text:
North America has a newcomer in core banking — Technisys, originally from Argentina. It is implementing a digital first system at Alberta’s ATB in a new subsidiary bank called Brightside, and it recently raised a $50 million Series C investment round from Riverwood, a Silicon Valley fund.

Co-founders Miguel Santos, CEO and co-founder Adrián Iglesias, COO both came out of IBM Argentina while a third co-founder German Pugliese Bassi, CMO & Alliances is a well-known entrepreneur in Latin America. The company now makes its headquarters in Miami.

Santos said the company will use the new round of funding to pursue business worldwide disrupting the market in financial services.

“We are helping banks transform to digital and powering new challenger banks.”

He thinks the funding shows two major trends — continued growth in technology and continued expansion into North America.

North American banks are so dissatisfied with the big three core providers — FIS, Fiserv, and Jack Henry — that the American Banking Association (ABA) and the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) are each backing new vendors.

The ICBA  is investing in, and supporting through an incubator, Agora which provides real-time banking that sits in front of legacy core banking platforms and provides such features as mobile accounts, shared accounts, children/parent accounts, advanced real time card controls, budgeting and saving tools and money pooling.

Meanwhile the ABA is in a consortium behind Finxact, developed by fintech industry veteran Frank Sanchez. It has announced $30 million in equity financing from the ABA, Accenture Ventures, SunTrust Bank, and Finxact’s existing investors, including Live Oak Ventures, First Data, Woodforest National Bank, and T.N. Incorporation Ltd (TNI) of Thailand.

Rob Nichols who has been CEO of the American Bankers Association for three years, said in his travels around talking to banks, the core banking systems were a common source of dissatisfaction.

“Early on I learned that outside public priorities, their chief desire is to have a nimble and agile core offering. We saw this (Finxact) as an opportunity to invest in an innovation which could push the whole core processing dialogue in an interesting direction.”

So Technisys is well-positioned for a market that is unhappy with incumbents.

In addition to ATB in Canada, Technisys has non-disclosed clients in the U.S. and is dealing with mid-size American banks, Santos said.

“We are seeing many small and medium banks tied to FIS, Fiserv and Jack Henry, which are old technologies. We have a lot to offer Tier 2 and Tier 3 banks that want to differentiate.”

Technisys has projects in more than 15 countries including U.S, Canada, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Perú and Ecuador.

One challenge for non-American banking vendors is the complexity of the U.S. regulation, including state regulations. Some firms have been reluctant to invest without a bank committed to buying their technology, and banks don’t want to contract for a system that hasn’t been developed yet.

Santos said the Technisys platform has been readied to meet U.S. financial regulatory requirements.

Technisys offers a modern fully digital core and a digital front end for a 100% customizable customer interface and a layer for Open APIs to plug into, giving flexibility to the banks to offer their clients a superior experience while being able to innovate. The core and digital platform can be installed separately or implemented together. The digital platform provides the opportunity for banks to differentiate and emphasize their brand or create special services or new financial products.

“We can actually install the digital platform into a customer’s operations and interact with their existing core banking system, and make them free to create new experiences and differentiate from the competition, which is going to be harder and harder,” Santos said.

“The value proposition on the digital banking platform, we are convinced, is differentiation for not only banks, but technology firms going into finance. Having a platform that lets you create, that allows you to differentiate is key. More than key, it will be mandatory.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Technisys – Ready With A Digital Banking Core For North & South America

Z/Yen Group Designs New Index Linking Finance and Tech

London’s Z/Yen group has developed a Smart Centres Index, designed to track the development of commercial and financial centres across the world in their support for and readiness for new technology applications.  Smart centres are cities across the world which encourage a high degree of innovation in business using new technologies.

The index is intended to help investors, governments, and regulators track the attractiveness of centres for new technologies and products by measuring how attuned centres and their regulatory systems are to attracting innovation and growth in Science, Technology, Energy Systems, Machine Learning, Distributed Ledgers, and Fintech.

To support the index, it has launched a survey aimed at professionals working in the development, application and regulation of new technology.  The survey seeks the views of interested professionals on the regulation, depth and quality of new technology in centres across the world.

Professor Michael Mainelli, Executive Chairman of the Z/Yen Group, said:

“The opportunities presented by new technology and science across all areas of commerce and trade are incredibly rich.  We at Z/Yen are deeply engaged with the development, application, and regulation of new technology in the world’s commercial and financial centres. This survey will help form the next edition of the Smart Centres Index.”

Z/Yen says it helps organisations make better choices.

“Our clients consider us a commercial think-tank that spots, solves and acts. Our name combines Zen and Yen – ‘a philosophical desire to succeed’ – in a ratio, recognising that all decisions are trade-offs. One of Z/Yen’s specialisms is the development and publication of factor assessment indices combining factor analysis and perception surveys.”

Posted in fintech, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Z/Yen Group Designs New Index Linking Finance and Tech

Ohpen Gets New Investment, Adds More Bank Clients

Ohpen, a banking tech firm in the Netherlands that was the world’s first cloud native core banking provider, has announced that its first and long time investor, the investment management firm Amerborgh, has sold part of its shareholding to NPM Capital, which now has a 35% stake.

“We have had Ohpen in sight as one of the most promising technology companies that we have seen in the past few years,” said Rutger Ruigrok, managing director at NPM Capital. “We are impressed with their achievements over the past 10 years: a cloud native core banking engine, an impressive customer base and a wonderful foundation for further growth. The technology sector is an increasingly important focus point in our investment portfolio,” he added.

“Having the new shareholder on board means a broadening of our options to finance future growth, although Ohpen can still advance with the growth capital that we raised early 2018, says Matthijs Aler, CEO of Ohpen. “With Amerborgh and now also with NPM, we have a well-balanced long-term shareholder structure that enables Ohpen to realize all of its future growth ambitions. I am really looking forward to working with the NPM team.”

Ohpen was the first SaaS core banking engine in the world that runs entirely in the cloud, predominantly on AWS.. Ohpen liberates its customers from their legacy systems, making them more flexible, safe, scalable and compliant.

Last year Ohpen moved more than 400.000 savings and investment accounts from Aegon to its core banking engine. Ohpen also signed up LeasePlan Bank which will use its cloud-based engine to replace several on-premises applications, reducing complexity and increasing LeasePlan Bank’s technological and functional capabilities to better support its retail banking customers.

““In Ohpen we have found a partner that allows us to further increase our efficiency and enhance our capabilities to keep track of market developments and changing customer demand,” said Danny te Brinke, director LeasePlan Bank & Strategic Finance. “This will help us deliver on our commitment to bring user-friendly, clear and competitive savings products to our customers.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Ohpen Gets New Investment, Adds More Bank Clients

Pew Blasts CFPB For Reversal On Payday Lending

Midnight on the 15th ended the CFPB’s comment period on its proposal to rescind the payday loan rule to protect borrowers that it had finalized in 2017.Pew said the CFPB rule on payday ending could save consumers billions.

“Pew is deeply concerned that the Bureau’s proposal to rescind the ability-to-repay provisions it finalized in 2017 will harm consumers and dissuade lenders from providing affordable credit at scale.”

Pew took issue with the Republican-controlled CFPB’s assertion that the rule developed under the Obama administration would restrict access to credit.

“The Bureau’s 2019 proposal neglected to account for the provision of installment loans and lines of credit in its assessment, repeatedly and incorrectly equating a reduction in the number of short-term balloon payment loans with a decrease in access to credit generally. In addition to continued payday and vehicle title lending, installment lenders, banks, credit unions and financial technology firms have said that they are also ready and willing to extend access to credit under the 2017 final rule, and they are likely to expand their small-dollar lending —something the Bureau failed to address.”

The Bureau’s 2019 commentary justifying revoking the rule is dishonest, Pew said, in somewhat more diplomatic language.

“The Bureau repeatedly paraphrased the rule’s language in ways that substantially change its meaning…The 2019 proposal has ignored the foundational rationale for the 2017 rule, failed to refute or reinterpret the bulk of research underpinning it, and has also mischaracterized the rule as being largely based on a concern about borrowers’ expectations at the time a first loan is originated….the 2017 rule’s safeguards provide a level playing field and regulatory certainty for lenders, along with strong protections for consumers, while maintaining widespread access to credit.”

The bureau’s action is not much of a surprise. Republicans have opposed the CFPB since Elizabeth Warren first proposed it. CNBC reported that “Since 2011, the CFPB has received more than 1.2 million consumer complaints about their dealings with financial firms. It has returned nearly $12 billion to 29 million people wronged by financial institutions, including credit card companies and banks. Most of the complaints received by the agency relate to debt collection (27 percent) and mortgages (23 percent).”

The billions saved or return come out of the profits of payday lenders and the money center banks which provide their funds while staying a long arm’s reach away from the payday business.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Pew Blasts CFPB For Reversal On Payday Lending

Arab Tunisian Bank Goes Digital With Temenos

The Arab Tunisian Bank (ATB) has selected Temenos, the Geneva-based banking software company for its digital transformation program. ATB will transform its bank with Temenos Infinity, the breakthrough digital front office product, and Temenos T24 Transact, the next generation core banking software. These two banking software products combined with Temenos Payments Hub, Advanced Analytics and Financial Crime Mitigation (FCM) will enable ATB to benefit from an end-to-end digital banking platform, which will bring business agility and innovation.

ATB has a goal to increase revenues by 40% by 2020 and double the number of deposits with new products. It selected Temenos for its packaged model bank functionality and advanced cloud technology to meet those objectives, ATB also selected Information Technologies Solutions & Services (ITSS) as its implementation partner. ITSS was named Temenos Regional Partner of the Year 2019.

With more than 130 branches and 1,300 employees, ATB has grown to be one of Tunisia’s top five banks since its establishment in 1982. In 2017, the bank was also awarded the “Best Commercial Bank in Tunisia” by Global Banking & Finance.

“Tunisia is quickly embracing the new digital world, and banking is no exception,” said Mohamed Ferid Ben Tanfous, CEO, ATB. “With state-of-the-art banking software and 25 years of expertise, Temenos was the clear strategic technology partner of choice for us at Arab Tunisian Bank. Temenos’ end-to-end digital banking platform will enable us to offer enhanced, personalized digital experiences for our customers and become a global business partner for customers by developing new lines of business – a key priority at ATB. This digital transformation will help us achieve our ambitious growth objectives and fulfill our mission to contribute to the economic and financial development of Tunisia.”

Temenos’ pre-integrated, packaged banking software will provide ATB with faster time-to-market and dramatically reduce operational complexity and costs. With Temenos Infinity and Temenos T24 Transact, ATB will have the agility to create innovative products and services tailored to its customer needs.

Posted in fintech, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Arab Tunisian Bank Goes Digital With Temenos

EDI Challenges Reference Data’s Big Four

A relative newcomer to the reference data business, Exchange Data International, is challenging the incumbents for what it terms anti-competitive practices. Specifically, EDI contends that the termination clauses in reference data contracts, which typically require users to return or delete their reference data, make it difficult for users to change providers because they would have to re-create their reference data libraries, which can be prohibitively expensive.

Burton-Taylor International Consulting, the leading authority on the market data business, estimates the global market for reference data is $2 billion to $3 billion.

EDI says that most data users are unaware that they are in effect only renting their data from major data vendors.

“It always comes as a shock to financial data consumers when they find out that they have only been ‘renting’ their data, and are effectively locked into their contracts. This has significant implications for all users of historical data, including quant analysts who rely on it for their algo strategies, and compliance teams which are required by legislation to maintain accurate data history. EDI’s strategy is to sell rather than rent data, and to offer hard-to-match cost-savings.”

EDI has obtained a mildly supportive legal opinion from a leading London law firm which said “Our assessment is that the Termination Practice could pique European antitrust authorities’ interest. There are cases which suggest that there are plausible arguments to be made that the Termination Practice infringes EU competition law.”

The termination practice could qualify as abuse of dominance, the firm said, noting that the concept of abuse of dominance is evolving.

Andy Nybo, a director at Burton-Taylor, said there are a variety of unique licensing agreements for reference data, and termination clauses can be justified.

“On the surface it makes sense because the aggregation, cleansing and normalizing all come at a cost,” he said. “Reference data is not static. There is constant cleaning and refreshing of historical reference data because new information or corrections are made, names change. All those thing impact the quality of the data.”

If the users don’t own a perpetual license for the data, they’re leasing it and when they change vendors they lose access to the data, he added.

EDI is the only sizable data vendor which believes that clients should own what they pay for, the company says.

“The onerous termination clauses are an effective barrier to entry for new potential data providers and may even be anti-competitive under EU law and local/national laws,” said Jonathan Bloch, founder and CEO of EDI. “This is damaging to data users, who are locked into an expensive and inflexible relationship with the ‘big four’ data vendors; it also makes it difficult for would-be entrants to the industry.”

While some financial firms only focus on the last ten years of data, most quant traders will be working with a twenty-year data set and the loss of even several years’ data could force them to remain in an expensive and inflexible relationship, he added.

“Based on our legal advice we believe that a financial data consumer based in Europe and challenging this termination clause has a fair chance of getting it held to be in violation of European anti-competition law and therefore unenforceable,” Bloch said. “But this route is not available to U.S. users.”

EDI, which was established in 1994, is headquartered in London with offices in New York, India and Morocco. It was named Best Corporate Actions Initiative of the Year in the IMD/IRD Awards 2018.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on EDI Challenges Reference Data’s Big Four

Russia’s Yandex.Money’s E-Wallet Goes Multi-Currency

Yandex.Money, the largest online payments services in Russia, has introduced a new service for multi-currency accounts and cards. In addition to rubles, the service allows users to keep money and pay in 10 foreign currencies: US dollars, euros, British pounds, Japanese yen, Chinese yuan, Swiss francs, Czech korunas, Polish zloty, Belarusian rubles, and Kazakhstani tenges. Users won’t have to switch currencies in order to pay for a purchase abroad with the card, as the service will independently determine which one to use for the payment, allowing for convenient and favorable payments in different countries with one Yandex.Money card, the company said in its announcement.

At first, the new service will be available to a limited number of users: those who would like to be a part of the test group will need to submit an application

“We expect the Yandex.Money multi-currency cards to be popular with a wide variety of users,” said Alla Savchenko, director of products at Yandex.Money.. “People residing or vacationing abroad will feel comfortable in any country, saving on currency conversion and not wasting time on switching between accounts. Users who want to save money can earn cashback for paying for purchases from the account of any currencies available from the service. Further on, freelancers will be able to receive earnings in foreign currency from foreign clients in the usual manner, to e-wallets,” she added.

Yandex.Money serves 46 million registered wallets and around 800,000 thousand physical cards and 17 million virtual cards on the Mastercard payment system. Physical Yandex.Money cards can be used for online and offline payments, including Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Google Pay, and Garmin Pay support, as well as for cash withdrawal both in Russia and abroad. Identified users can withdraw money without a commission at any ATMs around the world within the limit set by the service.

Yandex.Money elected to leverage Moven Enterprise’s APIs and embed them into their existing platform to deliver a highly personalized smart banking experience to their customers.

Yandex.Money said the partnership provides its 46 million users with a real-time personalized financial experience (PFE) service in their e-wallet mobile app.

The company is the joint venture of the search engine Yandex and Sberbank. It said that “Yandex.Money’s service provides users with contextual personalized advice as part of the e-wallet mobile app experience. Analyzing the expenses on a daily basis, the service allows users to track their spending in real time, while reducing spending and increasing savings—all to drive financial wellness and good financial habits.”

Posted in fintech, payments | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Russia’s Yandex.Money’s E-Wallet Goes Multi-Currency

SETL Clarification – Re-Org, Not Bankruptcy

From the esteemed Julia Streets:

SETL announces start of corporate reorganisation further to successful completion and approval of the regulated CSD development

Roadmap to position business for strong financial future.

London 07 March 2019, In line with its 2018 strategic and operational plan, SETL the London based institutional payment and settlement infrastructure provider using blockchain technology, has focussed its resources on successfully developing and funding the establishment of the ID2S and IZNES platforms in Paris.  Of particular note, SETL made significant capital contributions to ID2S, the regulated CSD. In October 2018, the platform successfully completed its T2S connection testing and was fully approved under CSDR.

Now that the CSD is operational, the organisation can move forward with the next phase of its corporate development plan.  Having made an early investment in the development of ID2S, SETL Development Ltd recognises that as an early stage technology firm it is not sufficiently placed to contribute the capital required.  As such it is now now seeking to place its ID2S holding with a larger financial services firm, one better placed to provide the capital required to support the growth trajectory.

In recognition of the structural complexity and the need for a neutral party to represent the interests of all the current creditors and stakeholders, the board of SETL Development Limited has today appointed Quantuma LLP as an independent administrator.  Quantuma’s role will be to help shape the future structure, enable the company to balance its strategic infrastructure holdings and continue its software development activities on a business as usual basis.

Sir David Walker, the company’s chairman added “Separating the software development business from the investments portfolio is a highly complex process, requiring expert, experienced and neutral management of the interests of all the creditors and stakeholders.  The directors are all fully engaged and aligned in this approach.”

Anthony Culligan, the co-founder and largest shareholder added, “I am absolutely satisfied that this is the most positive step for the company and will form the basis of a strong future”.

Andrew Andronikou, joint administrator and Quantuma partner added, ‘This marks a significant moment for SETL and we are honoured to have been entrusted to work on behalf of the business and its investors.  We are highly experienced in navigating these milestones to ensure that businesses are fit for the future and look forward to helping SETL in its quest for growth.’

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on SETL Clarification – Re-Org, Not Bankruptcy

OpenFin Wins Award At Trading Tech Summit In London

OpenFin won the Fintech Innovation Award at the TradingTech Summit in London on the 27th February.

This award complements OpenFin’s recent accolades, including: winning Best open source initiative at the HFM Technology European Technology Awards 2018; being named FinTech of the Year at The TRADE’s Leaders in Trading Awards 2018; winning Best use of the Agile methodology by a technology vendor at the Buy-Side Technology Awards 2018; and being included in the The Financial Technologist’s list of The Most Influential FinTechs of 2019, published earlier this month, for a second year running.

OpenFin OS provides a common platform on which banks, buyside and the FinTech community can collaborate, build and deliver innovative workflow enhancements for end users. As a result, innovative solutions can be brought to market faster, enabling end-users to benefit from new features and functionality at an accelerated rate.

Adam Toms, CEO of OpenFin Europe, said that more than 1,000 applications have now been built and deployed on OpenFin OS providing solutions to over 1,500 major banks and buy-side firms.

OpenFin enables rapid and secure deployment, native experience and desktop interoperability by building on HTML5. See my Forbes story last month. Used by the largest industry players through to the newest of FinTech innovators, OpenFin deploys more than 1,000 desktop applications to more than 1500 buy-side and sell-side firms.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on OpenFin Wins Award At Trading Tech Summit In London

Why The Fed Will Create Its Own Real-Time Payments System

Prediction — The Federal Reserve will announce before Labor Day that it will build a real-time payment system to offer an alternative to the system that has been started by TCH and Mastercard using the Vocalink technology it acquired when it bought the company.

The UK implemented a faster payments system 10 years ago. Admittedly the country has a far simpler banking system with just a handful of major banks. It also has a regulator that takes a far more active role in promoting consumer interests vs. banks than the Fed does.

Major U.S. banks have blocked real-time payments for years, mostly obviously in 2011 when they voted against making the ACH system real-time. See Kevin Wack’s article in The American Banker

The reasons aren’t clear because the banks haven’t tried to justify their anti-consumer stance. However, among the reasons usually discussed are that they don’t want to reduce their income from wires, they make a lot of money from overdraft charges, moving to real-time is an obvious expense with no obvious increase in revenue, and they would cut into their earnings from financing payday lenders.

Why change now? Sheer embarrassment that banking systems around the world — from Australia to Mexico —have achieved real-time payments? Maybe, if you thought that bankers whose behaviors have led to billions in fines and compensation payments were truly capable of embarrassment.

More likely they are aware that the Fed, which has pursued a strategy of consultation and cajoling for years, may eventually run out of patience.

And they’re not exactly leaping to real-time. TCH says that about half the accounts in the country are already connected to real-time payments, but that is more a commentary on the degree of concentration in banking than evidence of a drive to real-time. Fewer that half the TCH members have implemented some level of real-time payments and they have no deadline.

How long will the Fed let this continue?

In response to the Fed’s request for comments, the Congressional Black Caucus wrote that “Delay is costing Americans billions of dollars they do not have and contributing to the growing income inequality that the Fed rightfully agrees is harming our nation. Specifically, research conducted by the Brookings Institution, Pew Charitable Trust, Center for Financial Services Innovation and others has illustrated the prohibitively high costs of our nation’s slow payment system and the sizable benefits for communities of color that would begin to accrue savings from adoption of real time payments. The increased prevalence of overdraft fees, high cost small dollar credit, and check cashing has cost our constituencies tens of billions of dollars that a real time payments system would help ameliorate.”

Estimates of those costs run to about $10 billion a year, or as Brookings noted, the delay has cost Americans $100 billion in fees since the UK went to faster payments more than 10 years ago.

Other than TCH, just about everyone else involved in commerce and payments, from convenience store associations to the NRF to Walmart and Amazon and community banks, wants the Fed to set up a Real Time Gross Settlement System RTGS so they won’t have to depend on a system run by the big banks. NACHA would prefer a bigger role for itself and BAFT thinks it would be fine for the Fed to wait a few years and see how the TCH solution works.

TransferWise noted that in many respects “banks are subsidized by governments and protected from competition and they enjoy exclusive access to the payments system. When firms face excessive barriers to entering a market competition stagnates, prices remain high and innovation remains low.”

And it specifically said access to an RTGS should not be limited only to banks, a position also endorsed, not surprising, by Amazon.

Consumer Reports said that “the payment options available to most Americans are dated and inefficient, due to complexities and lack of competition at a systemic level…non-bank providers like PayPal were early to build a system that met consumers’ need for a way to transact person-to-person over the internet. Only after consumers flocked to these services were traditional providers like major banks motivated to develop similar services. “

One big change over the five years the Fed has been studying (dawdling) is that the House of Representatives now has a Democratic majority and Rep. Maxine Waters is chair of the banking committee. Lower costs for banking services as a campaign platform? Socialist subsidies for big banks? Privatizing the profits, socializing the losses? Edit to see if it fits on a bumper sticker.

The three former Fed payments experts who comments made several arguments for the Fed to develop a RTGS. One is that in a crisis, the Fed is the financial resource the country depends on. If the TCH system freezes and the Fed doesn’t have an alternative, as it has with Fedwire and the Fed ACH, what could it do, and how long would it take to get authorization?

Another, as Bruce Summers noted in a detailed commentary, is that payments are moving to real-time and digital, pushed by the growing use of smartphones for banking. If the Fed doesn’t develop its own RTGS it could be left with check processing and its ACH, not exactly the cutting edge in payments.

““If the Federal Reserve banks don’t develop and take an operational role in faster payments then their competency will further deteriorate. They are at a tipping point…If the Fed doesn’t participate in this it will be really left behind, and then it will be too late for society to rely on the Fed going forward over time…if the big banks had complete control over the digital payment system and we have another crisis we will be in double jeopardy.”

And besides being trusted by community banks, which provide small business and agricultural loans and are core assets in their communities, the Fed is already connected to banks across the country, while TCH is not.

The Fed can do it — it has the technical skills and the connections and trust of banks of all sizes.

Thomas Hoenig, former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City and a member of the Federal Reserve Banks’ Technology and Financial Service Policy Committees, said the U.S. needs to upgrade its payment system, starting now.

“We should stop talking about it and start moving forward on it…the Fed with a nearly 100 year history in payments has the infrastructure, knowledge, technical capability and is the more transparent in price, as we learned in check and in ACH.”

The links below go to the Fed comments page, and to the six articles I have written on this, which provide a fairly quick overview of the issues.

The Fed comment pages

Google And Amazon Favor Fed Role In Real Time Payments

The Benefits to consumers

What retired Fed payments experts have to say

How community banks don’t trust TCH and want the Fed to provide RTGS

Merchants of varied sizes want a Fed RTGS

The TCH argument

And take a look at “How the Other Half Banks” by Mehrsa Baradaran, a very impressive book that looks in depth at how many people are left out of banking. She proposes postal banking, which I think is a look backwards — smartphone banking would be a useful alternative. It is a great book, and as perhaps only a university press could, provides pages of detailed footnotes that will be a boon to anyone looking into these issues.

See also Mayra Rodriguez Valladares in her detailed coverage of these banking topics.

Great article about Mehrsa and her sister, Shima, who is also a law professor and leaving Iran at 6 and 8. And if this interests you at all in Iranian culture and learning, at least take a look a “Reading Lolita in Tehran” by Azar Nafisi.

Posted in fintech, payments | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Why The Fed Will Create Its Own Real-Time Payments System


Content-Type: application/http; msgtype=response

WARC-Identified-Payload-Type: text/html

WARC-Type: response

text:
Password Optional: Huge Security Breach Hits SpeedDate

Wow. Something is seriously wrong at SpeedDate, the online dating site that throws strangers into whirlwind 3 minute dates. For at least 30 minutes this evening (and possibly more), passwords were totally optional. Type in a user name (no password needed), hit “Log In”, and you had access to every private message, ‘flirt’, and buddy list available on the user’s profile. You could modify profile photos, bios, or whatever else you could find.

We’ve verified that the issue worked with at least five different accounts. One account didn’t work, the others went though without a hitch. Fortunately there isn’t a whole lot of damage you can do on the site beyond read or send private messages, but as far as security breaches go it doesn’t get much worse than this.

We’ve confirmed the problem with SpeedDate, who say it is now fixed (we held the story until they could address the issue to avoid further exploitation). SpeedDate says that the issue only affected a subset of users, though the number of accounts affected seems to have been substantial.

This isn’t the first time SpeedDate has been in hot water with users. Last year the site acquired a number of Facebook applications unrelated to dating, only to convert them to SpeedDate apps without the consent of users. It was also temporarily banned from Facebook entirely.

Thanks to Reece Schofield for the tip.

warcinfo:
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2021-25
publisher: Common Crawl
description: Wide crawl of the web for June 2021
operator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)
hostname: ip-10-67-67-232.ec2.internal
software: Apache Nutch 1.18 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)
robots: checked via crawler-commons 1.2-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)
format: WARC File Format 1.1
conformsTo: https://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/


text:
LG’s Quad-Core 2012 Flagship Leaks: The Poorly Code-Named X3

Other than the LG Spectrum, LG didn’t have much to show off by way of phones at this year’s CES show. But that doesn’t mean that something special isn’t in the works.

In fact, Pocketnow reports that LG’s 2012 flagship will run a Tegra 3 quad-core chipset and go by the name X3, at least for now. The phone likely won’t show up on store shelves until spring or summer, but we should hear an announcement (including a retail name) come Mobile World Congress in February.

Other specs include Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, which will be a must with most phones released this spring, 16GB of memory (with an SD card slot), and camera fun for everyone. By that I mean an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera and a 1.3-megapixel shooter up front for video chat.

The X3 will only sport three physical capacitive buttons along the bottom, rather than the usual Android four, but the phone still holds onto a number of important “fours,” like a quad-core processor and Android 4.0. I’m inclined to agree with the Inquirer’s opinion that the codename for this phone should be X4 rather than X3.

Last, but certainly not least, the X3 will sport a massive 4.7-inch 1280×720 display, NFC and the latest Bluetooth standard, 4.0. Pocketnow also reports that this bad boy will maintain a waist line under 9mm, which is impressive to say the least, especially with that reported 2000mAh battery.

The phone touts 21Mbps HSPA radio support, meaning we’re likely looking at T-Mobile or AT&T. That said, it wouldn’t be surprising in the least if the X3 had LTE support for AT&T’s brand new super fast 4G network.


text:
PAL lays off 2,700 workers due to COVID-19

Philippine Airlines announced on Monday night that it is laying off 35 percent of its employees due to COVID-19 outbreak.

The Lucio Tan-led airline said it  begun to call on employees to apply for voluntary separation, the first stage of a manpower reduction initiative that may affect up to 35 percent of the airline’s more than 7,000 personnel or 2,700 workers.

“The retrenchment is part of a larger restructuring and recovery plan as the flag carrier rebuilds its domestic and international network amid the global pandemic,” PAL said.

Last February, PAL laid off about 300 employees due to continued losses, which was aggravated by the ongoing travel restrictions and flight suspensions to areas affected by COVID-19.

Since March 2020, PAL has suspended capital expenditures, adopted a skeletal work force, reduced management salaries and slashed non-essential expenses to control costs.

PAL added that its shareholders have infused capital and provided funding to sustain the airline’s liquidity.

“At the height of the pandemic, PAL chose to implement temporary furloughs and flexible working arrangements to maintain jobs as long as possible,” PAL said.

“ However, the collapse in travel demand and persistent travel restrictions on most global and domestic routes have made retrenchment inevitable, with PAL currently operating less than 15% of its normal number of daily flights after eight months of lockdowns,” it added.

PAL said the retrenchment program will combine voluntary and involuntary measures, to be carried out within the current fourth quarter of 2020.

PAL,however,  assured employees that the measures will be carried out in a fair manner that complies with all legal requirements and with support for outplacement assistance.

The airline said it continues to mount special repatriation flights to help bring home stranded Filipinos from the Middle East, Europe, North America and all over Asia, as well as all-cargo services to meet the essential cargo transport needs of the public and support economic supply chains.

PAL recently flew its second repatriation flight from Beirut carrying OFWs fleeing the troubled Lebanese capital.

PAL Holdings Inc., PAL’s parent firm, earlier reported total comprehensive loss  of P22.02 billion in the January to June period, up by  631.56 percent from P3.01 billion losses in the same period last year.

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: Logo

You are commenting using your account. Log Out /  Change )

Google photo

You are commenting using your Google account. Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s


text:
Jun 22, 2020

L-com Releases New M8 Field Termination Connectors with Quic

Bizclik Editor
2 min

IRVINE, California, June 22, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- L-com, an Infinite Electronics brand and a preferred manufacturer of wired and wireless connectivity products, has launched a new line of M8 field termination connectors that are ideal for use in actuators, I/O connectivity, industrial control and factory automation, test equipment, and sensors or miniature sensor applications.

L-com's new M8 field termination connectors feature a two-piece quick terminate design made for fast, easy and reliable terminations. These connectors are IP67-rated when properly mated with a quick-term style available in male and female 3-position types. They operate in a temperature range of -25°C to +80°C and are recommended for 23 AWG to 20 AWG solid conductors and cables with an overall OD of 0.098" (2.5mm) to 0.197" (5.0mm). No special tools are required for termination of these connectors and installation instructions come packaged with each part.

"The new, quick-term design of these M8 field termination connectors makes them an exciting addition to our wide range of off-the-shelf products readily available for our customers," said Dustin Guttadauro, Product Manager.

L-com's new quick-term, M8 field termination connectors are in stock and available for same-day shipping.

About L-com:
L-com, a leading manufacturer of wired and wireless connectivity products, offers a wide range of solutions and unrivaled customer service for the electronics and data communications industries. The company's product portfolio includes cable assemblies, connectors, adapters, antennas, enclosures, surge protectors and more. L-com is headquartered in North Andover, Mass., is ISO 9001: 2015 certified and many of its products are UL® recognized. L-com is an Infinite Electronics brand.

About Infinite Electronics:
Based in Irvine, Calif., Infinite Electronics offers a broad range of components, assemblies and wired/wireless connectivity solutions, serving the aerospace/defense, industrial, government, consumer electronics, instrumentation, medical and telecommunications markets. Infinite's brands include Pasternack, Fairview Microwave, L-com, MilesTek, Aiconics, KP Performance Antennas, PolyPhaser, Transtector, RadioWaves, ShowMeCables, INC-Installs and Integra Optics. Infinite Electronics serves a global engineering customer base with deep technical expertise and support, with one of the broadest inventories of products available for immediate shipment.

Press Contact:
Peter McNeil
17792 Fitch
Irvine, CA

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1193515/M8FTQ3F_250x250_View1.jpg

Share article

Subscribe to our Newsletter
Receive the latest updates and news
Exclusive preview


text:
From eMarketer, always good at nifty spiffy charts and graphs:

“Requiring the installation of extra software to view the site” can mean a Flash install (yawn) or a spyware install (not good).

I agree with all of these, but let’s be real: Sites that automatically play music should be banned from the Internet! Nothing worse than going to a site and having a Fur Elise midi file or techno playing.

Alex Eckelberry
(Thanks to techdirt)

Get your free 30-day GFI LanGuard trial

Get immediate results. Identify where you’re vulnerable with your first scan on your first day of a 30-day trial. Take the necessary steps to fix all issues.


text:
911 VPN Setup Free Download | How to install 911 VPN

Free download 911 VPN Setup – the best VPN solutions are widely used for hosting or in line with internet security, but there are many different uses, too.

911 VPN Setup Free Download
911 VPN Setup Free Download

A VPN stands for ‘personal online network’ and is a piece of software application that helps keep you anonymous online, protects all your online traffic and allows you to successfully trick your laptop or mobile device into thinking it is somewhere else.

911 VPN Setup: Why do I need a VPN?

There are many reasons why you may need a VPN. Among other things is the security of information, especially when you’re out and about.

How often do you connect to a Wi-Fi hotspot in another somewhere public place, for instance, a bus station, a train station, a coffee shop, or an airport? Wi-Fi hotspots aren’t the most secure places, but with a VPN you can be sure that no one is listening to you when you make your bank electronic transactions.

Please Read >>> How to Connect A Ps4 Controller To An iPhone, iPad, Tablets, Pc, Or Android Device To Play Games

A VPN protects you from unauthorized access, which is a convincing Wi-Fi hotspot designed to swipe personal information. Even if you connect mistakenly, your data cannot be compromised.

VPNs can also protect your privacy by hiding your location. VPN makes it very difficult to see a download app, or which websites a person has visited.

Free Download 911 VPN Setup

Without wasting too much time, below are the quick steps you can take to get a 911 VPN installed properly on your system.

How to install 911 VPN Setup Step by Step instructions.

  • Firstly, download and install Winrar zip file on your computer
  • At the right down corner of your Pc interface, type (Windows Defender settings)
  • Ensure all file protection and firewalls are * put off * * virus scanning should also be turned off *
  • Confirm that any kind of anti-virus on your computer is uninstalled!
  • If you are using Win7 and Win8 follow this link to download 911 setup. Don’t worry. * Skip *. * Step * * 1 * * – * * 3 * Win7 User Step * 4*
  • After downloading the 911 setup. Right-click on the file and choose the Selection * extract * * here * password to extract * 911.re *
  • It will release a new yellow folder! Open the folder, double-click on the Dollar sign * with the name *client *
  • That is the option *7* below the Folder within the new 911 file
  • The dollar interface will open. Log in with your username and password! Just as you provide an acc! Otherwise, it will not work.it will take 5-10 minutes to configure your Machine.
  • Install the browser on your Dollar VPN by left-clicking and dragging any browser into the VPN system named *program*
  • Go to Proxy list. Country: e.g. * US * Country: e.g. * FL *
  • Right-click in the lower right corner of the 911 setup called * refresh * IPs under the selected state to be listed.
  • Now! Right-click on any IPs and click * Connect *
  • Open the browser you Added and check your IP on whoer.net
  • Ready to go! If your anonymity is greater than * 70% *

That’s all. It’s as easy as successfully installing 911 VPN setup files and configuring them correctly.

How To Easily install 911 VPN by running the setup file and following the steps below

•Firstly, review setup guidelines

• After that, browse the location of the downloaded ZIP file.

• Then, launch WIN-911 Install.exe as administrator

• Lastly, detailed steps in setting up WIN-911 will guide you through installation.

The computer software will work in a display mode for 1 month. This can be a fully functional license (WIN-911 advanced level).

Additional tips 911.re download
  • Change to the ‘ProxyList’ tab and double-click on the proxy you’d like to use.
  • Launch Multilogin and create a Stealthfox / Mimic browser profile with the SOCKS5 proxy by placing the IP and port in the ‘Local proxy’ section of the 911 application.
  • Username and password fields must be left blank.

Leave a Reply

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


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

text:
Join our Team

Bring your passion for making the world a better place to help advance our mission to make personalized medicine accessible to patients. We are a group of individuals who love finding new ways to maximize impact to improve patient lives. If you like working on interdisciplinary teams with a passion for innovation, consider joining the Terasaki Institute.

We have open roles across many sectors see all of our job openings to see current open positions.

Our Leadership Principles

Our Benefits

In addition to career growth and the opportunity to deliver on an important mission to advance the field of science and improve treatment options for patients, Terasaki Institute offers comprehensive and flexible benefits, including:

Our Locations

Follow Us


text:
We are proud to have 4 Canned Beers available for you to purchase and be delivered to your door, plus the Cameron" Mad Dog"  Munsters Ginger Beer.
Many more varieties are in the Brewing stage and will be available soon like Specialty Ciders, Stouts, and a great tasting "Normal Beer."
Please Note: Orders are collected and will be dispatched through the carrier of your choice on Wednesday every week.

Close (esc)

Are you old enough to buy your favourite beers??

Are you old enough to buy beer online?

By clicking enter you are verifying that you are old enough to consume alcohol.

Shopping Cart

Your cart is currently empty.
Shop now


text:
31:23 – Or, in other news 40:26

Today is Day 26 of the 40 Days of Prayer for our Nation.  It is also Day 23 of the 31 Day Challenge hosted by the Nester.  I felt it was more important today to encourage you to pray than it was to write about writing.

He holds your heart in his hands.

Mere man cannot control the tides of time or take the weight of the whole world on his shoulders. But we serve a God who can and does. Our job is to let him be in control and pray for his guidance and protection for our great nation and the nations of the world. He needs our humility, submission and faithfulness.

“If my people, which are called by my name,

shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face,

and turn from their wicked ways;

then will I hear from heaven,

and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

2 Chronicles 7:14

Praying by Grace,


text:
skip to Main Content

RAY partner / National Agency

MOVIT – Institute for the development of youth mobility
National Agency of the EU Programmes, Erasmus+: Youth in Action and European Solidarity Corps

RAY contact person: Tinkara Bizjak

RAY partner / research institute

University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Social Sciences

RAY contact person: Tomaž Deželan

National publications & reports

Links & Articles

National page on RAY and impact of Erasmus+:

National page on RAY and impact of European Solidarity Corps:

Magazine Mladje on the impact of the Erasmus+ Youth in Action programme:

Back To Top


text:
The Family, Institutional/Societal Systems, and Death Education

Authored by: Kathleen R. Gilbert , Colleen I. Murray

Handbook of Thanatology

Print publication date:  May  2013
Online publication date:  July  2013

Print ISBN: 9781138430815
eBook ISBN: 9780203767306
Adobe ISBN: 9781136726507

 Download Chapter

The intent of this chapter is to provide information on the ways in which families educate their members about death and orient them to ways to behave in situations associated with death. In addition, we will address ways in which institutional/societal systems, such as the media, broadly defined, also serve to educate. Consistent with Corr and Corr (2003a), we define the term death education as efforts to educate on any topic that is somehow death-related. This notion includes both formal and informal educational efforts regarding dying, death, grief, and bereavement.

Search for more...
Back to top

Use of cookies on this website

We are using cookies to provide statistics that help us give you the best experience of our site. You can find out more in our Privacy Policy. By continuing to use the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies.


text:
Wireless Tethering with Canon Transmitters

Posted by: on Oct 17, 2013

Wireless Tethering with Canon Transmitters

Canon designed a few different WFT wireless tethering transmitters to enhance photographers’ tethering ability, improve mobility and on-the-go photography.

Photo courtesy ©Canon

Current Wireless Transmitters Available for Camera Types:

The Canon solutions have multiple benefits for professional photographers who are looking for a lightweight and rugged wireless transmitter:

  • Provide a faster & wireless-only LAN connection
  • Slim screw-on design attachments to camera for seamless integration
  • Remote Live View with both wired & wireless media servers
  • Ability to link directly into an FTP file server
  • Enhanced linked multi-camera shooting – 10 cameras max linked simultaneously (varies on transmitters)
  • Media server (DLNA) supported
  • Bluetooth-compatible GPS devices can be connected wirelessly (varies on transmitters)

Now linking into an FTP can really change how you, the pro photographer, do business.

Imagine you are at a sporting event and shooting images as they happen.  The images you shoot can immediately be sent wirelessly to an FTP folder allowing individuals, with granted access to the folder, anywhere in the world instant use of those images for play-by-play updates, social media announcements and more.

Or imagine you are working for a client across the country and you want them to see the images as they are being shot. The client can now easily collaborate in real-time instead of having to wait for a session break and for images to be uploaded and emailed for review.

Other Specifications

FTP Setup: Because the wireless tethering system through Canon requires an FTP, you will need to make sure you set this up. You can either have an IT department or friend help you with this or read up on it yourself.

Transmission Range: The transmission range has its limits. For linked shooting, you must stay within 328 ft (100m) (varies with each transmitter). For a wireless LAN, you will get up to 492.1 ft (150m) (varies with each transmitter). Keep in mind that the distance is (with no obstructions between the transmitting and receiving antennas and no radio interference) when a large, high-performance antenna is installed at a wireless LAN access point. With Bluetooth v2.1 + EDR, you can get up to 32.8ft (10m) in distance.

Power Source: Your Wireless Transmitter will be powered by camera battery instead of an independent power source. Keep in mind if you are shooting, once the battery drops below 19%, captured images cannot be transferred.

See other wireless tethering solutions.


text:
The Xylophoniad by robinjohnson

The King of Anachronopolis has ordered you to end the Trojan War, slay the dreaded Bicyclops, and rescue a couple of inmates from Hades. A comic adventure set in ancient Greece, with an assortment of locations and characters from Greek mythology.

Winner of the Alumni's Choice award at the 2016 Spring Thing interactive fiction festival.

If you like my games, please consider tipping at
or contributing to my Patreon crowdfunder:
Review by GameofChocolate
10 Sep 2017
I can't play this. I got stuck in something, which I think I know what it is, but won't spoil it. I kept moving around but never finding a way out, or anything that changed anything. You may want to think of adding a map.

Review by snazzy ray
25 Apr 2017
Great! My favorite of yours so far!

Review by DavyB
27 Jan 2017
This is another high quality, award-winning game from Robin Johnston. It is of similar length and difficulty to Detectiveland and Draculaland. Unlike those games, however, Xylophoniad has a traditional text adventure format, with command line input. It is again built with Robin’s own game engine, Versificator, and he has also provided the very impressive artwork for the game cover and the game characters.

Being more familiar with Quest, I was initially confused by Versificator’s requirement that object names be given in full, with anything not recognised receiving a default response. That means, for example, when playing the game as Xylophone, and typing “x Xylo,” the response is “Nothing special,” rather than giving the player description or indicating that the name has not been recognised.

Once tuned in, however, I was able to thoroughly enjoy the game and particularly appreciated its humour and general creativity. For example, the concept of a two-eyed cyclops named Bicyclops is comic genius! I was also grateful that ‘death’ didn’t mean ‘death’ in the game, as the player can simply type “undo” afterwards!!

Overall, there is much to like, especially if you have an interest in Greek history and/or legends so I suggest you jump and explore.

Review by greatbo12
15 May 2016
Impressive detail and vivid imagery! I liked the idea that you are offered tasks to perform. A little difficult for a beginner like me though... Even with the plenty of help that was provided. But I guess that's just me.

Log in to post a review or comment.
Similar Games

Sigmund's Quest

Castle of the Red Prince

Twisted Tales: The Crimson Path

The Hooded Figure

The Crown of the Fox

Average rating
Written by

Published 09 May 2016
Updated 18 Jun 2018


text:
Tag Archive: sewing notions

The Endeavourers’ Reveal Day Three: Spirals

I am part of an online art quilt group, The Endeavourers, that works on quarterly challenges.  Our current topic “Spirals” generated a lot of ideas in my mind, but sewing machine troubles turned… Continue reading

Top Five Joys of Quilting

Number 5:  The sound of a well-tuned sewing machine, stitching steadily as a train clacking over tracks. Number 4:  The scent of Magic Sizing steaming up from under a hot iron. Number 3: … Continue reading

English Needles from the 1850s

Melanie at Catbird Studios just did a post on needle facts, and she mentioned, “By 1847 with the introduction of specialty machinery, more than 50 million needles were made each week in the… Continue reading

Vintage Needle Books

These are all needle books that belonged to my great-grandmother and grandmother.  I have always loved the cover illustrations, and the foil paper on the inside reminds me of Christmas wrap from the… Continue reading

Sew Many Variables, Sew Little Time

As part of Use-Up-Your-Scraps month*, I decided to focus on the different types of stabilizers, needles, and thread that are stuffed in drawers in the studio.  I got all of these notions in… Continue reading

Inspired by the Fabulous Scavenger

There are so many creative, thought-provoking blogs out there that I love reading.  But there is one in particular that gives me ideas I can accomplish quickly, right this minute! And that is … Continue reading


text:
Home / Health / A Comprehensive Guide to Sports and Their Health Benefits

A Comprehensive Guide to Sports and Their Health Benefits

Going to the gym and eating healthy food is just the start of the journey towards getting fit. To take your athletic regime to the next level, getting involved with sports can really help focus on specific areas and take your game to greater, unprecedented heights. You only need to look at the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Conor McGregor to draw inspiration from stars who are at the top of their respective games. These guys are in peak physical condition, and there’s nothing stopping you from achieving these results as well. The good thing is, sports are fun, and you can get strong while enjoying yourself. If you don’t know which sport is for you, don’t worry. Here is a definitive list of some of the best sports out there for improving your physique, and a bit of background on each. Watch the games, play the sports, and fully immerse yourself to achieve the best outcomes.

Rugby League

Rugby league was designed to be a faster and more entertaining alternative to rugby union and arguably requires a much higher level of fitness than the traditionalists’ favoured offshoot of the game. With fewer members on each team (13 rather than 15) there is more space for attacking, giving players a greater chance of making sprints through gaps. League still requires a robust frame for tackling, but attacking players tend to focus on improving speed before strength. Training for the game requires plenty of cardio work, circuit training, and core strength building.

Rugby league is hugely popular in Australia, where a lot of the world’s greatest talents play. The current holder of the World Golden Boot award is Cooper Cronk, the halfback for Melbourne Storm. Storm topped the NRL ladder in 2016, but narrowly missed out in the Grand Final to Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks. They are widely expected to bounce back this season, though, and at the time of writing, can be backed at 8/1 in the NRL betting to go all the way. The NRL season in Australia runs between March and October, and watching the fierce competition of that league is enough to entice anyone to get involved with the sport.

Playing a 90-minute football match requires huge levels of stamina, a lot more than the average spectator may expect. To play at the top levels, players undergo rigorous training throughout the week in preparation for the competitive fixtures. Ronaldo trains five days per week for approximately 3-4 hours each day. This includes periods of running for cardio, explosive high-intensity sprinting drills, technical drills to enhance ball control, and gym exercises to improve specific body strength.

It’s this level of training that makes Ronaldo one of the fittest athletes on the planet, and helps him maintain his status as a key protagonist in a successful Real Madrid side. When watching Ronaldo play for Los Blancos, you will notice his blistering speed and technical ability, and the fact that he is able to maintain those levels for the entirety of the game while players around him tire. This is how he continues to score goals, and at the time of writing is the third top scorer in La Liga behind Lionel Messi, and Luis Suarez. A lot of footballers show signs of fatigue later in their careers, but at 31 years old Ronaldo clearly has a few more good years left in him. His dedicated training schedule is one of the primary reasons for that.

Mixed Martial Arts

UFC has brought mixed martial arts to mainstream audiences, and it is becoming increasingly popular worldwide. One of the most famous stars of recent times is the Irishman McGregor, the reigning UFC Lightweight Champion. He is a picture of fitness and a man at the top of his game, but it has taken a lot of backbreaking work for him to get to the stage he is at now.

Building a fighting physique takes a lot of planning as to which exercises you need to focus on and what kind of foods you need to eat. When McGregor was training for UFC 189 he did a lot of all-round fitness between focused muscle-building sessions. Interestingly, this included yoga practice to improve balance, flexibility, and focus. He also did pool work, jump rope, and dead hanging from objects. Because UFC incorporates numerous fighting styles, it is quite possibly the best form of fighting to get into for those that want to develop all-round fitness levels. Traditional boxing had previously been touted as one of the healthiest sports, but because MMA also makes use of the legs for kicking it encourages fighters to work on both upper and lower body strength.

Tennis isn’t just an enjoyable way to spend a glorious summer day with friends; it’s also an opportunity to seriously improve your fitness. Moving about on the court doesn’t just require strength to hit the ball, it involves agility and stamina. A good tennis player must keep their focus over at least three sets, in a battle of wits and physical endurance.

Serena Williams is one of the best tennis players the world has ever seen. She has 23 singles Grand Slam titles to her name, and recently won the Australian Open for the seventh time. She is a baseline player whose primary strength lies in her power to take control of rallies. According to Muscle Prodigy, Williams’ training schedule involves drills to improve endurance, increase flexibility, strengthen her core, and build overall muscle functionality. This is done initially through tennis practice on the court, followed by cardio and strengthening in the gym.

For people who want to zero in on massively enhancing their upper body strength and appearance, rowing is the ideal sport to get into. Rowing is becoming increasingly popular across the UK as boutique rowing studios are opening at a fast pace up and down the country. According to exercise physiologist Stella Lucia; “With each stroke, pretty much every part of the body is used. A big part of rowing is core strength.” This suggests that for those that want to build strength and work on cardio at the same time rowing is the perfect exercise.

The world number one rower Eric May provides strong evidence for the benefits of rowing on the body, as the New Zealander has an exceptionally chiselled physique. The 34-year-old won gold medals at the 2012 London Olympic Games and the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games. He also set two world best times. The Olympics is a great place to watch rowing, but the best event of the year for many is the famous boat race between Oxford and Cambridge universities. The Boat Race usually takes place in March on the river Thames, and is an intense battle over a 4.2 mile stretch of water. It is always closely fought, but Cambridge have recorded more wins with 82 to Oxford’s 79.

Cycling is a fantastic way to enjoy the countryside and do sightseeing, but it is also an incredible method of improving one’s fitness. In The UK, 3.5 million people cycle at least once a month, and if more people took to two wheels rather than using their cars it would also be beneficial for the environment. The health benefits are well documented. Cycling is known to protect from serious diseases such as strokes, heart attacks, some strains of cancer, depression, diabetes, obesity, and arthritis. It uses muscles but also gets heart rate up and blood pumping around the body. Cycling can be done at the gym on exercise bikes or in spinning classes with others to spur you on, but getting out and climbing some hills in the real world can be more rewarding.

Cycling events are also pretty fun to watch. The Tour de France is perhaps the best-known and most prestigious competition in the cycling calendar, and it takes place in France with occasional stop-offs in neighbouring countries. It is a three-week-long event that involves various stages, and cycling teams consisting of nine members each. It’s hugely popular to watch on TV because it is a highly competitive sport, but it takes place with a backdrop of some stunning scenery. Because it is in July, the weather is usually pleasant as well and the whole occasion has a summery feel to it.

Swimming is not only pleasurable; it is an essential skill that everyone should learn. But it can also be a brilliant way to develop and improve fitness. For those who want to work on their cardio, but don’t want to put too much pressure on themselves, swimming keeps up the heart rate but takes a lot of stress off the body. At the same time, it still tones muscles and builds strength but is not quite as arduous as rowing for example. Taking part in swimming racing events can be a superb way to keep you at the top of your game as well. To gain some inspiration, there are plenty of televised swimming events throughout the year.

The main swimming event of the year takes place in the FINA World Aquatic Championships which is held every two years with an event due to take place in 2017. The championships also involve diving, high diving, open water swimming, synchronised swimming, and water polo.

Some people are put off by the monotony of running, and often steer clear of it because they think it is boring. But there are plenty of ways to make running more interesting. Long-distance running is an amazing way to keep up decent levels of stamina, and running for 30 minutes each day is unbelievably good for your heart. But running on a treadmill in a gym is not always the best way to enjoy the sport. Getting out into the fresh air can be much more rewarding. There are plenty of apps now that aim to make the experience fun as well. Zombies, Run! for example, is an augmented reality app that puts you right in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. Your mission is to get to an outpost while collecting supplies. You receive mission briefings and hear music through your headphones, and when you get chased by zombies you have to speed up. Who said running was boring?

You don’t have to stick to long-distance running, though. Training for a 100m sprint is supremely different to working up to a marathon. Short sprinters need superior core strength, and the likes of Usain Bolt spend a lot of time in the gym doing leg raises, side sweeps, reverse crunches, cable knee drives, and hanging leg raises among other weight exercises. Don’t worry though, the world’s fastest man has admitted to eating chicken nuggets before, so it’s not all strenuous workout sessions.

Basketball is an intense team sport that takes place on a 15-metre court. Players are continuously running from end to end while bouncing, passing, and controlling the ball, as well as shooting. Players need to be at unparalleled levels of fitness to stop and start so frequently, as well as inject quick changes in pace. The game also requires agility, vision, and lightning-fast reactions. To practice for basketball it is wise to put heavy focus on ball control and dribbling. In addition to that, strength training is imperative, and bleep test short-burst running improves that ability to stop and start. Players also progress by doing glute bridges, lateral lunges, lateral bounds, and Romanian deadlifts.

To get into the sport and experience how the professionals do it, there is no better league in the world to watch than NBA in America. The reigning champions are the Cleveland Cavaliers, who beat the Golden State Warriors 4-3 in 2016.

If you are already a fitness fanatic, combining a new sport with your regular workout will up your levels of intensity even further. And if you are someone who is aiming to get into fitness, sport can be an enjoyable way to develop that healthy addiction. Remember, if you watch, live, and breathe your favourite sport you have more chance of success.


text:
Children’s Day Floorball

Celebrate this Children’s Day with us by turning the TGIFriday on <5th October> into a fun session of #TGIFloorball! 🎉 Beyond training our ladies for the upcoming league games, we have also been working on a collaboration together with Kebun Baru CSC & the North West CDC to cater for kids floorball in a tournamentContinue reading “Children’s Day Floorball”