text:
Stuart Hamblen

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Stuart Hamblen
Stuart Hamblen.jpg
Background information
Birth nameCarl Stuart Hamblen
BornOctober 20, 1908
Kellyville, Texas, United States
DiedMarch 8, 1989(1989-03-08) (aged 80)
Santa Monica, California
GenresCountry music
Cowboy music
Gospel music
Years active1926–1989
LabelsDecca Records
RCA Records
Four Star Records

Stuart Hamblen (born Carl Stuart Hamblen; October 20, 1908 – March 8, 1989) was an American entertainer who became one of radio's first singing cowboys in 1926, going on to become a singer, actor, radio show host, and songwriter, later undergoing a Christian conversion and becoming a Temperance movement supporter and recurring candidate for political office. He is best known as the composer of the song This Ole House (1954), most notably recorded by Rosemary Clooney.

Early life[edit]

Hamblen was born to the family of an itinerant Methodist preacher on October 20, 1908, in Kellyville, Texas. He married Suzy Daniels and fathered two children with her. Hamblen's father was Dr. J. H. Hamblen, a minister in the Methodist Church in Texas, who in 1946 founded the Evangelical Methodist Church denomination in Abilene, Texas.

From 1931 Hamblen began hosting the popular radio program Family Album in California, composing music and acting in motion pictures with cowboy stars including Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, and John Wayne. In 1934 he became the first artist signed by the American subsidiary of Decca Records.[1]

Hamblen didn't cope well with the pressures of his high-profile career and sought relief in alcohol. Many times his drinking landed him in jail for public brawling and other destructive behavior. The Texas State Historical Association reports that Hamblen identified himself as the "original juvenile delinquent."[2] Because Hamblen was hugely popular, his radio sponsors regularly bailed him out of jail and smoothed things over. For a while, he ventured into horse-racing as an owner.[3] Inevitably, Hamblen's drinking and gambling problems severely affected his life and career. In 1949 after years of struggle with alcohol, Hamblen underwent a religious conversion at a Billy Graham crusade in Los Angeles, and was soon fired from his radio program after refusing to do beer commercials. He subsequently gave up gambling and horse racing, and entered Christian broadcasting with his radio show The Cowboy Church of the Air, which ran until 1952.[4]

Personal life[edit]

During a 1963 crusade in Los Angeles, Graham called Hamblen's conversion "the turning point" in the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association's ministry, where before Hamblen accepted Christ the crowds were rather small. Graham said Hamblen was the No. 1 radio personality in Los Angeles, which drew in crowds. That evening, also Graham's first coast-to-coast television broadcast, Hamblen shared about his faith and sang/spoke his signature hymn "It Is No Secret (What God Can Do)" . Graham attributed Hamblen's hunting skills as instrumental in capturing a wild panther in the Los Angeles area prior to the crusade.[5][6]

Hamblen carried a picture of a mountain lion – might have been the wild panther – in his wallet. The cat was in his refrigerator in the garage.

Stuart Hamblen died March 8, 1989, in Santa Monica, California of brain cancer.[1]

In his early career as a singing cowboy he composed his song Texas Plains. It was this song that Patsy Montana reworked into her million seller hit I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart (1935). Hamblen wrote the popular songs "This Ole House" (1954) (popularized by Rosemary Clooney, among others) and "Open Up Your Heart (And Let the Sunshine In)" (not to be confused with the song from the Broadway musical Hair). Other songs include "Hell Train", "It Is No Secret (What God Can Do)" (not the contemporary Christian song of a similar name in the 1980s) and "Blood on Your Hands". Some of his post-conversion songs depict a rather wrathful version of the Gospel, sung with such good-natured high spirits that they have an ironic appeal to the non-religious.

"It Is No Secret" was written following his acceptance of Christ and a spiritual conversation with John Wayne. After accepting the Lord, Hamblen was fired from his position as disc jockey because he refused to do alcohol commercials. John Wayne offered him a drink shortly thereafter, Hamblen refused saying "It is no secret what the Lord can do." John Wayne said, "You should write a song by that title." The song would go on to be sung by popular singers Rosemary Clooney, Kate Smith, Jim Reeves, Wayne Newton, Leslie Uggams, Jo Stafford & Gordon MacRae (duet), Anne Murray, Tom Netherton, Eddy Arnold, Pat Boone, Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Hank Snow and Ernest Tubb.[7]

"This Ole House" was inspired while on a hunting trip in the High Sierras with a friend. The two men came upon what looked like an abandoned shack, wherein they found the body of an elderly man, apparently dead of natural causes. Hamblen came up with the lyrics to the song while riding horseback down the mountain, and composed the melody within a week.[1] In addition to being a number one hit for Clooney, it was later recorded by Roberta Sherwood, The Statler Brothers. In 1981, a version performed by Welsh rock'n'roll singer Shakin' Stevens topped the British charts.

In 1955, Hamblen had a hit single with "Open Up Your Heart (And Let the Sunshine In)," along with his family under the name "Cowboy Church Sunday School." Hamblen was accompanied by wife Suzy, daughters Veeva Suzanne and Obee Jane (Lisa), and two of the girls' friends. The song was recorded at the 33 RPM speed so that it sounds like children singing at the normal 7-inch single phonograph speed of 45 RPM. The tune hit No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop charts in 1955.[8] "Open Up Your Heart (And Let the Sunshine In)" was sung on an episode of the television cartoon series The Flintstones in the mid-1960s by characters Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm.

Hamblen wrote the lyrics to the Christmas cult favorite, "Hardrock, Coco and Joe". An animated Christmas cartoon based on the song was created in the mid-1950s. Its running time is about 2 minutes and 45 seconds. The full title is Hardrock, Coco and Joe - The Three Little Dwarfs, but is commonly called Hardrock, Coco and Joe, after the song title.

One of Hamblen's few secular songs to become popular was "(Remember Me) I'm the One Who Loves You," recorded by Ernest Tubb, Jimmy Dean, Red Foley, and others, and made into a gold record by Dean Martin in a 1965 Reprise recording.

The Hamblen family participated in the Pasadena Rose Parade for many years riding Peruvian Paso horses.

At Mr. Hamblen's well-attended funeral in Los Angeles, a recording of Mr. Hamblen's was played; Billy Graham gave the eulogy. He is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park.[9]

The Stuart Hamblen Collection, which includes Hamblen's original sound recordings, resides at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill within the Southern Folklife Collection.[10]

Hit Singles[edit]

Year Single Chart Positions
US Country US
1950 "(Remember Me) I'm the One Who Loves You" 2
"I Won't Go Huntin' Jake (But I'll Go Chasin' Women)" 3
1951 "It Is No Secret" 8
1954 "This Ole House" 2
1955 "Open Up Your Heart (And Let the Sunshine In)" 8

Hamblen was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970, was presented the ACM Pioneer Award 1972, received the Gene Autry Golden Boot Award 1988, and was inducted into Texas Country Music Hall of Fame 2001.[1] He later received a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame. He was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 1994 and the Western Music Hall of Fame in 1999.

Jefferson, Texas (near Hamblen's birth home of Kelleyville, Texas) celebrates "Stuart Hamblen Days" each year, with a bronze plaque dedication taking place in the city park in 1998, sponsored by a local opera house.[1]

Hamblen Presidential campaign button, 1952

Hamblen supported the American temperance movement and ran as the Prohibition Party's candidate for U.S. president in the 1952 presidential election. Hamblen garnered 72,949 recorded popular votes and no electoral votes in an election in which Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected President for the first of two terms, defeating Democrat Adlai Stevenson.[11]

Previously, Hamblen ran for California's 20th congressional district seat as a Democrat, losing to Carl Hinshaw in the 1938 election cycle. The race ended with Hinshaw at 47 percent and Hamblen with 41 percent of the vote.

See also[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e Internet Movie Database entry for Stuart Hamblen
  2. ^ Handbook of Texas Online: "Carl Stuart Hamblen
  3. ^ Time, Sept. 1, 1952
  4. ^ Hamblen, J.H.: "A Look Into Life," an Evangelical Methodist Church publication (c. 1970)
  5. ^ Personal recording, Billy Graham Crusade, Los Angeles: 1963 (exact date unknown)
  6. ^ "a visit with Stuart Hamblen Part 1 -10/10/1963-Jimmy Dean". YouTube. 2008-09-10. Retrieved 2013-07-02.
  7. ^ Creating a gospel classic, Songwriter Stuart Hamblem Archived 2009-05-08 at the Wayback Machine.
  8. ^ Joel Whitburn, The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits. 7th edn, 2000
  9. ^ Stuart Hamblen (1908-1989)
  10. ^ "Stuart Hamblen Collection, 1951-1984". Retrieved 2017-11-06.
  11. ^ Prohibitionist Party biography of Stuart Hamblen

External links[edit]


Content-Type: application/http; msgtype=response

WARC-Identified-Payload-Type: text/html

WARC-Type: response

text:
Author:Emanuel Swedenborg

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Emanuel Swedenborg
Swedish scientist and theologian.
Emanuel Swedenborg

Scientific and philosophic works[edit]

Theological works[edit]

Works about this author[edit]

Encyclopedia entries[edit]

Works by this author published before January 1, 1923 are in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago. Translations or editions published later may be copyrighted. Posthumous works may be copyrighted based on how long they have been published in certain countries and areas.

warcinfo:
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2018-47
publisher: Common Crawl
description: Wide crawl of the web for November 2018
operator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)
hostname: ip-10-232-159-122.ec2.internal
software: Apache Nutch 1.15 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)
robots: checked via crawler-commons 0.11-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)
format: WARC File Format 1.1
conformsTo: http://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/


text:
Press enter to see results or esc to cancel.

handwritten calculations- roi in mobile application development

Return on investment in mobile application development

There are many advantages to be found in developing a mobile application for our business: from brand positioning to boosting sales, issues that we have already been discussing on our Yeeply blog. However, investing in creating an app is not cheap. The cost of app development is high.

Therefore, we must work right away from the project’s beginning on the kind of return on investment (ROI) we want to obtain. In this sense, ROI in mobile application development is not always the same and may not even be proportional to the investment made. This is the reason why we must analyse how it will turn out for our mobile application.

We discussed how to monetise a mobile app some time ago. Monetisation techniques and strategies for apps are diverse and can be adapted to each particular app. However, we’ll now go further and define how to determine ROI in app development projects and specifically in the one concerning our app.

The most important thing is to have the goals we want to achieve with our app project defined from the very outset. Is it an application for your company? Or is it rather a game to make money? It’s not the same to develop mobile games to make money than to create a corporate app to enhance your brand and be able to connect more directly with your customers.

increasing graphic- roi of a mobile app
Image by Rawpixel via Unsplash

ROI for your brand’s application

Branding and services mobile applications are apps that can be downloaded and used for free. They are not intended to yield any kind of ROI out of their mobile application development process. If we want to bet on developing apps that aim at promoting our brand and giving it a higher reputation, we must realise that the return on investment will not come as direct revenue.

ROI when developing branding applications can generally only be measured on the medium and long term. The advantages brought to us by an app of this kind will be reflected as a clear improvement of our brand’s perception and a rise in customers’ purchase intent.

A greater customer loyalty will also be achieved at the same time that our company is taking the leap into the current era of modernity and innovation. It’s also a good technique to differentiate ourselves from our rivals in the industry. And we’ll also accomplish a wider promotion of both our brand and our company and perhaps even make them go viral. All this will be easier to achieve if we focus on developing apps for Android and iOS devices.

ROI in the development of hybrid and paid apps

If we’re after an immediate return on investment for our app’s development, the fastest way to obtain it is by applying the pay-per-download model. However, this method is not one the users’ favourites, as having to pay an initial amount for an app without having been able to try it creates very high expectations that are often not met. There are other ways to monetise the apps we develop rather than making customers pay per download.

There are many different business models for applications, but the following two are the most widely used among paid-for apps. One option is to set low prices for downloading our app. WhatsApp is a good example of this. In cases like this, the prices for downloading the apps don’t exceed one euro, so the cost for the customer is not very high. Nevertheless, your ROI regarding application development will be obtained on the long run.

The other possible strategy is to go for higher prices. Needless to say, we must be sure that our product will get sold. This is the case of some relatively well-known video games that get adapted to mobile devices and whose return on investment is guaranteed.

notebook- roi in mobile application development
Image from Rawpixel via Unsplash

ROI in hybrid app development

The markets are teeming with hybrid apps: they are the most abundant kind of app and also those offering more monetisation possibilities. The business models of such apps focus on obtaining benefits after they are downloaded. ROI when developing such applications will be faster. It may be obtained through advertising, in-app mobile payments, subscription payments or the business model followed by the so-called freemium apps. These latter were a success story in 2013 and are still booming.

Other kinds of ROI in mobile application development

It’s also possible to achieve other kinds of ROI in mobile application development. Some companies sell user information to third parties. There are also many others who seek to analyse user behaviour or patterns within a given industry.
If our case is that of an SME, we must focus on having an app that’s useful. We’ll always obtain a decent ROI − regardless of whether it’s of direct economic nature or not − in app development, as long as our app provides a service and is useful to our users and potential customers.

How can I measure the return on investment?

Measuring the return on investment (ROI) of an application development process concerns our app directly and depends on which operating system it has been developed for. In this sense, we must bear in mind that Apple Store and Google Play are the most famous markets. They offer tools for keeping a record of the times our app gets downloaded, as well as from which countries it was downloaded from and user performance data. We can also check the comments and opinions left by those who have tried our app and the error reports it may have generated to act accordingly and get these problems solved in future updates.


text:
Peterloo massacre

Also found in: Dictionary, Wikipedia.

Peterloo massacre,

public disturbance in St. Peter's Field, Manchester, England, Aug. 16, 1819, also called the Manchester massacre. A crowd of some 60,000 men, women, and children were peaceably gathered under the leadership of Henry HuntHunt, Henry,
1773–1835, English radical politician. A powerful orator, popular with the laboring classes, Hunt was quarrelsome and stubborn but a sincere proponent of electoral and other reforms.
..... Click the link for more information.
 to petition Parliament for the repeal of the corn laws and for parliamentary reform. The magistrates ordered the meeting to disband. A cavalry charge to aid the untrained Manchester yeomanry resulted in 11 deaths and injuries estimated at over 400. The government's endorsement of the magistrates' action created widespread indignation, which added moral force to the reform movement. The name Peterloo, later given the incident, was suggested by the name Waterloo.

See F. A. Bruton, Three Accounts of Peterloo (1921); studies by G. R. Kestevan (1967) and J. Marlow (1969).

References in periodicals archive ?
Eleven died in what became known as the Peterloo Massacre - an ironic reference to the battle of Waterloo four years earlier.
The third chapter places Cornwall in a political context shared with liberal writers (including Keats) by looking at their metaphorical use of seasonal imagery as a response to the Peterloo massacre of 1819.
Fifteen people were killed and many more injured in what is remembered as the Peterloo Massacre.
The Account Book records the names of 350 people who received payments from the Peterloo Relief Fund, set up to provide financial assistance to those injured in the 1819 Peterloo Massacre and to the dependents of those killed.
Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice Jack Straw said: "Laws on turnpikes, workhouses, and the Peterloo massacre are rightly of interest to historians, but there is no need to retain them.
This is the prelude to (among other things) an extraordinary treatment of the Peterloo Massacre, which contrives to make four clear errors of fact in a single sentence.
The essays by Theresa Kelley, Michael O'Neill, Vincent Newey, and the editor himself, 'variously answer, develop, or redirect, McGann's argument': that is they seek to redress a materialist imbalance which encourages McGann to read 'To Autumn' - a poem written at the time of the Peterloo Massacre - as 'a lyrical "escape" from political crisis'.
Dining on the anniversary of the Peterloo Massacre or on the birthday of Thomas Paine, Henry Hunt, or William Cobbett provided a radical counter to the calendar of loyalist observance.
Byron, Don Juan (cantos I and II); Shelley, "Ode to the West Wind" and The Cenci; Keats, Hyperion; Peterloo Massacre at Manchester
when news came of the Peterloo Massacre, which was the result of a government - ordered cavalry charge on a working - class rally at Manchester; inspired by outrage and pity, he wrote the Mask of Anarchy (pub 1832).


text:
Emergency Gas engineer Enfield Town

Commercial and Industrial Plumbing

Our commercial and industrial gas engineers are the best you can find within the sector. They have long years of experience in commercial and industrial gas repairs, installation and servicing. They have the necessary Gas Safety Certificates and give 24 hours emergency services all around Essex. We have services such as designing, safety consultancy, risk management, project management, maintenance, installation, comprehensive gas safety audits, repairs, compliance management, commercial and industrial gas safety certification, specification, servicing, maintenance, and compilation of commercial and industrial safety reports. In addition we do all kinds of pipe work for commercial and industrial gas appliances, purging, testing of equipment and appliances, commissioning and decommissioning services.
Our commercial gas safety services includes bakeries, restaurants, fast food centers, commercial kitchens, factories, colleges, retail outlets, hospitals, hotels, warehouses, hotels, construction companies, care homes, nightclubs, pubs, commercial properties, commercial rental properties, factories, universities, boarding schools, etc.
With our commercial gas certificate and checks, you can be certain you will be safe and have complete peace of mind that you are legallyl compliant. Our services are efficient and affordable.

For Employers

If you are an employer, or are running your own business, you must always ensure that the gas appliances or any other pipe work done at your business is properly inspected and serviced regularly to avoid any accident.
We offer commercial gas safety certifications, where we check on your installations to ensure that they are safe at all time.

We can offer a commercial gas certification solution for all kinds of multi-storey office blocks, factories, commercial buildings or warehouses.
We can carry out a suitable gas safety inspection of your operations. It could involve a total gas safety check of the whole facility, plant rooms, warehouses, laundry rooms, pipework, gas meter rooms, production lines, etc. We can also check on just one part of your commercial facility, as you require.

Moreover our commercial gas safety certification service is available for sports clubs, multinational companies, hospitals, churches, schools and other large commercial and industrial buildings. No matter what your company size and the safety needs, we are can deliver an appropriate inspection for your facility at a very affordable price. Our working hours are extremely flexible so we can meet your schedule


text:
Booking hotels without fees!
Lost Password?
Sign up
Password recovery
Я remember the password

Apartments White Cream Apartment in Sarandë

Rruga Mitat Hoxha Rr. Myslym Shyri, P. 102/1, Ap. 11
1 room
Best price guarantee
Place or name of the hotel
Arrival date
Departure date
ADD Guests
Looking for free rooms...
Price per night

One-Bedroom Apartment

Detailed information
The terms and price of booking are determined by the duration of stay. Please, choose the dates

Two guests

from 34 $

Hotel reviews White Cream Apartment

Hotel facilities

  • There are rooms with bathroom
  • On-site parking
  • Free parking
  • Non-smoking rooms
  • Family rooms
  • Non-smoking throughout
Reception services
  • Express check-in/check-out
  • Currency exchange
  • Shops (on site)
  • Mini-market on site
Common areas
  • Shared kitchen
  • Shared lounge/TV area
  • Street parking

Hotel info

Featuring air-conditioned accommodation with a balcony, White Cream Apartment is located in Sarandë. Guests staying at this apartment have access to a fully equipped kitchenette.

The apartment features a flat-screen TV and 1 bedroom. The bathroom comes with a bidet, free toiletries and a hair dryer.

Guests can also relax in the shared lounge area.

Corfu Town is 36 km from the apartment, while Glyfada is 48 km away.

Important information

Important information
A security deposit of EUR 20 is required upon arrival for incidentals. This deposit is fully refundable upon check-out and subject to a damage inspection of the accommodation. Please inform White Cream Apartment in advance of your expected arrival time. You can use the Special Requests box when booking, or contact the property directly with the contact details provided in your confirmation.
Room amount
Rruga Mitat Hoxha Rr. Myslym Shyri, P. 102/1, Ap. 11
Check in/out
Check-in from 15:00 until 21:00
Check-out until 12:00
Hotel's languages
  •  English
  •  Italian
Accepted credit cards

No credit cards accepted, only cash

How to book hotel White Cream Apartment

1. Choose the preferred dates of staying
2. Filling reservation form
3. Immediate number reservation
4. Getting supporting documents
5. Payment for booking to hotel
This section presents full information about the hotel White Cream Apartment located in Sarandë: photo of rooms, rates, amenities, etc. On the website you can choose and book favourite room of White Cream Apartment without a fee.
It is the responsibility of the hotel chain and/or the individual property to ensure the accuracy of the photos displayed.


text:
A full-sized computer keyboard contains two buttons - primary and secondary. The main unit contains a longitudinal series of numeric buttons, the alphabet, the spacebar, as well as functional and control keys such as Enter and Shift if. The additional block contains only numbers and symbols. The buttons are located, as in conventional accounting calculator. This allows you to quickly and without errors to collect large arrays of numbers and arithmetical operations on them.
For inclusion of a set of numbers on a full-size keyboard, you must press the NumLock key, which is usually located in the upper left corner of the digital unit. In some keyboards, this button may be in a different location. When the mode of a set of numbers will illuminate one of three LEDs on the keyboard. Pressing the button switches back, with keypad number keys will duplicate the arrow and End keys, Home and others.
Many compact laptops additional numeric block on the keyboard is missing. Instead, it provides the opportunity to enter digits with the alphabetic keyboard. Look at the laptop keyboard. Manufacturers of computers applied to denote digits on the buttons of the main keyboard along with the letters. Their configuration generally follows the location of the numbers on numpad'e. The letter on the keyboard it looks like: "s" - 0; "a", "l", "d" - 1, 2, 3; "g", "W", "o", - 4, 5, 6, respectively. Figures 7,8 and 9 regardless of the input mode maintain its single value.
Translation alphabetical laptop keyboard in number mode is the same as for panoramino keypad - pressing NumLock. In order to briefly activate the keyboard in number mode, press the Fn button and pressing the necessary buttons on the main keyboard.


text:
[Sub ID 4843] Social Procurement to assist young people (Penny Crittall)

Submission ID: 4843
Organisation name: Bridging the Gap
Contact name: Ms Penny Crittall
State: WA
Contact email: penny.crittall@bridgingthegap.org.au
Contact number: 0894192553

Which priority group of the Try, Test and Learn Fund does your idea support?
Young students at risk of long-term unemployment

What need or issue are you trying to address?
This project will help young students who do not transition into employment because they have failed to complete their studies and are at risk of becoming long term unemployed at a cost of $97 billion in welfare payments.

These students may be from a low social-economic backgrounds where there are few role models for education and employment. Or they may be studying part time and be under- employed. Under-employment is a result of the types of jobs open to young people based on their lack of experience and lack of education. Both under-employment and unemployment have a deleterious effect on a young person’s financial and psychological well-being.

Because young students have low skills and little to no work experience, finding sustainable work in a competitive job market can lead to long term unemployment. In addition, having little purpose and not much hope for the future can result in substance abuse, mental illness, a general lethargy and low self-worth.

This project uses a targeted social procurement model, implemented via local government, to leverage their buying power for goods and services in order to ensure that suppliers of these goods and services also provide social outcomes consisting of training and employment opportunities for young students.

What is your idea?
Social procurement is a dimension of sustainable and responsible purchasing and procurement practices that assist organisations achieve the ‘social’ element of their triple bottom line. It is proposed that the local Shire Councils implement a social procurement model so that suppliers of goods and services to Shire Councils will be obligated to provide training and employment opportunities for young students. The size of the contract will determine the number of young people that will be given an opportunity, and this will be stipulated in the selection criteria of the procurement process.

This model can be extended and applied to land development approvals. Land Developers will be under contractual obligation to provide training and employment opportunities to the target group depending on the estimated value generated as a result of the planning approval.

Training and employment outcomes will be managed through RTOs, job active agencies, DES agencies and youth networks. It will be the responsibility of these organisations to ensure that the young person is work ready. This may involve a two week work preparation course with hard skills and soft skills (self-esteem, goal setting & motivation, communication skills, stress management), skills audit, career planning and other relevant industry tickets.

All trainees will be linked with volunteer mentors.


WARC-Identified-Payload-Type: application/xhtml+xml

text:
Welcome to Entel!

Budapest-based privately owned Entel Engineering Research and Consulting Ltd. was founded in 1990, primarily to do business in telecommunications. In the course of our several years of operation, Entel has been working for industry professionals in numerous projects resulting in a high number of plans, documentations, studies and expert opinions. ENTEL implements the ISO 9001 quality management system. Launched in 2005, Inspired Acoustics (IA) is a division and brand of Entel specializing in research and development related to acoustics and media technology, creating award-winning products, media content and software solutions for the audio, music, film, IT and research industries.

Entel has worked for practically all players of Hungary's communications market in telephony, data transmission, mobile telecommunications and IT projects, and its products and services are sold and marketed in more than 35 countries worldwide.

Business units and brands


text:
How will GDPR affect the recruitment industry? Image
How will GDPR affect the recruitment industry?

How will GDPR affect the recruitment industry?

Posted: 13 Mar 2018

Candidate recruitment is perceived to become that bit more challenging with the introduction of GDPR on 25th May, however these changes shouldn’t feel too daunting for you and your business.

Using a GDPR compliant recruitment agency such as Eolas Recruitment to find the right candidates for your vacancies is the ideal way to ensure you meet the compliance requirements specified by the new regulations.

What is GDPR?

You’re sure to have heard of GDPR with only a matter of weeks before the implementation deadline, but you might not be sure what it really means or how it is set to affect your business – including your recruitment processes.

GDPR – General Data Protection Regulation – will unify and strengthen data protection across the whole of the EU. The regulations provide individuals (candidates) with more control than they have previously had over what companies can do with their personal data. Fines for non-compliance and data breaches are considerable.

The regulations will impact any business that collects, processes and uses personal information – with implications for anyone that recruits staff.

Why is GDPR being implemented?

GDPR is intended to increase security and enforce clear legal guidelines across the EU, with the aim of increasing trust in the digital arena.

The new GDPR framework will bring the existing data protection legislation – the Data Protection Act 1998 – up to date with the changing ways that data is now used. The current legislation is out of date as it was established before internet usage and cloud based systems became the norm.

The associated risks of data exploitation – particularly with the proliferation of ‘The Internet of Things’ – should be reduced by increasing the security around data protection legislation, plus stricter enforcement and prosecution measures will be introduced.

GDPR will also establish a uniform legal framework across the EU, with identical data protection laws to which businesses must adhere.

Who will be affected by GDPR?

Two main groups will be affected by the new regulations:

‘Controllers’ of data – those who state how and why personal data is processed. These range from online businesses to banks, charities and even the government – anyone who collects any element of personal data from an individual

  • ‘Processors’ of data – those who actually process the data, such as IT businesses

The regulations specify that even if these data controllers and processors are not based in the EU, they still need to be GDPR compliant as the data they are handling belongs to EU residents.

It is the responsibility of the data controller to ensure their data processor adheres to data protection laws.

What are the implications of GDPR for a recruitment agency?

GDPR will change the way that recruitment agencies gather and use confidential personal information.

Agencies will have to be make it clear as to:

How candidates can access their data

  • How candidates can request their data to be deleted
  • How they store candidate data and why
  • How long they keep that data

They will have to update their privacy policy and ensure it is immediately available for clients to read. All the information in the policy needs to be easy to read and understand, with no small print or pre-ticked boxes.

Consent will be fundamental – an agency will have to ask for each individual job seeker’s consent every time they wish to use any personal information. Recruiters will no longer be able to access candidate information from social media channels and platforms such as Linkedin, unless the candidate has given their express consent for the recruiter to do so.

At Eolas Recruitment, our processes and policies are already fully compliant with these requirements.

Why should I use a GDPR compliant recruitment agency?

The risk of advertising your current vacancies yourself and requesting applicants to apply directly to a job advertisement with their CV is that under GDPR you become the ‘data controller’, with the responsibility for the personal data of each applicant.

The regulations state that, as a data controller, you must keep records of how and where an individual gave their express consent for you to collect their data. You must also adhere to the individual’s right to withdraw their consent to holding their data whenever they choose.

A GDPR-compliant recruitment agency such as Eolas Recruitment will collect CVs, covering letters and other confidential candidate information for you, ensuring the data is stored, protected and maintained in line with the guidelines.

Whilst our intention is not to scaremonger, if you use a recruitment agency that is not GDPR compliant, or you do not use an agency and manage your recruitment yourself and you fail to meet GDPR guidelines, you face:

  1. Severe penalties in the event of a data breach – if you fail to inform the relevant data protection authority within 72 hours of becoming aware of the breach, you face a maximum penalty of 2% of your annual worldwide revenue, or the equivalent of €10 million, whichever sum is higher
  2. Large fines for failing to adhere to the data processing penalties – if you do not obtain consent, or you fail to meet an individual’s rights regarding the use of their data, you could be issued a fine of 4% of your global revenue, or the equivalent of €10 million, whichever sum is higher

Although the regulations may seem daunting, the introduction of GDPR will be beneficial for clients and job seekers alike, with benefits for both parties.

At Eolas Recruitment, we anticipated the regulations coming into force last year, so we engaged the services of a specialist consultancy to ensure our compliance. As a result, we are among the first recruitment agencies to become fully GDPR compliant.

Please feel free to get in touch with us to see how we can simplify your recruitment process ahead of GDPR, or if you’re interested in any GDPR jobs in Ireland, we can help too.

Previous Page Job SearchContact Us


text:
Annual measurement of solar UVB at a reef site using a polyphenylene oxide dosimeter

Downs, Nathan and Parisi, Alfio V. and Schouten, Peter (2012) Annual measurement of solar UVB at a reef site using a polyphenylene oxide dosimeter. In: 12th International Coral Reef Symposium, 9-13 July 2012, Cairns, Australia.

Text (Accepted Version - Presentation)

Download (1248Kb)

Numerous investigations detailed over the last thirty years have highlighted how solar UV (290-400 nm) can have a detrimental effect on coral health. It has also been postulated that coral bleaching is caused by a synergistic process between high water temperatures and increases in UV. As a consequence of its influence upon coral ecosystems, UV radiation must be monitored in underwater locations using an appropriate non-invasive measurement technique in order to better understand the damage it causes on both a macro and micro scale and provide solutions on how to adequately manage its impact. The high energy UVB waveband (290-320 nm) is believed to have the greatest negative influence on coral stress. This report details the employment of a simple, easily deployable UVB measuring dosimeter system based on polyphenylene oxide (PPO) at a coral reef location near Hervey Bay (25°17 S, 152°52′ E) over the interval of one year. Continual deployment of the PPO dosimeters measured a clear inverse correlation between tide level and UVB penetration, with the highest coral UVB exposures measured during the months of winter and spring (coinciding with typically lower tidal conditions during this time). This suggests that the UVB incident on Queensland coral reefs may not be strictly dependent on solar zenith angle (the Sun’s position in the sky), which is generally the primary factor in determining the extent of terrestrial UVB exposures. Further, this may mean that photo-damage incident on corals could be exacerbated in traditionally cooler months if current global warming trends continue.

Statistics for USQ ePrint 21598
Statistics for this ePrint Item
Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (Commonwealth Reporting Category E) (Speech)
Refereed: Yes
Item Status: Live Archive
Additional Information: © Authors of the papers in the Proceedings retain copyright over their work. This was a presented paper but a formal written paper was not produced. Abstract was included in the Book of Abstracts but not included in the online Proceedings.
Faculty / Department / School: Historic - Faculty of Sciences - Department of Biological and Physical Sciences
Date Deposited: 18 Feb 2013 23:58
Last Modified: 11 Apr 2017 04:10
Uncontrolled Keywords: dosimeter; UV; UVB; corals; underwater; PPO; polyphenylene oxide
Fields of Research : 02 Physical Sciences > 0299 Other Physical Sciences > 029999 Physical Sciences not elsewhere classified
Socio-Economic Objective: D Environment > 96 Environment > 9699 Other Environment > 969902 Marine Oceanic Processes (excl. Climate Related)

Actions (login required)

View Item Archive Repository Staff Only


text:
Privacy in the digital and physical world

By Greg Fincke, Managing Director, Equiteq

It’s been widely reported that Yahoo and AOL, both owned by Verizon’s business unit Oath, are reading users’ emails to more effectively target advertising.

The WSJ moves beyond the headline issue of privacy and into the privacy trade-off users make with their free email providers. There is an interesting connection here to the concept of “razors” and “blades”, discussed in a previous post.  Email could be seen as the razor to Oath’s blade, i.e. how they make money, online advertising. Trying to monetize their “expensive” razor is proving tricky. At the very least it has generated plenty of media attention regarding privacy concerns.

The WSJ article references Yahoo’s ad-free email service for $3.49/month. There have been attempts at pay-for privacy social media platforms in the past. It is interesting to think about the digital assets available to consumers and the price of privacy. My sense is most of us have always thought of online ad targeting as benign. But as we shift more of our lives to the digital world, learn more about how our data is being used (sometimes after the fact), and start questioning where the boundaries are it begs the question: is there a future for digital pay-for privacy?

People with far greater expertise in this area have weighed in, but for our clients in the knowledge economy introducing this model would be a profound change. As IT services, management consulting, and marketing converge into a holistic approach to get closer to customers, turning off the social media or search information spigot would be extreme. So what tools or tactics might brands use to understand customer behavior?

Fast Company had a recent article on New Balance’s use of AI at New York Fashion Week. In short, New Balance and their digital partner set up cameras and developed tools to spot individuals who are breaking from the fashion norms. Those spotted receive a free pair of New Balance shoes. It’s creative use of technology to understand customer behavior and preferences in the physical world. It also proof of emerging technology’s ability to bridge the gap between a company’s understanding of us in the physical and digital worlds, and brands desire to do so.

Even as many still grapple with their comfort level around companies learning about them digitally, the question might already be whether they prefer these insights to come from the physical world.

Are you a member of Equiteq Edge? It’s full of content to help owners of knowledge-intensive services companies prepare for sale and sell their businesses. Register here to gain full access.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.


text:
Philips SBT30, £45

Small gadget, big sound: this wireless portable speaker works with any Bluetooth-enabled device and gives up to eight hours of music.

Autographer, £299

Rankin's a fan, and so are we. This revolutionary hands-free camera from Autographer takes pictures automatically, so the shots are as unique as the device.

Paperblanks journal, £11.99

Jot down your travel notes in this beautiful Paperblanks journal, with an added pouch for keeping your travel documents safe. This one is inspired by Art Deco Paris.

Nikon Coolpix AW110, £280

If you're on a post-Christmas jaunt and don't have a camera, there are few better options than the AW110, which works perfectly 18m underwater and in freezing temperatures. It can even be controlled easily with a ski glove on, so no more cold hands on the slopes trying to get the perfect mountain snap.

Bose SIE2 headphones, £105

Whether you're catching some winter sun or hurtling down the slopes with a bobble hat on, chances are you're going to sweat, but that shouldn't mean you have to go without your favourite tunes. The Bose buds also hook over your ears, so you can get them for the holiday but keep them for the gym you'll obviously go to throughout January.

Trakdot luggage tracker, £45

We've all been there: waiting at baggage claim, repeatedly checking your watch with the nagging feeling your suitcase is never going to appear. Thankfully, the Trakdot luggage tracker means your bag is always locatable, as long as your phone works. It'll even send you a text when you land.


text:
Team Finland

Week of March 27, 2011

While in London with Clark Haynes, Matt discussed with him possible existing Nelder-Mead implementations used by the KodLab. Something of them will require edits, though they are certainly doable. In addition, Clark and Matt were able to eliminate a speed limit on the XRL robot by having the AMC drives completely ignore position following errors. This will be tested on X-RHex and may eliminate one artificial limit on speed. This is not explicitly part of our project, though will certainly be a benefit to our project as it has removed external constraints upon the areas of gaitspace which we may explore.

We hope to have our code finished by the middle of next week so that we can begin doing Nelder-Mead descent in the gaitspace.

In class, Dalton discussed possible lecture topics with Deniz. In the coming weeks, we may schedule a lecture with Prof. Koditschek on topology to better understand what's truly being done by the Nelder-Mead algorithm to avoid common problems and to hopefully foresee any problems that may take up time later. Again, while we are not writing our own implementation of Nelder-Mead, we want to understand it so that we are not "flying blind."

We both have spent time since our last journal entry looking for Nelder-Mead implementations. One common one is by C. T. Kelley, the author of "Iterative Methods for Optimization."

Today, we read about Nelder-Mead descent and found Python, MATLAB and C algorithms implementing it. We will likely use Python as it is a language we both know well and allows for rapid changes due to the fact that it is an interpreted language; though we both know C, it requires recompilation which would take up time.

Planning to have working code next week (4/4-4/8) and begin the main body of our investigation, which will consist of repeated gait optimizations using Nelder-Mead descent on the X-RHex platform. Our (somewhat ambitious, though doable) goal is to have our experimental setup working this week, and to begin optimizations.

Week of April 3, 2011

Today we began to write code. We have opted to use fmin from the scipy.optimize module in Python. This is an implementation of Nelder-Mead that we were referred to by Dr. Shai Revzen, a postdoctoral researcher for Professor Koditschek. We began to write code which would interface this with our calculations of specific resistance.

Today we discussed the future scope of our project for the full class period with Dr. Koditschek. In writing our code and attempting to coordinate GPS data with fmin and have the outputs of fmin control the robot, we realized that implementing this architecture would not leave us with much time, if any, for actual experimentation.

We will move ahead while keeping in mind that we will not be able to do everything we initially intended to do with the depth that we were hoping for; time constraints have made it so that we must triage the various tasks within our project in a way that will let us substantively explore each of them without spending too much time on any single task. We will continue looking at Nelder-Mead until roughly the middle of next week. We will pay particular attention to how the shape of the space can affect the outcome of Nelder-Mead and how the noise in cost function measurements affects Nelder-Mead's ability to explore the space.

We will next look at different methods of interpolation, especially multivariate splines. While the interpolation of our data will be done near the end, we want to have understood it before then so that we do not flail in the latter portions of this project.

Today we read online about how Nelder-Mead actually optimizes. We are realizing that our decision to not attempt to implement Nelder-Mead on our own was a good one, as writing and debugging this algorithm would make an ambitious two-week project on its own. However, we are still somewhat concerned with how much we have chosen to do for this project, especially with code writing.

Today we briefly talked with Deniz about using existing Nelder-Mead code to do GPS tuning. He has told us that this code has been implemented several times in the KodLab and that recreating it would not be the best use of our time as we would simply be reinventing the proverbial wheel. As such, we have chosen to use the existing KodLab architecture for this part of our project. Though this is not our own code, we have reached our first milestone in that we now have the code necessary to begin optimizations.

We attempted to use an older GPS from the KodLab to begin our optimizations, as the new one could not be found. We were not able to gather any data; Dynamism appeared to be connecting to the GPS, but we were not able to get any readings out of it other than infinity. We will discuss this matter with Clark Haynes on Monday and attempt to resolve the issue so that we can gather data in the coming week.

Week of April 10th, 2011

Today we discussed our upcoming plans with Professor Koditschek and Deniz Ilhan. In particular, we discussed ways of testing Nelder-Mead and understanding how it can fail. We will first look at how Nelder-Mead converges on a simple, convex function. Then, we will add noise to this function to see how noise affects the Nelder-Mead algorithm's convergence and the number of trials required to converge. We expect that adding noise will require more trials to converge, though if the noise is sufficiently small, the algorithm will still converge to the global minimum. If the magnitude of the noise is great enough, the algorithm may reach stagnation. If time permits, we will explore this noise threshold.

Then, we will assess how Nelder-Mead behaves on a very rugged surface; we expect that in instances such as these, Nelder-Mead will easily become stuck in local minima and never reach the global minimum, and will test this hypothesis by running the Nelder-Mead algorithm with several different starting simplices. If the spread of points of convergence reached from a given starting simplex is comparable to the magnitude of the noise we add, then we can conclude that the noise we have added is responsible for the differences in final values. However, if the spread is much greater than the magnitude of the noise, it is likely that the different minima are a result of the ruggedness of the specific resistance space.

Today we implemented our modified Nelder-Mead code (which is based on the existing KodLab code) on the X-RHex robot. Our code was working fairly quickly, but the robot failed repeatedly (by losing communication with Leg 4 and then failing to reboot when commanded to do so) so we did not have enough runtime to capture meaningful data. In the coming days, we hope to successfully complete more trials.

Today we spent time exploring the Nelder-Mead algorithm using several test functions. First, we ran the Nelder-Mead algoritm on a 4-dimensional version of the Rosenbrock function. This function is frequently used to test the efficacy of optimization algorithms and we chose to use a 4-dimensional version because we will be using Nelder-Mead in a 4-dimensional space. We found that while the Nelder-Mead algorithm was able to converge to the global minimum of the Rosenbrock function without noise, adding very small amounts of noise led to stagnation in the algorithm.

We also tested the Nelder-Mead algorithm in a 3-dimensional version of the Himmelblau function (as very little information could be found about the 4-dimensional version); this function is also frequently used to test optimization algorithms. Again, the Nelder-Mead implementation we are using was able to find the minimum, though the introduction of noise made the algorithm stagnate. In the coming days, we will explore Nelder-Mead's response to noise on "friendlier" functions so that we have a better sense of how noise affects Nelder-Mead; adding noise to a function which is difficult to optimize does not give us a good sense of what noise alone can do.

Today we ran our code on X-RHex. We ran it near the Towne building to ensure that it was working; we were communicating with the GPS and changing gaits properly, though our specific resistance values were not decreasing very quickly. We moved to Hill field and ran our code again; we were achieving low specific resistance values at minimum but again there was a wide fluctuation. However, as on Thursday, the robot lost communication and failed to boot when restarted. Unfortunately, this means that we were not able to see the Nelder-Mead algorithm converge. In the coming week, provided the robot cooperates, we will run more experiments, both optimization and gathering specific resistance data.

Week of April 17th, 2011

Today we repaired the robot. The onboard CPU was not getting enough inrush current at start-up, meaning that the robot would not boot. To fix this problem, we connected the CPU to the +5V regulator on the other battery board. We also identified a replacement battery board, so if this new +5V connection fails, we will still have options before having to put together a new battery board, in which case due to time constraints we would most likely have to abort the experimental aspect of our project. We discussed with Dan the notion that this is not meant to be a project about robot maintenance and that if repairs become too time-consuming we will simply focus more on theoretical work, and he agreed that this would be an appropriate course of action. The robot is currently functional, so provided good weather we will be able to collect more experimental data.

Today we were able to successfully perform some Nelder-Mead optimizations on the robot. While we initially ran the robot on Hill field, we decided to move off of Hill field for three reasons— there is high traffic due to pick-up sports, meaning that having enough space to conduct experiments is often hit-or-miss; the robot tends to get dusty, which can be bad for the electronics and generally requires time to clean the robot; and the variations in the ruggedness of the terrain as opposed to a flat, hard surface undoubtedly produce more noise in the specific resistance, affecting the Nelder-Mead algorithm's convergence. We are instead using the main walkway that runs along Hill field, turning the robot around once it reaches the end. We were able to get the Nelder-Mead algorithm to reach stagnation for two different runs with the same leg speed and starting simplex, one using S.R. as the objective function and one using S.R./v^2 as in the Weingarten paper. Based on our theoretical work and exploring Nelder-Mead's convergence on known functions, we have seen that reaching stagnation can be a result of the Nelder-Mead algorithm's tolerance being smaller than the magnitude of the noise in the measurements. Experimentally, we believe that this means that the noise encountered in our specific resistance measurements was of greater magnitude than the tolerance for convergence; despite this, we believe that it is better to be too strict on convergence (in which case the tolerance can be manually adjusted during data analysis) than to allow the optimization to finish prematurely, as setting the tolerance to a higher value may cause the algorithm to stop despite (potentially) being able to find better gaits.

Today we performed more Nelder-Mead optimizations on the walkway through Hill field, one with the same starting simplex and leg speed as yesterday, and one with a different starting simplex. Ideally we will get enough optimizations using a single starting simplex to begin to analyze the noise in the objective function at that particular leg speed, and get enough optimizations using different starting simplices to get an idea of the ruggedness of the gait parameter space (i.e. do we different starting simplices still lead to the same optimized gait, or are there many local minima?).


text:
Shop Premium CBD Products

EsseCann Terpene Rich – Wide Spectrum Cannabinoids

Free Shipping On Orders Over $100

EsseCann proudly presents our premium line of CBD Creams, Tinctures, Isolate and Crumble. The EsseCann name insures each is rich in terpenes, contains a wide spectrum of cannabinoids and is especially formulated to bring you the most effect the law will allow! All of our products come with independent laboratory certifications that you can easily find RIGHT HERE.

FDA Disclaimer

The statements made regarding these products have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. The efficacy of these products has not been confirmed by FDA-approved research. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. All information presented here is not meant as a substitute for or alternative to information from health care practitioners. Please consult your health care professional about potential interactions or other possible complications before using any product. The Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act requires this notice.

EsseCann Logo TM

Subscribe To Our Newsletter

For exclusive offers on new products and old favorites – check your inbox!

Each month we reward our customers with exclusive deals, important information on the use Hemp/CBD, and the current status of federal and state laws governing cannabinoid.

You have Successfully Subscribed!


text:
I have a currupt Blockchain and want to hard reset the chain. what do I need to delete in order to start downloading the chain from scratch?

I know that there are 2 ethereum folders (I am on OSX):

I updated geth recently to "Homestead" 1.3.5 and get error in the terminal like:

E0306 ... 3211 trie.go:309] Dangling hash node ref 3c6233326.... leveldb: not found

and sometimes I get a bad block warning:

Bad block #1102797
  • I updated geth to v 1.3.5, but I also installed eth a while ago (v 1.1.0 / eth newtwork protocol version: 61). I didn't use both a lot just fired them up once in a while – xpnimi Mar 7 '16 at 9:10
up vote 27 down vote accepted

For geth, delete $home/Libary/Ethereum/chaindata. That should wipe out the blockchain itself and let you sync from scratch. Also you probably want to do a fast sync afterwards to get back fast-ish on the chain --fast.

  • would you start geth to reload the chain or direct with geth --fast? – xpnimi Mar 7 '16 at 15:39
  • 1
    geth --fast --cache=512 console is how I would personally start geth :D – Péter Szilágyi Mar 7 '16 at 15:40
  • 7
    Isn't it more careful to use "geth removedb" instead? It's its purpose. – bortzmeyer Jun 30 '17 at 7:39
  • 1
    For Mac OSX rm -R ~/Library/Ethereum/geth/chaindata/ – ramusus Jul 14 '17 at 1:55

You can also use geth removedb to remove the blockchain and state databases.

geth removedb
Remove local database? [y/N]

After removing the old databases, run geth --fast --cache=1024 (see answer to this question by @eth).

Note that using geth --fast will prevent you from using debug.traceTransaction(...) on the blocks that were --fast downloaded. Some further information in How to check the VM trace using Geth? and How can the transaction status from a thrown error be detected when gas can be exactly the same as the gasUsed for a successful transaction?.

See also What is Geth's "fast" sync, and why is it faster?.

  • Also if your pc has more RAM then the --cache=4024 can also be done. And geth --fast can only be used when the blocks database is empty. If you are already downloading the blocks then it is advised not to use geth --fast – freerunner Jul 30 '16 at 22:33

For other operating systems, the default datadir is:

Mac: ~/Library/Ethereum
Linux: ~/.ethereum
Windows: %APPDATA%/Ethereum

Delete the chaindata subdirectory that you find.

Run geth --fast --cache=1024 for a recommended way to sync the chain quickly (don't forget to use a bigger --cache with a value like 1024, otherwise the default is 16, and it won't sync as quickly).

protected by Afri May 15 '17 at 9:08

Thank you for your interest in this question. Because it has attracted low-quality or spam answers that had to be removed, posting an answer now requires 10 reputation on this site (the association bonus does not count).

Would you like to answer one of these unanswered questions instead?

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.


text:
European Youth Portal
Information and opportunities for young people across Europe.

Us, Art and the Community

Us, art and the community (Youth Initiative 2009)

What happens when young people create an art exhibition to give expression to their ideas and opinions on the themes of social inclusion, participation and identity?

Us, Art and the Community was a youth initiative supported by the Youth in Action programme. The initiative was led by a group of 6 young people from the Mayfield area of Cork City, Ireland, who had few links to youth services.

Participants were aged between 15 and 17. Not all were still in education. Two members of the group were of Roma origin and had questions about their identity that they wanted to explore. The young people looked at many topics including health, the environment, participation, identity and team-building.

Do you want to do a youth initiative? Get in touch with the Swiss National Agency of the Youth in Action programme.

Published: Mon, 06/05/2013 - 14:21

Tweet Button:

Related links

Info for young people in the western balkans

Need expert help or advice?

Ask us!


text:
Crew Neck Hawaiian Print Top

$35.00 USD

Fit For

  • Sleeve type: Full sleeve
  • Material: Cotton
  • One Piece
  • Wearable in: Winter, Spring
  • Soft
  • Slightly Thick
  • Color: Khaki, Grey

Size Details: cm

Size: ( Fit For S/ M/ L/ XL )

Bust (cm): 120

Shoulder (cm): 54

Sleeves (cm): 42

Length (cm): 65

Model height: 165cm, 48kg

Please note that due to a variety of monitor settings, the color swatches and your fabric, as seen on your screen, may slightly vary from the actual printed color.

Model wearing the dress is only for reference, the outcome of the dress on your body will vary according to your size.

Washing Tip:
Hand wash only, do not exceed the temperature more than 30 degrees Celsius. Do not bleach, just hang dry. The temperature of sole plate should not exceed more than 110 degree Celsius. Cotton and linen clothes slightly fade, as natural dyeing is used instead of chemical staining. To prevent the fading of color, put some salt in the water before washing.


text:
Events login

College of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts (CFPCA) | Department of Communication

Warning Icon This event is in the past.
September 21, 2018 | 12:30 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Category: Tour
Location: Manoogian Hall #585 | Map
906 W. Warren
Detroit, MI 48201
Cost: free
Audience: Alumni, Community, Current Graduate Students, Current Undergraduate Students, Faculty, Parents, Prospective Students, Staff

WSU's Department of Communication is pleased to offer department visits to prospective undergraduate students interested in pursuing degree programs in communication studies, film, media arts and studies, journalism, broadcast journalism or public relations. Please RSVP by clicking the "RSVP Now" button to the right.

During the tour, prospective WSU students will learn about the department’s progressive undergraduate programs and visit some of the classrooms, studios and labs where student/faculty collaborations take place. The tour runs for approximately 60 minutes. We recommend that guests sign up for a 2:00 campus tour to immediately follow the department tour. Please wear comfortable shoes and dress for outdoor weather.

The tour begins in the main office of the Department of Communication. This office is located on the fifth floor of Manoogian Hall, 906 W. Warren, Detroit, MI 48201. The entrance to the office is directly across from the elevators.

The closest parking structure to Manoogian Hall is Structure #2. The entrance to this structure is on the John C. Lodge Service Drive. This service drive is accessed from Warren Avenue and is located one block west of the intersection of Warren Avenue and Anthony Wayne Drive. View additional guest parking locations.

High school students are encouraged to talk with their high school guidance counselor with regard to missing school for this university campus visit.

For more information about this event, please contact Kelly Driscoll at 313-577-5364 or communication@wayne.edu.


text:
everything grows with love

Stories about My Experiences with Writers & Illustrators Who Bring Light into the World…by Bonnie Ingber Verburg

Archive for How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night?

How Do You Publish How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night? Snapshot of Working with Jane Yolen and Mark Teague

When my son was a toddler, I read sixteen picture books to him each day—eight in the morning and eight at bedtime…and often more. I had stacks of “good night” books but only four that I could tolerate reading again and again. And that is why I needed to come up with a new “good night” book. The concept came to me one morning while I was brushing my teeth.

I looked at myself in the bathroom mirror with suds flowing down my chin, and for some reason this made me think about a little Tyrannosaur Rex and his father, who was standing over him to make sure he brushed those gigantic teeth properly. Who could write this book for my little boy?

I called Jane Yolen and asked her to write “Dinosaurs Say Good Night” with Mark Teague in mind because he had just painted the most magnificent dinosaur in the final pages of Audrey Wood’s The Flying Dragon Room. Faster than lightning, she sent me a warm and funny manuscript about the Tyrannosaur’s bad behavior and then his good behavior. She also had him misbehaving for Mama and then for Papa. We worked on it editorially and then sent it to Mark.

What I got back from him was a complete surprise. Instead of the Tyrannosaur family I had imagined, he had sketched a different dinosaur on every spread. And the parents were all…human.

     The humor of the enormous dinosaurs acting out while their comparatively tiny parents pulled out their hair set up a really humorous tension and gleeful sense of children out of control. It was spectacular, and it was far better than what I had wanted.

Mark had created a jacket sketch with a tyrannosaur on the cover, and my  concern (having a young son who was now beginning the dinosaur phase) was that children and parents would see that engaging T-Rex on the cover and be disappointed when they opened the book to see that the entire story was not about that character.

Hmmmm. The dummy was remarkable—energetic and wild and very funny! The range of dinosaurs inside was fantastic. But how could we let readers know about them?

My father was a scientist, and in his spare time he used our basement as a laboratory, building solar heating units and photocopy machines and recycling silver out of film.  I loved being his best helper, and the process of taking things apart, putting them back together, and solving the puzzle of how to make a better solar unit was great training for making good books. Essentially you are doing the same thing. As a team, the author, illustrator, editor, and designer assess any problems and try to come up with the solutions that will solve them. Or at least hide them or minimize them.

We often use the back cover, endpapers, front and back flap copy, and front matter to address issues we can’t solve within the book—or add information This would be the key to solving the one-dinosaur perception. If you want to know how to make picture books, this will be part of what you’ll learn, because the problem-solving process is what takes a good book and turns it into an outstanding book. The best editors all do this in their own ways. Books rarely arrive exactly the way they end up being published.  The idea is to end up with a perfect book—one that flows at an even pace without a bump and feels as if it fell off the tree and into your hand like a ripe apple…effortlessly. (And as a side note, I have also watched as marketing and salespeople take over a publishing company with no concept of what editors do, and they assume the books arrived in neat packages exactly the way we publish them, with no concept of all the work involved to get them to be the magnificent final books they are; and editors are laid off or fired, again with no concept of how deeply involved they are in the process, and that string of bestsellers and award winners the publisher has had goes away when the editor goes away. It is a sad thing and unfortunately increasingly common.)

In How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night? I asked Mark why he chose do draw a variety of dinosaurs rather than the one T-Rex family, and he simply told me it had been too boring to draw the same dinosaur over and over again. So he didn’t. And he came up with an absolutely brilliant concept that was far more compelling!

We used all those places—flap copy, back cover, title page, and endpapers to signal to the buyer (and the child reader…always most important) that this would be a book about many kinds of dinosaurs. The tyrannosaur on the front cover had a curious, mischevious, and inviting expression, and it was an outstanding image for the book, so I was thrilled with that. I asked Mark to draw a different dinosaur (he chose a triceratops) for the title page, so the variety of dinosaurs would be clear up front. And then I realized that if the endpapers were peppered with all the dinosaurs in the book, it would be most obvious that this was not a tyrannosaur story. As well, Mark had cleverly hidden the names of the dinosaurs within the interior art, so endpapers would give us a place to present all the dinosaurs with their labels—in case our young readers couldn’t find the names. And the children would also have fun using their visual, endpaper dictionary to go look up the dinosaurs inside…because so many children do love dinosaurs and learn their names and take great pride in accumulating vast knowledge about these diverse and larger-than-life reptiles. They are pretty unbelievable.

Last we used the back cover to add yet another dinosaur, and then the whole thing fell into place and was clearly a book that presented an entire world of dinosaur children and their human parents, a book I absolutely loved and hoped other people would love, too. There were issues—as there almost always are—with the text being bumpy in places, and the transition from mother to father wasn’t working, but Jane is superb at tackling these things, and in the end the book feels as if it has always been in existence. How could it ever be any different?

The final challenge was with the cover, and it wasn’t the art but the title. All along I had thought of the book as Dinosaurs Say Good Night, and that’s what my outstanding art director, Kathy Westray, mocked up. She took it a step farther (she always does) and curved the type and made it out of a kind of reptilian skin with texture, which worked really well and involved a great deal of trial-and-error on her part. But the title was not as interesting as the image of the giant T-Rex and the funny look on his face…contrasted by a parent who clearly had nightmares dealing with her oversized child. And I realized that although the visual image was compelling and drew me into the book, the title wasn’t doing that in equal measure. One day, when I walked into my home office and looked at the mocked-up comps of the cover, I realized that I could increase the drama if I changed the title into a question. It would ask the reader something, and that would draw the reader into the book more effectively. So we changed the title to How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night? I am happy to report that readers immediately loved the book, and it has gone on to become a perennial classic. It holds up to repeated readings and never gets boring.

We followed it with other dinosaur books, and at the moment, How Do Dinosaurs Say I’m Mad? is for sale in hardcover, and coming along in proofs is How Do Dinosaurs Stay Safe? Now that the series is set and overwhelmingly popular (not a bad book in the lot, I promise, and each one has a purpose: table manners, being able to say “I love you,” how to behave in school, and so on) I feel more comfortable tackling serious issues we have to address as parents. Anger is a tricky thing—handling your child when he is angry–and handling your own parental anger. I had stepped into that snake’s nest when I published Molly Bang’s When Sophie Gets Angry…Really, Really Angry, and that book was a Caldecott Honor and has really helped a lot of parents. It’s something that needs to be discussed, but parents are so often baffled about how to deal with temper tantrums and “terrible twos,” and seeing anger in their children is frightening. It was also pointed out to me by a preschool teacher that the anger they feel often scares the children themselves. So there is a need for these books, and my hope is that they present the beginning of a discussion that goes further than what we can comfortably cover in our books.

How Do Dinosaurs Stay Safe? is a topic I’ve wanted to publish forever, because to my surprise, when I had my son, my joy was accompanied by my fear for his safety. I was surrounded by graphic stories about children who had been stolen or kidnapped and tortured and killed, and as parents know, the terror of those thoughts is very real. We also need to discuss important safety issues with our children, yet it is an uneasy, uncomfortable conversation. Who wants to talk about all the horrid things that can happen to your child? On the other hand, she needs to know that when Uncle David puts his hand up her dress, it is not OK, and she needs to tell Mommy immediately. So again I am hoping that when the book comes out, it will spark discussions between parents and children so parents cover all the really important safety issues I could never put in a funny, light-hearted “How Do Dinosaurs” book…but for the good of our children, we need to talk about it. My hope.

Once again, Jane and Mark have created a delightful book overflowing with laughter, and on the “stranger danger” page, Mark drew an adorable old man as the “stranger” and a ferocious, enormous dinosaur as the child, and once again it isn’t remotely frightening; it will be up to the parent reader to choose to discuss talking with strangers and going off with them. There isn’t anything frightening in this book at all.

It’s been very important to me, as the guardian angel of this enterprise, to also do two additional things. One is to make crystal clear—as is true in the case of every book I’ve published—that the behavior might be unacceptable, but the child is always loved. The attitude of the parent is this:I do not like it when you throw a book across the room, but it is the behavior I do not like. I always love you. This is something I strive to make clear in my own parenting, and when my son was little, one of the four good-night books that stood up to repeated reading in our home was Mama, Do You Love Me? My son is 18 now, and he will still occasionally ask me if I would love him if he put salmon in my mukluks. Of course I would. (And I do have mukluks.) I wouldn’t be happy about it, but I would still love him. Which he knows.

The second thing is this. I have wanted to build a dinosaur library where every book is of very high quality, and every book contributes something helpful in the parent-child relationship. I have known parents who could not say “I love you” to their children, and in turn, their own parents could not say “I love you” to them. Having a love fest is always feels wonderful to me, but in How Do Dinosaurs Say I Love You? I hoped that parents who have that difficulty could use the book to help them say those precious words. And now as we step away from issues such as table manners and going to the doctor and step into issues that are more challenging such as how to handle anger and safety, I feel confident that we are building a library of books parent can trust—meaning that if you see the book features Jane and Mark’s dinosaurs, you can be assured that you will have a good experience with it—and if the subject matter is anger, for example, you know you can trust a book in this series to handle it well.

It’s 5:53 in the morning, and I wrote this because I couldn’t sleep. Earlier today I was explaining all of this to my new editorial assistant in New York—why we’ve made the decisions we’ve made, and when I got off the phone it occurred to me that other people might find it interesting…to go behind the scenes and see how the first book came together.

Jane has extraordinary talent and an ability to zero in on what the most common and potentially funny issues are in a topic, and Mark takes off and invents a visual world I find irresistible. The parents, their reactions, and the homes and yards and neighborhoods Mark creates are beyond what I could ever have imagined. The angles he chooses, the facial expressions of everyone involved, and the wild collection of dinosaurs—he’s never repeated himself—is also remarkable. He manages to put a human parent and an enormous dinosaur in a room together in such a way that it feels believable to me. Yet the impossible nature of it all is almost hidden. Repeatedly I have asked him about some detail of something in a picture, and he’s laughingly pointed out that what the real issue the parent would have is dealing with a 30-foot raging dinosaur. Sometimes I forget about that.

Which is perfect.

Faster than Lightning: Snapshots of Jane Yolen

Jane & Bonnie by Robbie

A visit to see Jane in Scotland–photo by my son

Trying to describe Jane Yolen is more difficult than trying to describe water in its many forms and moods and storms and meanderings. I sat here with a blank page for a long time, wondering how to begin to talk about her; I have known her for so many years that it becomes difficult to stand at a distance and make objective observations.

Cell phone photo…not clear, but I like the kiss.

I was introduced to Jane in 1985 at Harcourt, after I was hired by Maria Modugno as Editor in the Children’s Books Department of HBJ.  The first book I would edit of Jane’s was her Lullabye Songbook, with stunning illustrations by Chuck Mikolaycak.  But first I had to drive Jane to a speaking engagement. We talked in the car while I drove, and I learned that Jane always prepares; she puts a great deal of time into the talks she gives, and it is one reason why she is so effective.

As I published more and more books by Jane, I discovered that she was—and still is—the fastest writer I have ever encountered. Several times I pitched a picture-book idea to her at dinner and received a finished manuscript the next morning over breakfast. Once, many years ago, when I had labored for months editing Jane’s middle-grade novel called Wizard’s Hall (a story about a boy who is sent off to a school to become a wizard…sound familiar?), I mailed the edited ms. back to Jane with a sigh of relief to get it off my desk. I had spent a lot of time on it, and I was happy that it was now on her desk, so I wouldn’t have it on mine for a few months. Surprise! In less than a week the manuscript was back; chapters had been rewritten, scenes adjusted, characters developed, lines changed. She had taken the advice in the margins, but she had finished it at the speed of lightning. I smile at the memory.

One of the more interesting books I published early on was a picture book called Encounter at Harcourt. I had received a phone call from a well known children’s organization asking me if I had any poets in mind they could contact to write a poem celebrating Columbus’s discovery of America—for their 1992 program. I didn’t like the idea of encouraging children to think that nothing was in “America” until Columbus “discovered” it, so it was a short, polite conversation. I didn’t bring up my thoughts about the subject, but I did decide I wanted to publish a picture book in 1992 that would present the arrival of Columbus from the Arawak point of view. How did the people who lived in San Salvador see Columbus and his men and his ships when they arrived to “discover” them? I thought it would be interesting.

First I researched the Taino people and tried to find a native to write the book. To my dismay, the culture had vanished. So I asked Jane to consider it, and the result was Encounter, a book I was sure would be one of at least a dozen from that perspective. Oddly it was the only picture book from that point of view in 1992, and I still find that surprising all these years later.

After Jane had written the manuscript, the next difficult task was to find an illustrator who could create the powerful scenes we had in mind—and who could show the conflict through paintings. Jane was visiting me in Los Angeles, and we took a trip over to the children’s art gallery called Every Picture Tells a Story. Lois Sarkasian, the owner, gave us a tour through her flat files, and in them she brought our attention to a new illustrator, David Shannon, who was local and had just published his first children’s book: How Many Spots Does a Leopard Have? by Julius Lester, published by Scholastic.

We were very enthusiastic about his pictures and talent, and he agreed to illustrate the book for us at Harcourt. At the time the book did not seem controversial to me—just, as I’ve said, a point of view I believed needed to be presented, and both Jane and Dave agreed with me.

It was our understanding that the locals did not wear clothes, so Dave created very simple clothing for them and added a note in the book explaining that he did this so teachers and librarians would feel more comfortable sharing the book with young readers. All very fair.

The reaction to Encounter was very positive, and when my son was in third grade, and I was volunteering by sorting papers in the back of Mrs. Fiske’s room, I was very surprised that she gathered the students and read Encounter aloud to them. She did it every year. And I believe it remains one of the only younger books from this perspective, which I still find hard to believe. Maybe I am wrong. I hope so.

At my launch party for the Blue Sky Press on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, one of my guests was Michael Dorris. This was at ALA in June 1992, so Encounter was still a new book. (I’d published it at Harcourt and then moved on to become Editorial Director of the Trade Book Group at Scholastic, starting Blue Sky in the fall of 1993.) Since Michael was Native American and had co-authored The Crown of Columbus for adults, I wondered what he thought of Encounter. He said he liked it, and he was very glad we had published the book, but his Native American children were constantly being pressured to talk about their dreams, as if Native Americans always dreamed the future, and he wasn’t thrilled about that part of the story. It hadn’t occurred to me that this was an issue, and at that point I couldn’t take it out, but I believe that was the only criticism I heard of the book, and it was said to me in a very mild, helpful way.

So Encounter was David Shannon’s second book for children, and I have been publishing his books ever since. Jane and I vividly remember that day at the gallery, pulling the paintings out of the flat files and feeling certain that he was the right illustrator.

Back when I worked for Harcourt and traveled a great deal of the time, I used to go stay with Jane often. I stayed in her lovely farmhouse, Phoenix Farm, in western Massachusetts, and I ended up publishing lots of writers and illustrators in her area. I met many of them through Jane, who was always encouraging new talent and pitching books to publishers with one of her new “finds” attached.

She sent Jane Dyer to Maria at HBJ with Jane’s wonderful Baby Bear’s Bedtime Book, and that was the beginning of a long and very close friendship between Jane Dyer and Maria Modugno that continues today. Maria has since been with several different publishing houses, including Little, Brown and HarperCollins, and I believe that Jane Dyer has published books with Maria at all of them.  I met Dennis Nolan through Jane and published their collaboration, Dove Isabeau, at HBJ. Barry Moser I met independently, but he collaborated with Jane for me on Sky Dogs; the stunning cover painting of that book hangs in my dining room where I see it every day. And I met Patty MacLachlan and her husband, Bob, before Patty published Sarah, Plain and Tall—which took Patty and me to a writer’s conference where we behaved like high school girls in our shared cabin after the day’s events. Six packs of beer and lots of cigarettes and a very, very late night of laughing. That was a few months after she won the Newbery Medal, and people started assuming she knew everything and was asked for marital advice and lots of other things that were not a part of her career.

Jane Yolen has mentored more people that I could even list here, and I think of her as the Mother of Children’s Books for that reason. Her generosity is staggering. She is strong as an eagle and a fighter by nature—she stands up for the best causes and never backs down—but she is also gentle and kind and is the first one to comfort you and put her arm around you and remind you that nobody is perfect. She also publishes with so many houses that she seems to have her finger on the pulse of what is happening in the book industry, which is also helpful and interesting. It’s a relief to know you aren’t the only one who is required, after a lifetime career of freedom, to now jump through hoops of fire and stand before committees of marketing people and make a case for a book that you know will be a shoo in. There you go. Jane says it is happening almost everywhere. We are all in cages, and we are probably all uncomfortable being inside of them….

Last summer I took my then-17-year-old son to Scotland where Jane lives in the summer. She has always had her husband, David Stemple, by her side, and it was strange to have him missing. Of course I flew east for the memorial service, but as Jane took us on a tour of the castles and highlands and the fishing villages, memories of David, and what David did and thought and saw, were all around us.

Jane is small but she is very, very, very brave.

It was a precious trip to stay at her beautiful home, Wayside, and since my son was a serious water polo player, and St Andrews has a good water polo team, it was worth checking out and meeting the coach (who could not have been more friendly and more encouraging). But St Andrews is a place that is very unlike Santa Monica (huge understatement here!), and the cold, and rain, and distance from a city would have been a mistake.  We loved the colors of August in Scotland and took the train with Jane back to Edinburgh and played and explored there for two days while the Fringe Festival was going on.

My son was little when I came up with the idea of How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night?, and Jane was the perfect person to write the book. I have already gone into some detail about how that book—and the eight that have followed—came into being, so I won’t write more about them tonight. What I will say is that Jane writes them with an uncanny sense of the things that matter most to children. I am guessing it is just her innate sense of young people more than it is all the time she spends with grandbabies (which is considerable, too).

We are finishing up How Do Dinosaurs Stay Safe? for next March, and I have high hopes that the book will start a dialog among parents and children about more worrisome dangers than those I can print in that book. But it has been a great deal of fun to make them all, and I believe each one contributes something very special to children. They are fun and funny and lighthearted, but they also offer children help with an issue such as feeling mad, or feeling love, or going to school, or going to the doctor, and it’s a grand time to share all those dinosaur antics and mischief with a little one.

It’s late tonight, and I am getting sleepy. I wish I were at Wayside right now so I could take a bath in the especially long bathtub upstairs, walk down the hallway in my pajamas, and give Jane a good-night kiss.

I’ll do that from afar.

Thirty years of stories. And I can only take a snapshot here or there. That will have to be enough of a scrapbook for now…..

%d bloggers like this:


text:
Tag Archives: Avocado

Guacamole Says Summertime & the Secret to Avocados

It can’t just be me! I can’t be the only one that sees the sun shining outside and thinks to herself “patio weather!!” Followed immediately by visions of ice cold margaritas and giant bowls of freshly mashed guacamole. Patio drinking and snacking just says summertime.

If you ask me, the secret to goodgreatincredible guacamole is THE AVOCADO.

Mind blowing, right?! The main ingredient. And that’s how it should stay. Fresh, ripe avocado with hints of flavor, but not out done by it. Keep your guacamole simple with a few key additions and you’re ready to party!

One combination I’ve been loving lately are diced cherry tomatoes, a tsp. minced garlic, chopped cilantro, a squeeze of lime and a few dashes of salt.

It’s one of the simplest recipes to follow. The most difficult part may just be getting all the avocado good-ness (a word?? Yes) INTO the bowl. I have a few tips to share that have worked for me but feel free to comment with your own!!! It’ll be like a Secrets of the Avocado webbie party!

FIRST I take my avocado and cut it into two halves. Wait, scratch that… first I knock off the ugly black tip thingy… Which is also a good sign your avocado is ripe. It should be slightly squishy but not complete mush. Something I’ve discovered that everyone else may already know, but was news to me, is that once they’re perfectly ripe you can pop them in the fridge to keep for a few days 😊👍.

Okay, so knock off thingy, cut in half… Then de-seed it. There’s just one large pit in the avocado but I used to have SUCH a painful time removing it. Then one day I’m at a restaurant and the guy demonstrates the most brilliant way to remove the pit. You’re already holding your large knife you used to cut it in half, just kinda whack the knife into the pit diagonally, then twist! It comes right off on the knife.

Hopefully the animated gif here helps!

P.S. – if you want to make your own gifs too just check out the Party Party app by these wonderful ladies at A Beautiful Mess! I’ve been having way too much fun with it so expect more!

The next step is to scoop out all the good stuff inside.  I love my avocado tool that slices as you scoop – if you’re a big avocado aficionado it’s work the couple bucks to have it on hand.

After you’ve got 4-5 Avocados sliced, scooped and into your bowl it’s time to add any extra ingredients to jazz it up!  Honestly, a bit of salt and lime and pinch of minced garlic go a long way BUT I like to add some diced cherry tomatoes since they’re so good for you.

Just dice them up and throw them in the bowl… then the cilantro if you want to.

Yep, that’s a Costco sized container of minced garlic in the back ground and it might last me my WHOLE LIFE.  But we shall see.  It looks like it’s all tomatoes and cilantro in the photo but that’s just because we haven’t mixed it yet!  I swear there are 5 whole avocados under that top layer!

Final step – MASH IT ALL UP!

Serve with chips and preferably a cold margarita.  My all-time favorite dipping chips are these.

So what’s your favorite way to make Guacamole?  Are you an avocado fan?  I hated them as a kid and can’t get enough now!

What food to you just says summertime ??!


text:
Published on 2015/03/31

Agility and Flexibility Central Characteristics of the Modern Higher Ed Institution

The EvoLLLution | Agility and Flexibility Central Characteristics of the Modern Higher Ed Institution
The competitive climate of today’s higher education marketplace demands that institutional leaders focus on making their institutions more agile to change and flexible to demand.

Agility is an ever-increasing requirement of success in any industry and (to the chagrin of some) higher education is no longer an exception.

Williams, Worley, and Lawler define agility as more than just the ability to change. “It is cultivated capability that enables an organization to respond in a timely, effective, and sustainable way, when changing circumstances require it.”[1] For higher education— present circumstances require it. We can no longer maneuver like “battleships that cannot turn quickly when the competitive environment changes.”[2] The competitive environment has changed. Embracing market and operational changes must be a matter of routine.[3] Digital disruptions that come with technological advances, changing economic and political factors, and more legitimate competition, require a more nimble response. The time for agility is now.

Topping the list of important changes is a move to a more modular approach to both degree paths and course content delivery. With the rapid evolution of new industries and the employer need for a better prepared workforce, a more modular approach will allow institutions to transform their program and course offerings more quickly. Improved responsiveness puts an institution in a better position to increase its desirability and market share. Students are customers. Customers have choices. Agility through more programmatic and course modularity will help ensure that students will chose your university over the other options available.

Secondly, more flexible scheduling is essential to attract and keep students. Life is about logistics. Students, regardless of age, who can manage the logistics of their lives and schooling effectively will be successful and graduate. Schools that provide flexibility will be the ones that will be sought after. The constant flow of information and increased globalization perpetuates a need for individuals to interact with others across the world. Increasing numbers of individuals who must manage various time zones and other work and life responsibilities that don’t fit into a standard 9-5 school day or workday. To be agile, postsecondary institutions would be wise to include both synchronous and asynchronous elements in their degree programs and courses. Rich educational experiences and academic rigor can be a part of flexible scheduling practices just as they are in more traditional settings.

Third, universities would be wise to implement more liberal credit acceptance and transfer policies. Historically, we, as an industry, have been a bit arrogant in our assumption that expertise gained anywhere but our school must be inferior to what we offer. In truth, that is often a faulty assumption. Further, we rarely have any kind of quantifiable proof of our superiority. Still, we persist in our restrictive policies at the peril of our student’s pocket books, debt loads, time and other resources. Of course, there must be due diligence in vetting other institutions and entities to ensure that they are indeed legitimate and provide quality programs. In all of our due diligence, however, we would do well to cast a wider net. Offerings at schools out of our “league” or Carnegie classification are worthy of our serious consideration. Do we recognize the legitimacy and rigor of national accreditation? More specifically, will we accept credits from nationally accredited schools? Additionally, are we considering general education credits earned from entities such as StraighterLine and others approved by the American Council on Education. Have we done legitimate comparisons? Can we justify not allowing students to transfer those credits? Are credits that were earned long ago really not worth anything? We would do well to thoughtfully examine our credit transfer practices.

One of the most important changes necessary for agility is increased interaction with business and industry to ensure relevance. The experience of being immersed in an academic environment is an essential part of the college experience. It fosters critical inquiry and thinking. It builds networks and social interactions that are so essential. Unfortunately, there is a large gap between what industry needs and what universities produce. The reality is that beyond the rich university experiences students gain, they must have a way to earn a living after they graduate. To do this they must either get a job or start their own business. Higher education must partner with industry to ensure that content and program requirements are up to date and sufficiently sophisticated. We must remain relevant for our students and the employers who hire them or their success as entrepreneurs. Otherwise, beyond research, how can we justify the existence of our programs for which these students pay tuition?

Lastly, we need integrate more authentic measures of learning and competence. Our graduates need to be able to think critically. They must be able to apply what they have learned to the novel situations they will encounter in their work and lives after they graduate. Too often, our measures of learning only assess basic content knowledge and lower level cognitive tasks. If students are to leave our institutions with more knowledge and skill than they entered with, we need to bring our “A-game”. Deliberate and thoughtful alignment between identified learning outcomes, what we teach, and what we test is essential. Increased use of performance-based summative measures of learning is an important change to improve agility. Students need to show us that they can apply what they have learned in meaningful ways. Performance-based assessment requires a bit more work and organization on the front end, but yields much more substantive results. Students benefit, universities benefit, employers benefit and society benefits.

Like it or not, agility is increasingly critical to our success and relevance as an industry. Higher education is not immune from being responsive to our customers. The hallmark research and innovation of higher education is imperative. However, it is no more imperative than producing future researchers and innovators. Are we tending to both? Is our organization agile enough to achieve both?

– – – –

[1] Thomas Williams, Christopher Worley and Edward Lawler, “The Agility Factor,” Strategy  + Business, April 15, 2013. Accessed at

[2] Ibid

[3] Craig Le Clair, “The 10 Dimensions of Business Agility,” Forrester. 2015. Accessed at

Print Friendly
New call-to-action

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *