EEPA 2017 shortlist! Look here if you missed Category 1, but today it is the turn of Category 2: Investing in entrepreneurial skills.

This category recognises initiatives that improve entrepreneurial and managerial skills. In 2016 the prize was won by Enterprise Educators Academe from the United Kingdom, for their project working to embed entrepreneurship into education curriculums.

This year there are 9 outstanding European projects competing in this category. Best of luck to all the projects and we look forward to finding out who is on the EEPA 2017 shortlist!

Belgium: VentureLab – Student Entrepreneurship for Change

Bulgaria: Implement a Strategy for local development in the municipality of Ardino and implementation process of the Strategy for Community-led local development in the municipalities of Ardino and Djebel

Cyprus: Sound Labor Relations, Contemporary Enterprises

Estonia: Tech Sisters & Digigirls

Ireland: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Creating an Entrepreneurial Mindset Amongst Engineers: The DkIT BSc (Hons) in Engineering Entrepreneurship

Latvia: University of Latvia Student Business Incubator

Lithuania: Youth Entrepreneurship Education Program – ATVERK

Malta: The Maltese Business Story Initiative

Sweden: Business Generator

European Innovation Scoreboard

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Ever wondered how innovative your country is? What about in comparison to its neighbours or overall in the region? The European Innovation Scoreboard is a European Commission initiative that provides a comparative analysis of innovation performance in EU countries, other European countries, and regional neighbours. It assesses relative strengths and weaknesses of national innovation systems and helps countries identify areas they need to address.

The Regional Innovation Scoreboard is a regional extension of the European Innovation Scoreboard, assessing the innovation performance of European regions based on a limited number of indicators.

European Innovation Scoreboard 2017

The 2017 edition of the Scoreboard presents a refined analytical framework. Rankings are therefore not directly comparable with previous editions, but time series using the new analytical framework allow performance to be tracked over time. New indicators capture investments in skills, digital readiness, entrepreneurship, and public-private innovation partnerships. In addition, a new toolbox with contextual data can be used to analyse and compare structural differences between countries.

The new scoreboard reveals that EU innovation performance continues to increase, especially due to improvements in human resources, the innovation-friendly environment, own-resource investments, and attractive research systems. Sweden remains the EU innovation leader, followed by Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, the UK, and Germany. Lithuania, Malta, the UK, the Netherlands, and Austria are the fastest growing innovators.

In a global comparison, the EU is catching up with Canada and the US, but South Korea and Japan are pulling ahead. China shows the fastest progress among international competitors.

Interested in finding out more? Have a look at country profiles, an interactive online score board and find out who is leading innovation in Europe.

How to win EEPA? Past winners reveal their recipe for a winning formula

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What is the recipe for success? What is the secret? How can you make sure your project is one of the next European Enterprise Promotion Award (EEPA) winners? EEPA is an opportunity for public bodies and public-private partnerships from across the EU Member States, (as well as Iceland, Serbia and Turkey) to put forward their most imaginative and successful initiatives that support entrepreneurship and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Each country selects their top national winners to compete at European level across five different categories.

Today Promoting Enterprise brings you advice from the best of the best, past EEPA winners. Ready to discover the answers? Read on…

Why should you enter EEPA?

Many of the past winners have mentioned that one of the key benefits of entering EEPA is that it provides “a valuable opportunity to step back and reflect”, as “you can’t always focus on what you did well yesterday…the analysis is important and it gives you a chance to make your learning journey visible so that others can learn from it.”

Not only does it allow for reflection but it provides an opportunity to meet with other pioneering initiatives from across Europe, as “participating in a competition is a real opportunity to meet and share with initiatives and people…learning from their experiences is very enriching”. Some winners also mentioned the increased internal learning and contact saying that “entering EEPA gives a unique opportunity to exchange experiences and contacts with colleagues, experts and other stakeholders, drawing focus to the relevant questions and impact SME development”.

All the winners agreed that winning, in the words of one winner “the most rigorous and professionally run enterprise award in the world”, was quite an experience. Ultimately this award “provides recognition from a higher recognised entity like the European Commission”, which for many has led to exciting national and international developments for their projects.

Finally very importantly “you should enter because it is fun! The whole process requires a lot of work and you need to invest the necessary time, but once that part is done you can really enjoy the experience of being in the competition.”

What should you bear in mind when you apply?

So how did this variety of winners come out on top in each of their respective categories? Each winner has their own story to tell which you can read here, but read some of the tips they wanted to share with the potential winners of the future:

  • “Apply and share as much as possible!”
  • “It is important to evaluate whether a project has the following: quality, results, strong partnership, and replicability. Our advice would be that if your project has all of the above, then you should definitely compete!”
  • “Focus your attention on strategy and results achieved.”
  • “A good idea, a quality product, enthusiasm, detailed planning, active stakeholder involvement and teamwork were the key to our success. Our recommendation to future competitors would be to make sure to find their own distinctive formula.”
  • “Develop a pitch and make it interesting and inspirational for others. Inspiration is a very important part of EEPA work, it is what makes a project stand out.”
  • “You should not be scared to point out things that you learnt from and definitely take help from others, don’t do it all on your own.”

Interested in finding out more about EEPA? Are you going to apply and compete for a European title? Be sure to contact your national coordinator for more information and check when your national deadline is. Hurry up because the deadlines are approaching!

Read about the SME Assembly 2017 during which the EEPA finals and awards ceremony will be held.

Winners of the European Enterprise Promotion Awards 2016 prove diversity of entrepreneurial spirit in Europe

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30415999933_56c9c9d966_zCongratulations! The seven winners of the 10th edition of the European Enterprise Promotion Awards (EEPA) were announced by Peter Varinský with the Grand Jury Prize being awarded to a Swedish city project.

The six projects that each won their category came from France, UK, Portugal, Finland, Serbia, and The Netherlands. The categories covered the broad areas of entrepreneurship, enterprise start-up and growth, international market opportunities, and green markets. Three projects from Latvia, Ireland and Greece received Special Mentions from the EEPA jury, which comprised seven representatives from government, business and academia from the EU.

The top prize was awarded to the district of West Hisingen in the city of Gothenburg, Sweden. The  project supports the city district’s reputation as a hub of opportunities and entrepreneurship. It is divided into three parts: Entrepreneurship in education; Start your business, a course for newly arrived refugees with a business background in their home country; and Develop your business, a comprehensive business training programme.

To see photos from the yesterday´s joyous ceremony, visit our Flickr. We will present all projects fully in coming weeks, but if you can´t wait, you can have a look at the EEPA 2016 Compendium.

Speaking of the awards, Ms Kristin Schreiber, chair of the EEPA jury and Director for COSME programme at Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, European Commission, said: “The 57 projects selected to compete at European level, not just the winners, runners-up and special mentions, are a testimony to the passion and innovation that puts ideas into practice. These are examples that can inspire the creation of an ecosystem that helps entrepreneurial spirits, nurtures enterprises and helps them grow. All these projects have tangible results: they help to create new companies and new jobs. I hope they will be an inspiration to authorities, organisations and individuals across Europe to do more for entrepreneurs and small businesses.”

Next year’s awards ceremony will take place during the 2017 SME Assembly in Tallinn, under the Estonian Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

And by the way – the cake for the 10th EEPA´s birthday was delicious! 🙂

Youth Essay Competition – Final results

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Youth-banner--blog-600x150The results of the European SME Week Youth Essay Competition are in!

After careful deliberation by the judges, lengthy discussions have been had and the decision has been made.

This competition was created because we wanted to know what the young people of Europe think about entrepreneurship and the opportunities available to them in their country, and the wider European Union. The responses came from across Europe and not only did they give insight into the original question, but also what is on the minds of young people in Europe today.

Life is changing fast, and they are aware that in order to keep up they too will have to change. As one participant put it: “The ‘good old days’ mentality of getting an education and landing a steady job at a big company is over”, this reflects their view of education, that it is not designed to help meet the challenges of the present but is rather based on successful models of the past. This ties into their feelings on how they are perceived, with one essayist writing: “Even if we are young it does not mean we are stupid. It does not mean we are immature. We have a lot to offer if only you give us the chance”. They are realistic, demonstrating an understanding of the media and the tendency to feature the unicorns and multi million euro successes. One contestant wrote that “there is no need for a gigantic one-billion-dollar idea or a perfect professional business plan in order to successfully start up a business”; in other words , investment is not the only measure of success.

The variety of nationalities represented by the candidates was an early indicator of the importance placed on multilingualism and openness, a common theme throughout the essays, the authors of which recognised the importance of English for business alongside other languages on their path to success. In terms of the barriers faced, ‘red tape’ and bureaucracy are things they are aware of and frustrated by. These need to be addressed urgently. Coupled with these is the fear of failing, with one writing “we are full of energy and ideas but often lack the experience, skills and expertise to implement our plans successfully”. They need reassurance that failure is not the end of the world and that it can often signal the starting point for greater success.

It is now time for us to reveal the winner:

Congratulations to Andri Pandoura!

Andri is a member of the Cyprus Children’s Parliament and has already developed an interest in human rights and advocating, which she plans to pursue in future by studying law and embarking on a career in human rights law.

The very close runners up are:

  • Katie Williams, a multilingual young worker from the UK currently working in the field of International Trade.
  • Francesco Foglia, an Italian journalist in European Affairs currently studying a Masters in Business Administration.
  • Frici Barabas, a Romanian entrepreneur with an online business who also teaches others how to succeed in the professional online world.

Congratulations to all our finalists and be sure to stay tuned to find out more about them in forthcoming posts! We would also like to congratulate all those who submitted an essay as the standard was very high and the final results very close.

EEPA – Investing in entrepreneurial skills

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Each week, one of six European Enterprise Promotion Award (EEPA) categories is presented on the Promoting Enterprise blog. The EEPA awards reward annually, those who promote entrepreneurship and small business at the national, regional and local level.

You can have a look at last week’s featured projects shortlisted for EEPA Category 1: Promoting the entrepreneurial spirit. This week, it is the turn of the shortlisted projects in Category 2: Investing in Entrepreneurial Skills. Three projects, from Italy, Latvia and the UK, support the inclusion of the unemployed and young jobseekers into the workforce through skills development and mentorship. Two of the shortlisted projects have a focus on the crafts industry, while the third includes the creative arts as an area targeted for support.

blog-imagesThe Bottega Scuola project in Italy supports the young unemployed by encouraging craft skills and business development ideas in artistic and traditional industries through six months’ work experience. The project acts as an artisan teaching workshop intended to increase job opportunities and stimulate new local entrepreneurial initiatives. Watch their video!

The project for the Development of innovative entrepreneurship in Jelgava City and Zemgale Region in Latvia is a platform through which the local government supports innovative entrepreneurship and facilitates networking, local good practice and mentor support. One example is the successful Competence and Contact Exchange initiative for the cottage arts and crafts industry, which develops entrepreneurial skills and creates innovative new products. So far, 10 000 people have taken part in various activities for developing innovative entrepreneurship and on average 63 new entrepreneurs sign up every year! Watch their video!

students-uni-liverpoolThe Enterprise Educators Academe in the UK has created the world’s first internal, accredited, enterprise educator training programme. The training and support of over 600 staff of all disciplines to embed enterprise skills across the university curriculum has been at the heart of the programme. In the first two years alone 21 000 students were reached and over 2 000 freelance businesses created. Business and public sector projects projects benefited from student support resulting in an economic impact valued at over EUR 4.4 million (GBP £4 million). Check out their YouTube channel!

By investing in entrepreneurial skills, these projects continue to support ongoing regional initiatives to integrate young people and the unemployed in the workforce. All 6 EEPA category winners will be revealed at the EEPA Awards Ceremony during the SME Assembly on 24 November in Bratislava, Slovakia, when the Grand Jury prize-winner will also be announced.

EEPA 2016 shortlist announced!

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In total, 343 National EEPA entries were received from 31 participating countries in 2016, which were then narrowed down by the national EEPA coordinators to 57 projects put forward for the European level of the competition.

At a meeting in Brussels on 27 September, the EEPA Jury drew up a project shortlist for each of the EEPA’s six project categories.  Let´s meet 18 shortlisted winners for EEPA 2016!

The winners are spread pretty evenly across Europe, with only Serbia featuring on the list more than once, with winning projects in the Promoting the Entrepreneurial Spirit and Supporting the Development of Green Markets and Resource Efficiency categories. We will present all of the shortlisted projects, category by category, on the Promoting Enterprise blog over the next six weeks.

The winner in each category will be revealed at the EEPA Awards Ceremony during the SME Assembly on 24 November in Bratislava, Slovakia, when the Grand Jury prize-winner will also be announced. All of the national winners will have their costs covered to send one representative to attend the SME Assembly, while shortlisted projects will be able to send two representatives.

Congratulations to all of the shortlisted projects – they are all worthy winners, and the EEPA Jury will have a difficult task in selecting the winning projects in each category. We wish them all the best of luck at the SME Assembly in November.

Birmingham crowned this year’s ‘most enterprising place in Britain’

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Birmingham has been named the ‘most enterprising place in Britain’ by the 2016 Enterprising Britain Awards.

Birmingham has been named the ‘most enterprising place in Britain’ by the 2016 Enterprising Britain Awards, Small Business Minister Margot James announced today (24 September 2016).

The winning project saw Birmingham City Council team up with 6 Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) to improve confidence, encourage investment, and attract and retain business talent. It supported 1,000 businesses, generating £87 million in private sector investment and creating or safeguarding 4,300 jobs, as part of the ambitious plans to build a Midlands Engine for Growth.

Companies to benefit from the project include Westfield Sports Cars which accelerated production of a new prototype vehicle and Induction Technology Group which invested in new manufacturing equipment, leading to an increase in global sales.

Small Business Minister Margot James said:

“We have 900,000 more small businesses than in 2010 and they have an important role to play in building an economy that works for all. It’s great to see the support available for business owners making a real difference and driving entrepreneurial spirit across the UK.”

“These awards recognise the value of local support and show what can be achieved when people who know their community best make their own decisions. Congratulations to all 4 winners.”

Run by Investment in Young People (IiYP), on behalf of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, the Enterprising Britain awards celebrate local initiatives which boost business and growth.

Liverpool John Moores University, the Borough of Broxbourne Council and Kent International Business also won awards for building enterprise skills, promoting entrepreneurial spirit and supporting exports, respectively.

Birmingham City Council and Liverpool John Moores University will now go forward as the UK entries to the European Enterprise Promotion Awards.

Initiatives in Buckinghamshire, Peterborough, Warwickshire, Belfast and Glamorgan also received recognition from the judges.

Neville Reyner CBE DL Hon.DLittNeville Reyner CBE DL Hon DLitt, Chairman Investment in Young People (IiYP) said:

“Competing against strong entries from across the UK, this year’s Enterprising Britain Award winners are great local initiatives which are really helping entrepreneurs build businesses to drive local economies, create jobs and encourage enterprise. We wish Birmingham City Council and Liverpool John Moores University the best of luck in the European Enterprise Promotion Awards.”

Creating the right environment for new business to flourish across the country will play a vital role in the government’s industrial strategy, as Business and Energy Secretary Greg Clark recently underlined with the appointment of ministerial local growth champions in every area.

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    • EEPA 2020 Shortlist – Supporting the Development of Green Markets and Resource Efficiency October 20, 2020
      We are almost at the end of our shortlist introductions and getting closer to this year’s European Enterprise Promotion Awards (EEPA) finals! Make sure to tune into the finals ceremony during the SME Assembly 2020 and follow #SMEAssembly2020 to find out who will be the 2020 winners of the EEPA competition. Today we are meeting […]
    • SME Week Newsletter 2020: Issue #5 October 15, 2020
      In the interests of the safety and wellbeing of our community, the decision has been taken by the German Presidency of the Council in cooperation with the European Commission to transform the SME Assembly 2020 into an online event. The event will feature the usual array of top-level speakers, panels and masterclasses, and will feature […]
    • EEPA 2020 Shortlist – Supporting the internationalisation of business October 13, 2020
      Ready to meet more projects competing in the 2020 European Enterprise Promotion Award finals? Today we are meeting the shortlisted projects competing in Category 4: Supporting the internationalisation of business. Our 2020 finalists come from Belgium, Portugal and Ukraine. These projects focus on supporting national projects and industries, and helping them get into international markets. […]
    • COVID Stories – Hacking for health October 8, 2020
      Here on the Promoting Enterprise News Portal we have been bringing you stories from the pandemic, with a particular focus on news and information from which you, our Promoting Enterprise community, can benefit most. Previous examples have included features on the E-health at home COVID-19 initiative in the Netherlands, which supports healthcare providers in implementing […]
    • EEPA 2020 Shortlist – Improving the business environment October 6, 2020
      Another week and another round of introductions to the projects that have been shortlisted by the European Enterprise Promotion Awards (EEPA) jury for the 2020 European finals! Today we are meeting the projects competing in Category 3: Improving the business environment. Our 2020 finalists come from Finland, Germany and Spain. The work that made the […]
    • The SME Assembly 2020 goes ONLINE! October 1, 2020
      In the interests of the safety and wellbeing of our community, the decision has been taken by the German Presidency of the Council in cooperation with the Commission to transform the SME Assembly 2020 into an online event. The SME Assembly 2020 will feature a combination of high-level panels and interviews, expert roundtables, interactive workshops, […]
    • EEPA 2020 Shortlist – Investing in Entrepreneurial Skills September 29, 2020
      We are back with the next category of the European Enterprise Promotion Awards (EEPA) 2020 shortlist. Over the next few weeks we will be introducing you to each project that has been carefully evaluated and selected by our EEPA 2020 jury. Today we are meeting the projects competing in Category 2: Investing in Entrepreneurial Skills. […]
    • EEPA 2020 Shortlist – Promoting the Entrepreneurial Spirit September 24, 2020
      The time has come to meet each project on the European Enterprise Promotion Awards (EEPA) 2020 shortlist! Over the next few weeks we will be introducing you to each project that has been carefully evaluated and selected by our EEPA 2020 jury. Today we are meeting the projects competing in Category 1: Promoting the Entrepreneurial […]
    • EEPA 2020 – Meet the Special Mentions September 22, 2020
      Last week on Promoting Enterprise we announced the European Enterprise Promotion Awards (EEPA) shortlist, which features all of the projects that the jury have selected to compete in the EEPA finals at the SME Assembly. The jury also selected projects that they wished to award a Special Mention, which is given to a project that […]
    • EEPA 2020 – Meet the European shortlist September 17, 2020
      This year 185 National EEPA entries were submitted for consideration from 27 participating countries. The EEPA National Coordinators then selected 49 of these projects for the EEPA 2020 Jury to evaluate and compose the European shortlist. The EEPA 2020 Jury met on Wednesday 9th September to discuss and make their final selections for this year’s […]


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Remediation for High School Graduates: Why?

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Too many of our high school graduates require remediation courses in college. Complete College America posted the report entitled "Core Principals for Transforming Remedial Education: A Joint Statement." The report represents a joint undertaking by four organizations: The Charles A. Dana Center, the Education Commission of the States, Jobs for the Future and CCA. This report gives us cause to pause. Most of us have been oblivious to what has been happening in colleges. It adds a new dimension to the conversations about where the responsibility lies and opens new considerations about where some solutions may be found. "The numbers tell a dispiriting story. Half of all undergraduates and 70 percent of community college students take at least one remedial course. Too many of these students never overcome being placed into a remedial course. Only about a quarter of community college students who take a remedial course, graduate within eight years. In fact, most students who are referred to remedial education do not even complete the remedial sequence: One study found 46 percent of students completed the sequence in reading and only 33 percent completed it in math" (p.3).

Pic for post.jpg

It is reported that our school systems are graduating students who go to college require a high level of remediation. Over time, colleges have developed and incorporated a remediation system that allows students to be "admitted" but not really to collegiate level courses. The programs are designed to get those students college ready. It is exactly what we are charged to do.

The collegiate response enabled us, in a clinical sense, to send our graduates along to college. It kept our graduation reports looking good as our graduates went onto college. And it kept college enrollments up. There is enough blame for everyone to share and enough capacity and ingenuity for solutions, if we join together to see this is as K - 16 issue. The report continues, "Postsecondary leaders must work closely with K-12, adult basic education, and
 other training systems to reduce the need for remediation before students enroll in their institutions. Postsecondary institutions should leverage the Common Core State Standards by working with K-12 schools to improve the skills of their students before they graduate from high school. Early assessment of students in high school, using existing placement exams and eventually the Common Core college and career readiness assessments, which lead to customized academic skill development during the senior year, should be a priority for states" (p.12).

Since many of us are, in fact, part of a publically funded K-16 system, it is obvious that the vertical plan must work against the diminishing tide of literacy. In our February 14th blog post on literacy, Marilyn Jaeger-Adams was cited as saying that the English texts our seniors are working with are written with simpler language than that used in seventh-grade texts published previous to 1963. We have to take the opportunity to make the change. As texts diminished in their rigor, so did our students' thinking skills and academic vocabulary. We have to make a change and all of us must be part of it. The colleges must work with us to define the standards of skills they believe freshman should have. We must backward map our higher standards from there and not waiver. We need to reach our parents and pre-schools to be sure our future students are being raised in print rich environments. As much bad press as the Common Core has received, it may very well be a beacon for us and help us return to deeper and more rigorous treatment of text in all subject areas. State Education Departments must decide how to narrow the scope of topics in order to allow teachers to work more deeply with text and develop thinking and understanding in their students. We must stop allowing our graduates to only take one rigorous math class in high school. College completion and future jobs require they have more. We need to give our teachers, all of them, the time to retool.

As school leaders we have reported how many of our graduates went to two and four year colleges. We have watched those rates increase. It has been a measure of our success, despite the charges against us. Now, we know there is more to the story. As leaders we must figure out how, in each of our districts and on each of our campuses, we can make new decisions. We need to reduce the numbers of our graduates who leave us for life and still need remediation.

www.completecollege.org - Core Principals for Transforming Remedial Education: A Joint Statement
Diagram posted with the permission of www.completecollege.org
Jaeger-Adams, Marilyn, (Winter 2010-2011). "Advancing Our Students' Language and Literacy" American Educator, (3-12).

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Dr. Craig Hargrove Leads Mission to Moon

A CubeSat mission led by Dr. Craig Hardgrove was recently selected by NASA as part of its ongoing program of lunar exploration. About the size of a shoebox, the LunaH-Map mission is being developed by a team at Arizona State University with a goal of producing a detailed map of water ice deposits across the moon. CubeSat missions provide low-cost opportunities for investigators to develop their own space-based experiments, and the selection of LunaH-Map represents a big step forward for Dr. Hardgrove, his team at ASU, and the future of lunar exploration. We wish the LunaH-Map team the best of luck as they begin development and testing.

[read the press release at Arizona State University]


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My favorite dark chocolate: Lindt 90% cocoa

lindtIn earlier posts, I've mentioned that I don't like airplane food. When I fly I either fast or pack along macadamia nuts, applewood smoked bacon jerky, and dark chocolate. My favorite chocolate is Lindt's Excellence Supreme Dark Chocolate 90% Cocoa ($(removed) for ten 3.5-ounce bars on Amazon).

It's surprisingly smooth for a high-cocoa chocolate, and a 40g serving has just 3g of sugar (by comparison, a 40g serving of a Special Dark Hershey bar has 20g of sugar).

My wife and kids prefer Lindt's 70% cocoa bar, and I'm glad because that means they don't nibble on my stash of 90s unless they are desperate for chocolate.

I've yet to try Lindt's 99% Cocoa Excellence Bar (1g of sugar per 40g serving!), mainly because gram-for-gram, it costs four times as much as the 90% bars.


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The General History of the Christian Church: From Her Birth to Her Final Triumphant State in Heaven; Chiefly Deduced from the Apocalypse of St. John, the Apostle and Evangelist

Front Cover
D. & J. Sadlier, 1851 - Bible - 396 pages

What people are saying - Write a review

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I have been re-reading a lot of my favorite business books lately and decided to share my thoughts from what I have learned from these books over the years as well as what I have currently learned from bootstrapping (growing business without investors and focusing on customers) BoomCloud. Passive income is one of the most important revenue components to business and wealth-building. As a practice owner, you should be looking for these opportunities within your practice and opportunities to invest outside of your practice.

7 books you need to read:

  • Rich Dad, Poor Dad
  • The Automatic Customer
  • The Membership Economy
  • Tax-Free Wealth
  • Cash Flow Quadrant
  • The Personal MBA
  • Profit First

What is passive income?

According to Wikipedia:

Passive income is income that requires little to no effort to earn and maintain. It is called progressive passive income when the earner expends little effort to grow the income. Examples of passive income include rental income and any business activities in which the earner does not materially participate.

Buy or Create Assets, Avoid liabilities

Assets put cash flow into your pocket, Liabilities take cash flow away from you. Robert Kiyosaki, the author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad created this quick video on assets and liabilities.

Recession-Proofing with Passive Income

I managed a dental lab during the great recession and realized that passive income is a tool to recession-proof and build wealth during good or bad times. A true business has multiple streams of revenue and passive income/recurring revenue is part of the revenue mix. Here is a quote from John Warrillow the author of The Automatic Customer:

“One of the best parts about creating Automatic Customers through subscriptions is that you insulate yourself from the worst of a potential recession.”

When you have recurring revenue coming in each month from hundreds or thousands of membership patients you will create a solid cash flow foundation for your practice and can withstand economic downturns, shutdowns and recessions.

Passive Income from Membership Plans

A membership program is an example of a passive income stream you can create within your office. it is passive because it generates predictable recurring revenue, you also generate revenue that is automatically collected whether you do dentistry or not.

See the example below:

Passive Income Metrics

When you implement passive income from your own dental membership program you install a new business model into your practice that requires a new set of metrics to keep track of.

MRR & ARR – Monthly recurring revenue & Annual recurring revenue are two metrics that measure passive income. Most practices that manually run a membership program have no clue how much MRR is being generated from their plan. What you measure you grow and your time as a practice owner should be focused on income generation and passive income,

Automated Collections – You also need to keep track of the actual revenue collected each month/year.

Active Members – More members = more passive income. Track it every day, week and month

Expansion Revenue – Revenue generated from members/subscribers in addition to membership fees.

Churn – Cancellations each month, quarter, or year. Churn is critical, make sure you are not losing more subscribers than new sign-ups.

*Don’t be the kind of office that doesn’t track these key metrics to help you grow your passive income.

Benefits of Passive Income

Since the COVID-19 shut down passive income has become even more important to implement in your practice. The key is to create multiple streams of passive income. Here are just a few benefits of creating passive income for yourself.

  • Passive income gives you the freedom of time
  • It reduces your stress, anxiety, and fear of the future
  • It allows you to pursue doing the things you love rather than what pays the bills
  • It gives you the ability to live and work from anywhere
  • It provides a platform for financial stability and growth

Systems & Processes Help You Scale

Business systems should be the heart of growing passive income for your membership program and for your practice. Here is a list of systems to help you scale and earn more passive income from your practice:

  1. Hiring System
  2. Numbers/data System
  3. Planning & Goal Systems
  4. Employee Management/Review systems
  5. Financial Systems
  6. New Patient Onboarding Systems
  7. Marketing/sales Systems

BoomCloud helps you scale passive income & Financial Sytems. I recommend you schedule a demo today and start building your own passive income streams. Also, Check out this webinar I did with Dr. Brady Frank about recession-proofing strategies and passive income:


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With reference to the ongoing war of words between Nigel Farage/UKIP on the one hand, and Hope Not Hate/Brendan Cox on the other, we would like to draw everybody's attention to the following background material of great relevance.  All is produced by Notes From the Borderland (NFB) magazine, the undoubted (and critical) experts on the Hope Not Hate (HNH) gravy train..

As for the dispute itself, we strongly object to the term 'extremist' being used about anybody, though find it amusing HNH have been called extremist when they throw the label around with monotonous regularity.  Their attempts to 'crowd-fund' supposed legal action against UKIP/Farage are in our view vexatious, and merely another in a long line of attempts to scam money from those naïve enough to support them.  As the articles referenced below prove, they get extensive funding from a variety of organisations already.

We hear sources close to UKIP want to fund 'research' into HNH: well, we've already done it, without funding from anybody.  Though we wouldn't bet against our research again appearing as if somebody else's.  Watch this space!

In the end though, this legal dispute is merely surface froth: for the substance of what HNH stand for and where they came from check out the items below, also other material in the Searchlight/Hope Not Hate section of our web-site.

Rather than waste words trying to repeat the information below, I outline below what the following will tell you:

1) Before the dispute arose, this on-line article by editor Dr Larry O'Hara critiqued Hope Not Hate's partisan intervention in the EU Referendum, including an examination of Brendan Cox's views:

2) NFB magazine issue 10 provided the definitive account of Hope Not Hate's origins, and nature: an extract from the article in issue 10 can be found below.  Searchlight have grudgingly acknowledged we are factually correct: while Hope Not Hate have never dared refer to this article, never mind refute it (or even threaten us with legal action!).  Read the full thing to find out why they fear it.

3) While we philosophically believe in a hard copy magazine (visit the shop), we also sell PDFs: see below the link to issue 10 containing the landmark 47 page article detailing who HNH key personnel are, why they split from Searchlight, and their funding: this article was the (unacknowledged) original source for Nigel Farage's claim HNH were/are government-funded. First is the contents outline (and filmed interview with the editor regarding contents), next is the PDF link in the NFB shop.

4) More recent developments in Hope Not Hate, including their new funding sources & personnel changes, are covered in the just-published Notes From the Borderland 11: PDF shop link below

Finally, should you want informed commentary regarding this dispute, our editor Dr Larry O'Hara can be contacted on 0777 5964367 or through me, courtesy of the email: nfbmagazine at yahoo dot co dot uk.

Heidi Svenson (for & on behalf of the NFB Collective)

Contact Address

BM Box 4769
United Kingdom

Phone: +44 7775 964367

Email: nfbmagazine@yahoo.co.uk

About NFB Magazine

Welcome to Britain's premier parapolitical investigative magazine Notes from the Borderland (NFB). We have been producing the magazine since 1997 but some published material before then.

Our political perspective is Left/Green, but we welcome truth-tellers, whatever their affiliation. Research interests include the secret state (MI5/MI6/Special Branch, now SO15) & their assets, including those in the media. We are resolutely anti-fascist, and to that end investigate the far right and state infiltration of various milieus. In a shallow age where many TV programmes and print/internet stories are spoon-fed to servile journalists/bloggers by shadowy interests, NFB stands out as genuine investigative research.

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To republish anything on this site contact us first  for permission - we will usually grant it for non-profit organisations, other requests will be looked at on a case by case basis.   "Quotation is fine, plagiarism isn't" (Agent Q RIP).


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BTR Return to Full Training

It is with great relief that BTR welcomed back to training our members on Tuesday night (30/06/20). Meeting in the unfamiliar surroundings of the Brandon Car Park as the Aqua Dome remains closed (and we wish our friends there a speedy and successful return to business) the crew assembled for a brief run out the St Pat’s GAA club and back to ease us back into activity after the months of lock down. It was a happy and chatty reunion as people caught up with each-other’s news from the intervening months. It was a reunion tinged with sadness though as it was our first evening’s training following the death of club stalwart Conor Cusack and an impeccably observed minutes silence was lead by club chairperson JJ O’Connell.

The couch to 5k group, whose programme was so cruelly cut short at the very last moment, also returned to training and it was a delight to see so many turned out to get their fitness goals back on track.

Social distancing, hand hygiene and good cough and sneezing etiquette continue to be essential and we ask everyone to be vigilante in their adherence to this. Also pleas be extra cognizant of other road and foot-path users giving people plenty of space when passing them. Everyone should have received their return to training questionnaires by now and if you haven’t done so already, please get it back to club secretary Rose Brosnan ASAP at

It’s fantastic to have the club back in action after this very difficult time and hopefully we can look forward to a long period of uninterrupted running with our wonderful friends and club-mates.


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Tag Archives: 12 years old

Don’t place your child in the middle.

Children CAN testify, even if they shouldn’t. Children DO GET a SAY in their custody if they are 12 or older and choose to.

However, the child does not get to “pick” where he or she will live.  They get a vote that is to be considered, but does not have to be absolutely followed by the Court. Additionally, as a parent, you should avoid putting the child in that situation when/if possible.

In fact, you should avoid placing your child in the middle of any disputes between you and the other parent. It is not good for the child and not good for your relationship with them.

Matthew Thompson is a Mississippi Child Custody lawyer and reminds you to be a parent first.

Jr. is 12+, he picks where he lives, right?… Child Preferences and the Law

If I had a nickel for every time a parent has said,

“Well, Jr. is (insert age) so I reckon he picks where he lives, right?”…

I’d have a wheel barrow full of nickels.

It’s true that a child may express a custodial preference if they are 12 years old or older, however that preference alone will not carry the custody issue.  It is but one factor that the Court must consider when performing an Albright Analysis.  Albright is the case that lists the factors the judge must consider when determining custody.

Said another way a 12-year-old does not get to pick and that be the end of the story.  There are a myriad of cases where a child has stated a preference for one parent and the Court determined that the best interests of the child favored the other parent.  One famous case involved a 14-year-old that wanted to live with Dad.  Dad purchased him a 4-wheeler, let him have a TV in his bedroom and kept his  “Adult” magazines around, easily accessible.  Mom, on the other hand, made him eat his vegetables, do his homework, no TV in his room and forbade inappropriate materials.  If you’re a 14-year-old male teen, who would you pick?  The Court determined, after a factual analysis, that mom was better suited for the teen, despite his stated preference.  This case was upheld by the appellate court as well.

So, a child 12 or older can state a preference, but it may not carry the day.  The better course would be for mom and dad to resolve the custody visitation issues and prevent the child from being in that position.  However, that advice is easy to say and very difficult to follow in certain circumstances.

Matthew Thompson is a Child Custody Attorney in Mississippi.  While child preferences in a custody case matter, that alone will not support an initial custody decision, nor is the sole basis for a modification.

Follow the blog: BowTieLawyer Visit the websiteThompson Law Firm  You may also contact Matthew with your family law case, question or concern at (601) 850-8000 or Matthew@bowtielawyer.ms


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The ROAD program closes on October 1, 2020

The ROAD program closes on October 1, 2020
The ROAD logo

It is with great sadness that we inform you that Jefferson Center has made the difficult decision to close The ROAD, a program for transition aged youth and young adults as of October 1, 2020.  For more than 13 years, The ROAD at Jefferson Center has supported thousands of youth and young adults during their transition to independence with GED preparation, life skills classes, mental health care, and sometimes just a safe place to connect with others.  The ROAD is an in-person drop-in and resource center, and despite our best efforts, has not been able to replicate these important services in a virtual format.  Jefferson Center is currently working to connect existing clients with Navigation Services team and other community resources for ongoing support and resources.

Jefferson Center is thankful for our community partners and our funders, their support has been instrumental in allowing them to impact the lives of thousands of youth.  Jefferson Center is so thankful for each and every young person who bravely walked through the doors.

Website by SchoolMessenger Presence. © 2020 Intrado Corporation. All rights reserved.


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Moms With Iodine Deficiency Have Babies With Lower IQs

Doug Dupont

Contributor - Health and Fitness News, Reviews

Strength and Conditioning

Proper nutrition is important for expecting mothers. Chief amongst important nutrients is iodine. Iodine is critical for metabolism, and specifically in neurological development. Because of its neurological role, iodine is essential for the development of the fetal brain.

iodine, iodine deficiency, iodine research, iodine pregnancy, iodine womenIn a recent study in The Lancet, researchers wanted to find two primary pieces of information regarding iodine. First, they wanted to find the extent to which iodine deficiency during pregnancy affects the IQs of the children after birth. Second, it is known that iodine deficiency is a risk in developing countries, but researchers wanted to know if it was also a threat to already developed countries.

The researchers used stored urine samples from 1,040 pregnant women to determine their iodine levels. They then examined IQ tests done on the children at eight years of age and reading ability tests done at the age of nine. Once they had the data in hand all they had to do was compare the iodine status of a pregnant mother with the testing done on the children.

There was a very clear link. Women with only a mild-to-moderate iodine deficiency were more like to have children in the lowest 25% of IQ and reading ability. Sure enough iodine status affected their children for many years to come. The researchers were also sensitive to confounding factors, such as economic level and so forth, which they statistically factored out.

While iodine deficiency in developing countries is a serious nutritional problem, it was thought that this was not an issue for the rest of the world. Think again. This study was performed in the United Kingdom, which was thought to be a country with no iodine issues at all. However, the average iodine status of over one thousand women studied was considered mild-to-moderate deficiency. And no, they didn’t choose these women in any special way. They merely had the funding to analyze that many women out of about 14,000 total in the larger study. This means that expecting mothers everywhere need to pay attention to this important facet of prenatal nutrition.

Getting iodine is easy enough if you focus on healthy eating. Because iodine isn’t stored in the body, it is important you get enough of it every day. Many seafoods are rich in iodine, especially sea vegetables like kelp, as are dairy foods, eggs, turkey, and potatoes. Also many table salts are fortified with iodine as a means of curbing iodine deficiency. They are plainly stated on the label as “iodized salt.”

Iodine is important for everyone, including athletes, to maintain adequate metabolism and nerve health, but for expecting mothers this study shows that it might be of utmost importance. The good news is it’s not hard to get what you need by getting your nutrition dialed in. While iodine is a nutrient you need to have a part of your daily nutritional focus, it’s easy to find.

1. Sarah C Bath, et. al., “Effect of inadequate iodine status in UK pregnant women on cognitive outcomes in their children: results from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC),” The Lancet, 2013

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

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• Hello!  Welcome to third grade!  This is my 22nd year teaching at Brimley Elementary School, and it is 20th year teaching third grade. Third grade is a year of a lot of growth as students transition to becoming more independent with their learning.
    Ms. Peller
    BS in Education, LSSU
    MA in Learning Disabilities, NMU


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Hi there, in this video we're going to look at Symbols in XD. Why are they good? It's because when I've got a symbol, you can see here, I've got the Navigation used on more than one page, and when I update it, they both update and change, which is super helpful for things that are reused across lots of documents, like Footers and Headers. Let's go and look at how to create those now.

To create a symbol, we're going to reuse both this Header and the Footer. So I'm going to create a new page. There's lots of ways, I keep showing you different ways. I'm going to go back to the Page tool and click on this, which is my default that I used at the beginning. I'll drag it by dragging the name underneath. And I'll give it a name, I'll call this one 'Instructor Dashboard'. And I want to extend it out just a little bit. So, remember, the benefit for using a symbol is I can connect them all together and whenever it updates to the navigation, say on this Home Page here, it will update for all instances of it. I'm going to zoom in here.

What I want is, I want all of this. So I'm starting up here in the gray area with my Black arrow, I'm just clicking, holding, and dragging just a little across, like this top little wee bit. And what I want to do is, you can see, I've selected lots, but I've also selected this blue thing that I'm using to kind of give me my width. So I'm going to hold 'Shift', and just click on him to get rid of him. So I've got everything along the top here. How do I know? I kind of drag it off to check. They all came along for the ride.

So what I'm going to do is you might be on your Layers panel, you want to go to this top one here, the Assets panel. Within here, it's something called Symbols, click '+', and that's it. That is now a symbol that I get to reuse. So let me click, hold, and drag it. And that's useful, I guess, I got a nice little thing that I get to reuse. But I could have copied and pasted, I guess. And what's really useful is, now if client comes back and says, "Actually you've spelt login like-- some people use login as one word, it should be two words, it's up to you. Let's say we've been convinced, and it should be log 'space' in. So we've done that but by default it actually becomes a unique symbol. So this one here, has not changed yet. So what we need to do is right click this fellow, and say 'Update all Symbols'. It updates symbol of the library. I'm going to have to zoom out.

This one here, 'Command 3' to zoom in on it, maybe a little bit more. And you can see, it's 'Log In'. So that is the perk of symbols. You get to link them to this thing, so they easily drag out, and reusable. But what's really super useful is, you'd update one, and it updates them all. So obviously good for navigation. Anything up here is on all the pages, so I'm going to do the same down here. I'm going to grab you, my friend. I'm going to 'Shift' click this guy, so I've only got this selected. I'll just check that I've got it all. And I'm going to go to 'Symbol', I can't name them yet. Our icons are a little bit small for this one, that's okay. Is this the right page? It is. Drag him on, in here, and there you go. So if I update one now, they'll both update.

Couple of things I want to do to finish this off. I want to put that big blue stripe in the background so I know where the edges are. So you, copy, and over here, paste. Wrong one. So I want you, and go to unlock it. Copy it, lock it again. Then come over here, click on this dashboard, and if you hit 'Paste' the cool thing about it is it goes perfectly where it should. The only trouble is, it's probably on top of everything else. So I'm just going to right click it, and say 'Send to Back', and then, I can either use 'Command L' or 'Control L', I can right click, and go 'Lock'. So this gives me my boundaries, what I need now is a left hand menu. So I'm looking at my hand drawn Wireframe here. So I want that Left Nav, and I'm going to jump out to this thing here, and I'm going to find a left hand there. Where can I see one? There's a Navigation over here that looks good. It's going to be my starting anyway. So I'm going to grab you. Awesome. Copy it, drag it across, paste it. That will be my starting for this one. I'm going to ungroup it all, because of a few things I need to do.

For you at the bottom, I'll have to tighten it up a little bit. And I don't need the word 'XD' there. I do want the word 'Dashboard'. So I am going to probably delete you, you… Moving at the top, I'm going to make this with dashboard but I'm going to use my 14. That's 75%, bad habit, you got to be at 100, so you could do font sizes. This one's going to be 'Dashboard'. And I will make this bold. Cool. Underneath here-- actually I'll make this '16'. Using 12 and 16, they kind of differentiate heights. Now what I'll do also is grab my Type tool. Click in here, I've got some text for-- this is the text we're going to use with my guy there. I'm mumbling now, because I'm just filling in forms. To be honest, if there's going to be any more genius in this class that you might want to hang around for I think I'm out of genius. So I'm just putting these in. What I might do is put the little dots in the front to make it look like something new. Remember, there I am putting in-- it's holding 'Alt', and hitting '8' or 'Option 8' on a PC. This doesn't have bullet points to start with. So Dashboard, you, for the different things we can choose. Awesome!

One last thing that's on my little hand drawn Wireframe here is I've got that little ad from the Home Page. Now there's not a really easy way to jump between pages. You can use the Layers panel, go back to here, and go back to Home Page. It's not that great, I don't think. Hopefully, one of the upgrades will give us a feature like that. So here-- I'm not sure why I've come back for this bit of text, but I did. So we're going to use it. It's going here, just a little bit more. Paste. And this is going to go in this little area here. Now I think this needs to be bigger because I'm going to have longer names in there definitely. Download the app thing, maybe even smaller. Here is actually, zero genius coming.

The last thing we're going to do is, because we're going to use this across all of the Instructor pages we're going to turn it into a symbol itself. So we're going to drag a box around all of this. Deselect the lighter blue color, and set as symbol. All right, that's going to be it for this video. If you've waited till the end, you are awesome. That got a bit painful there at the end, I know. But the next video is going to be awesome. We start doing Repeated Grids. Oh my goodness, it's awesome! Let's go and do that now in the next video.


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Policy Press

Publishing with Purpose

Celia Roberts

Celia Roberts is a Professor of Gender and Science Studies in the Department of Sociology at Lancaster University.
Showing 1-1 of 1 item.

Living Data

Making Sense of Health Biosensing

This book critiques the popular claim that ‘more information’ equates to ‘better health’ and explores the potential challenges related to people’s changing relationships with traditional health systems as access to, and control over data shifts.

Bristol Uni Press


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Policy Press

Publishing with Purpose

Keith Pringle

Showing 1-1 of 1 item.

Tackling men's violence in families

Nordic issues and dilemmas

Nordic countries are generally regarded as global welfare role models. Consequently, the influence of Nordic welfare systems in academic and policy debates has been immense. By focusing on the vital issue of violence by men to female partners and/or their children, this book seeks to reconsider this over-simplistic image.

Policy Press


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Always On the Move
December 13, 2019
Under the Sea
December 16, 2019

BTSALP in the News

Student-made art installation on Utah ecosystems unveiled at James Madison Elementary

By MEGAN OLSEN Standard-Examiner Dec 12, 2019

(Click here above to see more pictures)

OGDEN — A long-term hanging art installation was unveiled Wednesday evening at James Madison Elementary.

The installation is composed of hanging faux stained glass pieces created by fourth graders at James Madison Elementary and students in an honors course at Weber State University. The installation hangs in the school’s atrium.

Every student in James Madison’s fourth grade — about 60 — participated in the project, said Tamara Goldbogen, the director of the Arts Learning Collaborative and the Beverley Taylor Sorenson Endowed Chair for Arts Learning at Weber State. In cooperation with Erinne Roundy, Goldbogen teaches the honors course at Weber State that participated in the project.

“They’ve been very proud of their creation, and they love that it’s hanging in the elementary school … in the central area,” Goldbogen said about the fourth graders. “… It’s actually really beautiful. They have this lovely … big area (which) has a sunken pit, and there’s a grid 20 feet in the air above it, and there’s … skylights, so there’s sun that comes in, and it’ll illuminate … this faux stained glass piece … that we created together.”

The faux stained glass is made with plexiglass and a black material called liquid leading.

The art installation focuses on Utah birds and ecosystems, part of the fourth grade science curriculum, Goldbogen said. Before undertaking the project, the elementary and college groups visited the Ogden Nature Center to learn about birds and ecosystems.

Fourth graders worked in pairs to design and create faux stained glass pieces depicting individual birds on 15-inch circles, with more than 30 birds species, all native to Utah, represented, Goldbogen said.

“We didn’t know if they were going to be able to … jump in and create something that would be recognizable and … work with the materials, but they did. They all did,” Goldbogden said. “And when you look at the pieces, they’re just beautiful, and each one is so different.”

College students in Weber State’s honors course, called Artsbridge, created large rectangular panels of faux stained glass depicting the birds’ major ecosystems — the forest, wetlands and desert.

“They designed the content and the layout,” Goldbogen said, about both the fourth graders and college students. “It wasn’t like a color by numbers situation. They really did have artistic license to create either the bird they envisioned or the ecosystem.”

Students in the honors course represent majors across campus, Goldbogen said. There was only one art major in the course. The group’s project with James Madison is the culmination of a semester spent learning about community art, including murals throughout the Ogden area.

Though the college students and elementary students worked together on the project, they never actually met because the Weber State honors course was held in the evenings.

To solve that problem, college students became pen pals with the students, writing them letters that became part of the students’ reading comprehension learning as they created art based on what their college pen pals wrote about.

The elementary and college-age pen pals got a chance to finally meet each other at the unveiling Wednesday.

Goldbogen and Roundy worked on the project with Brent Rhodes, the visual arts specialist at James Madison Elementary, a position made possible by the Beverly Taylor Sorenson Arts Learning Program. Rhodes delivers art instruction at the school throughout the school year, Goldbogen said. (The program has specialists at certain elementary schools across Utah. Four specialists are located in Ogden School District, with each visiting more than one school.)

Financial and in-kind support for the project was provided by the Hall Endowment for Community Outreach, Utah Division of Arts and Museums, Beverley Taylor Sorenson Arts Learning Program and Ogden Nature Center as well as Weber State’s Honors Program, Arts Learning Collaborative and Lindquist College of Arts and Humanities.

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