If you have a natural gas leak in or around your Utah home, you face a significant risk of a devastating fire or explosion – one that can hurt or kill you and your family.
Even if the problem doesn't cause a disaster of this magnitude, a leak can create unhealthy indoor air conditions. Most homeowners believe they'll smell a natural gas leak before the problem gets out of hand but that's not always the case. That's why it's imperative that you – and all members of your household – understand how to watch for and recognize a leak.
When gas leaks inside the home, it reduces the amount of oxygen available in the air.
Headaches are arguably the most commonly reported symptom related to natural gas exposure. If you or other members of your household notice persistent headaches, leave the house for several hours and notice whether this symptom resolves during that time. Return home and see if the headaches recur. If so, you may have a gas leak or, alternatively, a problem with excess carbon monoxide in your home.
Call Black Diamond Experts immediately to have your gas lines evaluated.
Leaking gas can also affect your pets before you notice symptoms in yourself or family members. Pets' lower body weight and proximity to the ground can make them more susceptible to small leaks.
If any of these symptoms persist more than a few days, have your pet checked by a veterinarian. Make sure to ask your vet if the problem could be related to gas exposure.
You can also remove your pet(s) from the home for a day or two and observe whether the symptoms disappear. If so, call for emergency plumbing repair as quickly as possible.
If you don't have a green thumb, you may chalk your inability to keep plants alive up to bad luck. However, before you dismiss your house plant struggles, consider how close the pots are to gas lines and appliances.
Do you have plants in other areas of the house that don't struggle to survive? If so, the problem could be gas exposure. Likewise, if you have an underground gas leak outside your home, you may notice a patch of dead plants near where the line runs.
Play it safe and call your plumber for a full evaluation of your home's gas lines.
If you smell natural gas or have reason to believe you have a gas leak, take your family and your pets outside quickly and get well away from the house. Call the gas company to have service shut off and wait for additional instructions.
These issues can pose a serious risk to you and your family, so it's important you do not attempt to troubleshoot or repair them yourself. Black Diamond Electric Plumbing Heating & Air can help you with gas line issues, especially if they relate to your water heater and home appliance lines. Contact us today to schedule a service call. Our licensed plumbers can help you stay safe and avoid a deadly gas leak in your Utah home.


The 4633 angle-select manual knife sharpener from Chef's Choice will apply either a 15 degree or a 20 degree edge, the choice is yours! This professional 3-stage knife sharpener ensures amazingly sharp edges on all your knives. The sharpener features separate sharpening and honing stages and creates double-bevel edges that last a long time. The knife sharpener has 100% diamond abrasives in all its 3 stages and sharpens the entire blade, from tip to bolster. The 4633 sharpener sharpens both straight edge and serrated knives and can be use for sharpening chef's, santoku, bread, hunting, fillet, and pocket knives.


text:
Q: How to merge more than one cell in one new cell in Excel? Dears,
I want to merge more than one cell and put it inside a new cell. Please see the below image for the example.
Thanks for your support.
Example:

A: In-Cell Line Break
You can use the in-cell line break, keyboard shortcut ALT+ENTER, and enter the values one below other inside one cell.
So in B12 you type

*

*121

*ALT+ENTER

*123

*ALT+ENTER

*...

Formula with line breaks
You can use a formula to achieve the result.
=IF(A2=A1;C1&CHAR(10)&B2;TEXT(B2;"@")), where CHAR(10) is a line break character.
Then you select the cells with result and toggle word wrap on. See picture:

You can then copy and paste as values, delete the rows you dont need.

A: Try:
Range ("b12").value = range ("b2").value & vbLf & range ("b3").value & vbLf etc...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Looking for a great Steamboat adeventure. Check out Pickwick Belle Steamboat Tours in Pickwick Dam, Tennessee. Fun boating adventure for the entire family.
Call Pickwick Belle Steamboat Tours today at 877-936-2355 for more information!


text:
O Plano de Continuidade de Negócios - PCN (do inglês Business Continuity Plan - BCP), estabelecido pela norma ABNT NBR 15999 Parte 1, é o desenvolvimento preventivo de um conjunto de estratégias e planos de ação de maneira a garantir que os serviços essenciais sejam devidamente identificados e preservados após a ocorrência de um desastre, e até o retorno à situação normal de funcionamento da empresa dentro do contexto do negócio do qual faz parte.

A responsabilidade da implementação do plano de continuidade de negócios é dos dirigentes da organização. A equipe de gerência da segurança pode auxiliar nessa tarefa, na criação, manutenção, divulgação e coordenação do plano de contingências.

Sob o ponto de vista do PCN, o funcionamento de uma empresa deve-se a duas variáveis:
 processos: as atividades realizadas para operar os negócios da empresa;
 componentes: todas as variáveis utilizadas para realização dos processos: energia, telecomunicações, informática, infra-estrutura, pessoas. Todas elas podem ser substituídas ou restauradas, de acordo com suas características.
O Plano de Continuidade de Negócios é constituído pelos seguintes planos:
 Plano de Contingência,
 Plano de Administração de Crises (PAC),
 Plano de Recuperação de Desastres (PRD) e
 Plano de Continuidade Operacional (PCO).

Todos estes planos têm como objetivo principal a formalização de ações a serem tomadas para que, em momentos de crise, a recuperação, a continuidade e a retomada possam ser efetivas, evitando que os processos críticos de negócio da organização sejam afetados, o que pode acarretar em perdas financeiras.

No que diz respeito à necessidade de atualizações, o Plano de Continuidade de Negócios deve ser revisado periodicamente, porque mudanças significativas em componentes, atividades ou processos críticos de negócio podem fazer com que novas estratégias e planos de ação sejam previstos, evitando assim com que eventuais desastres desestabilizem profundamente o andamento regular do negócio da empresa.

Desastre pode ser entendido como qualquer situação que afete os processos críticos do negócio de uma organização. Consequentemente, algumas ocorrências podem ser caracterizadas como sendo desastres para uma determinada empresa, mas não como tal em outra empresa.

Propósito do Plano de Continuidade de Negócios (PCN)

O propósito de um plano de continuidade de negócios, é permitir que uma organização recupere ou mantenha suas atividades em caso de uma interrupção das operações normais de negócios.

Os PCN são ativados para dar suporte às atividades críticas necessárias para cumprir os objetivos da organização. Eles podem ser executados integral ou parcialmente e em qualquer etapa da resposta a um incidente.

O conteúdo e os componentes dos PCN variam de organização para organização e possuem diferentes níveis de detalhe, dependendo da escala, ambiente, cultura e complexidade técnica da organização.

Algumas organizações de grande porte podem necessitar de documentos separados para cada uma de suas atividades críticas, enquanto as organizações menores podem ser capazes de abordar todos os aspectos críticos em um único documento.''

Conteúdo do PCN

Convém que os planos de ações incluam uma lista estruturada de tarefas em ordem de prioridade, destacando-se:
 como o PCN é ativado;
 as pessoas responsáveis por ativar o plano de continuidade de negócios;
 o procedimento que esta pessoa deve adotar ao tomar esta decisão;
 as pessoas que devem ser consultadas antes desta decisão ser tomada;
 as pessoas que devem ser informadas quando a decisão for tomada;
 quem vai para onde e quando;
 quais serviços estão disponíveis, aonde e quando, incluindo como a organização mobilizará seus recursos externos e de terceiros;
 como e quando esta informação será comunicada e
 se relevante, procedimentos detalhados para soluções manuais, recuperação dos sistemas etc.
Os planos devem referenciar as pessoas, instalações, tecnologia, informação, suprimentos e partes interessadas identificados na fase de estratégias. Devem ser incluídas premissas claras e detalhamentos sobre quaisquer recursos necessários para implementar os planos. Caso a falta de um serviço ou recurso torne os objetivos desse plano inalcançáveis, um procedimento claro deve ser definido para que o problema seja escalado a um nível mais alto.

Recursos necessários
Convém que os recursos necessários para a continuidade e recuperação dos negócios sejam identificados em diferentes pontos no tempo. Estes podem incluir:
 pessoas, o que pode incluir:
 segurança,
 logística de transporte,
 necessidades de bem-estar e
 gastos de emergência;
 instalações;
 tecnologia, incluindo comunicações;
 informações, o que pode incluir:
 detalhes financeiros (por exemplo, folha de pagamento),
 registros de contas de clientes,
 detalhes de fornecedores e partes interessadas,
 documentos legais (por exemplo, contratos, apólices de seguro, escrituras etc.), e
 outros documentos de serviços (por exemplo, acordos de nível de serviços);
 suprimentos e
 gestão das partes interessadas e da comunicação com estas.
Além disso o plano também deve especificar:
 Responsáveis: Convém que a organização identifique e designe um responsável para gerenciar as fases da continuidade e da recuperação dos negócios que ocorrem após uma interrupção de serviços.  Em muitos casos, é desejável que a organização designe os mesmos indivíduos identificados no plano de gerenciamento de incidentes para gerenciar as questões de longo prazo.
 Formulários e anexos: Quando apropriado, convém que o PCN possua detalhes de contato atualizados das agências pertinentes internas e externas, organizações e fornecedores que possam ser necessários para o suporte da organização.  Convém que o plano de continuidade de negócios inclua um registro de incidentes ou formulários para o registro de informações vitais, principalmente como consequência de decisões tomadas durante sua execução.  O plano pode incluir também formulários para armazenar dados administrativos, como, por exemplo, os recursos usados, material para controle de despesas, mapas, desenhos e plantas do local e do escritório, especialmente aqueles relacionados a instalações alternativas, tais como áreas de recuperação do local de trabalho e de armazenagem.

Bibliografia
 ABNT NBR 15999 Parte 1 - Consulta Nacional
 ABNT/CEET-00:001.63 PROJETO 00:001.63-002/01 JUNHO:2007 - EHV. NÃO TEM VALOR NORMATIVO 36/4
 Práticas Profissionais para a Gestão de Continuidade dos Negócios. DRI International, 2017. https://drii.org/resources/professionalpractices/portuguese

Gestão estratégica

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Clubbing together
Family offices talk a lot about club deals, but are they really happening, or just figments of fund managers' imaginations? Campden reports.
Article | 11 September, 2013 04:07 PM | By Jeremy Hazlehurst
Club deals are all the rage. At least in theory. Many families are sick of paying fees to asset managers who stick their money in a black box, wave a magic wand over it and then, well, find that the money has vanished in a puff of smoke. People with burned fingers are, predictably, keen to cut out the middleman and invest directly. The idea of teaming up with other like-minded family offices to make direct private equity-style investments has an evident appeal. But club deals are not happening as fast as you might expect.
"They are a bit like sex," says David Barbour, co-head of private equity at Fleming Family & Partners, "it's talked about more than it actually happens." He points out that it's hard to know how many deals are getting done, because they are off-market, which is after all "one of the attractions of doing club deals for family offices", but suspects that the reality doesn't match up to the desire.
Basil Demeroutis (pictured, right), managing partner at Fore, a property-focused club investing platform set up by eBay founder Jeff Skoll, says: "The reality is that there is a lot of chat and not a lot of action. On an absolute level, club deals have never amounted to a great deal of global capital flows. It's still pretty much inconsequential, relative to the amount of air-time they are getting, club deals have largely been irrelevant and continue to be so."
So why are they not happening as fast as might be expected? The appeal of club deals – investments made by a number of family offices teaming up together, and sometimes also with other investors such as institutions or wealthy individuals – is obvious. "Who doesn't want greater transparency?" asks Demeroutis, "who doesn't want greater alignment? Who doesn't want fewer costs? Who doesn't want greater control over where their capital is? These are all fundamental, inalienable desires of investors, no matter what the nationality, asset-class or size."
"A lot of family offices had their fingers burned by the big private equity houses in 2008 because all those returns were driven by financial engineering," says Torquil Macnaughton, a founding partner of Penta Capital, a club investing platform. He says it stands to reason that they are keen to take more control over their direct investments.
"A lot of the families back themselves to be better portfolio managers than general partners," says James Innes, a partner at club deal platform Chrystal Capital, "so they think, hang on, why am I paying a GP 2% and 20% carry? If I've got the time and resources why don't I start doing these deals myself with my peer group?"
Direct investing – whether alone or in a club – should be a winner for family offices. Those that find a profit-making operational business often have good contacts and knowledge in an industry. For example, the family office of Brian Souter, the Scottish entrepreneur who founded transport group Stagecoach, has done well out of investing in transport businesses including bus and ferry firms, as well as luxury yacht-maker Sunseeker. And Autonomy founder Mike Lynch (pictured, left) has raised a £1 billion (€1.2 billion) fund called Invoke to give early-stage funding to technology start-ups. Some family offices like to get involved in deals where the family's core business can add value, Macnaughton says. It stands to reason that they should be able to do well in those areas.
Others see club deals as a good way to get emerging market exposure, says Barbour (pictured, below right), "which is relatively hard to get through a fund structure quickly because they take time to get in and to deploy the capital". A club deal also spreads the risk between family offices. Innes says that families often have political contacts that make it possible for them to invest in emerging markets that institutional investors might not have: "Family offices know a lot of people who help commercially, prime ministers, oil ministers.
"They appreciate that, not only on a financial, but on a commercial level, there are benefits with being associated with each other." Club investing means that you can leverage the contacts other families have, and they can take advantage of yours. Families, Innes adds, also tend to take a longer-term view and often get in before the herd. "A lot of people have been making friends with Myanmar for years in expectation of liberalisation," he says, adding that the story is similar in Africa and Brazil.
So the appeals of club deals are manifold and obvious, and the financial crisis has made them even more appealing. "There is a great need for club investing," agrees Innes. So why is it not happening? The reason is simple. "It is currently done very badly," he says.
"Part of the problem is that it sounds great in concept and like a walk through the forest on a spring day, but there are pitfalls out there," says Demeroutis. A collection of family offices might agree that they want to buy a company or a building together, but how do you actually do that? "How do we agree on what we buy? Even if we want to go into partnership together what does that mean?" asks Demeroutis.
"Who's in charge? What rights do we have? It actually is quite a complex set of issues that have to be solved to do a club deal. Every time you want to do one it's like reinventing the wheel. You've got to spend time with the lawyers, draft documents, figure out who's in charge. There is no standardised blueprint for doing club deals." Most family offices are just not set up to do it: a large one might only have 15 to 20 people on the investment team and not have the resources for labour-intensive one-off deals.
Another problem is that family offices that want to do direct investments tend to want too much control. "People who have had negative experiences with blind funds and lock-up periods and illiquidity, then tend to swing the other way – maybe too much – and say, 'I want to have complete control over the investment decisions,'" says Barbour. Direct investing and club investing might appeal on paper, but in reality it is hard to do, even for a good-sized family office.
Family offices can also find that they are limited in terms of the asset-classes they can access. "You have to find something off-market or not competitive," adds Barbour, "because if you are in a very competitive market and you are trying to liaise with three, four, five different parties, you are going to look like a less credible buyer in some cases than someone who's writing a single cheque." In emerging markets that might not be a problem, but it might make clubs less appealing in, say, more conventional UK corporate assets.
Having a number of investors also adds some complexity, meaning that clubs might be limited to simpler investments. Barbour says that some might prefer to deal in property because it is less time-intensive than a more people-led business like an intellectual property-led or a technology company. Club deals also tend to have shorter time-horizons than families might ideally want. A family office investing on its own might take a very long-term view, "but once there are four or five involved you will probably see a shorter time-horizon," says Barbour, because the timeline defaults to the shortest of all the investors, although that "still might be longer than a private equity fund".
The biggest problem, however, is deal sourcing. "That's the trouble, if you haven't got the network out there tapped into good businesses and good people that run businesses then it's quite hard to find the deals," says Macnaughton. "Some family offices are better than others – those that are run by good, currently active entrepreneurs tend to have tentacles into the market, but the ones that are second or third generation and quite large and have employed people to run the family like a fund of funds for the families, I think they find it a bit harder."
Another problem for small clubs is that unless you have a massive marketing operation telling the world that you are looking for deals they are not going to drop into your lap. Even a club of families probably won't be able to go out and find them. And once you do find a deal the logistical problems remain. All this explains the emergence of platforms that can source deals, do some due-diligence and legal work, and then run them afterwards as a GP. These can be anywhere on the spectrum from a speculative pledge fund (also known as a fundless sponsor), which is a GP that has a deal but no investor, to a more formal collection of family offices who are all bound to put money into a deal.
Fleming's private equity arm, for example, runs the latter kind of set-up. Investors pay money into a pot of investable assets and have the chance to top up in every deal, meaning that they can "bespoke their portfolio a little," says Barbour. He calls this a hybrid between a fund and a club investment approach. They have been doing it this way for 10 years and the latest fund has 60 investors, approximately a third of which are family offices.
Chrystal is an investment platform that was set up in 2009 and says it talks to 200 family offices. A typical deal would involve about five family offices, and they might be able to call on the expertise of other affiliated family offices for advice. Club deals only work, says Innes, if the platform works as a corporate financier advising and educating the family offices, and not just introducing them to deals, like a pledge fund would. "That's why deals don't get done," Innes says. "You have to have them fully engaged from the start, and the families have to be convinced that it's with spending a bit of money to support a platform, because then you have a proper dedicated service."
Penta has been doing something similar since 1999 and a recent success was Esure, an insurance business. Penta bought 70% of the business for £190 million in 2010 and listed it in March 2013 with a value of £1.2 billion. "Rather than investing in a blind pool, you are not investing in an asset until you get to touch and feel it and kick the tyres a bit," says Macnaughton.
Perhaps the most valuable thing the platforms do is manage the deal after it has been done. "It's quite easy to do the deal on the way in, especially if there is a lead investor who is doing all the due diligence and presenting the deals in a relatively well-put-together way," says Barbour. "The trap, if there is one, is that it is easy to do a deal, but quite hard to manage it. Some people might find that there is quite a bit of burden on them." Platforms promise to take the strain.
So club deals are desirable – and with a bit of help, possible. If they team up with this new breed of platforms then family offices will, however, still have to pay fees for their services, which was one of the things that family offices hated about private equity houses. If you want to invest directly, fees seem inevitable. Whether this model turns out to work better depends on whether these platforms can be less of a black box and more of a trusted adviser.
Related terms: club deals, Family Office, family office, FB News, Family Business, Family office investments
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de Visscher & Co
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Merrill Lynch Wealth Management

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


You know whose stock is not plummeting anytime soon? The Kardashians'.
I've said it once, and I'll say it again: Aside from the Obamas, the Kardashians arethe most important family in America. Through their various products, shows and insane spending sprees, they put food on the table for thousands of people and give us all breaks from the terrible realities we face daily.
You know whose stock IS plummeting? Anne Hathaway's. I think we all see that. I actually think we've all seen that for a while. At one point, she was billed as the next Julia Roberts, and now she would be lucky to star in Julia: The Julia Roberts Story on Lifetime (a movie I guarantee will happen at some point).


It has been said that copy writing is an art. There tends to be a bit of a mystique about it, like no one can write copy except a copywriter. While it does indeed help to have a skillful copywriter close to hand, you can soon learn to write your own copy saving you precious money. Bear in mind the fundamentals and don't make any of the following 10 most common copywriting mistakes.
#1 – One big mistake is talking about you instead of them. Yes, you do need to tell your story and give them some background as to why they should listen to you, but it shouldn't start out that way. The headline, the hook, are about the reader and his/her problems, so talk about that. They have pain, frustrations, issues, and you want to acknowledge that in your copywriting.
#2 – Another mistake is not having a traffic-pulling headline. What makes a headline good? It's about the words, the promise, the hook. Arguably, it's not as much about the font, the color, and the size of the headline. Study what makes a good headline – the words you need to use – and don't waste a lot of time at this point about which color headline might get more views. Keep a swipe file of good headlines you can draw inspiration from.
#3 – It happens often, you get so wrapped up in writing the words you don't give a thought to keywords. We've been programmed to use keywords in blog content and article marketing but we forget, or don't realize, that keyword placement in copy is important too.
#4 – Repeat after me, bullet points are for benefits. Don't make them about the features of the product. ABC might do XYZ but those are features. The benefit would be about how that helps the customer. Will it save them time, make them more money, help them run a 10K or lose weight? Remember… What's In It For Them? How will this make their life better?
#5 – Some marketers get caught up in trying to figure out how long copy should be. If they get it in their minds that it should be longish, then they write and write to fill up the space. In reality, the copy should be only as long as you need it to be, no more. Cut out the unnecessary words!
#6 – Some writers of copy are not trying to selling the correct thing. Are you selling the product? That's your end goal certainly, but that's not really what your copy is selling. You're selling the dreams, the tropical vacations, the size 4 bikini body, the romance, and their own success story.
#7 – In an attempt to make copywriting easier for the masses, some marketers have come up with templates. This should just be a starting place. The template gives you the basics and it's up to you to make your copy unique. Resist the urge to be cookie cutter.
#8 – Mistake #8 is not speaking in different mediums. Not all people like to get their sales page in the same way so have something for everyone. Not just the written word, but use graphics, podcast, and video.
#9 – Have you ever visited a sales page and couldn't figure out what the product actually is? Is it coaching, videos, an ebook, a combo, or what? Be clear on exactly what they get with purchase.
#10 – Last on this list is no clear call to action. You have to ask for the sale. It might be crystal clear in your mind that you want them to buy, but be sure to tell them.
These are ten common mistakes that can make copy less successful than desired. The best advice is to learn all you can about copywriting… from successful copywriters. Then practice and practice and don't forget to get feedback.
All this is so true. In fact, I cannot agree more with you on point number 1. Many writers just start writing about themselves rather than the audience. This works in case of training or for that matter when the author is well-known. For example, if Jeffrey Archer is speaking about writing, he can very well give his personal experience and people will follow.
However, writers yet to reach that stage should keep it simple and address the readers' problems. Thanks for the post!
Thanks for the feedback Oivas – appreciate you taking the time to comment!
This is an eye-opener article. I did not know much about the art of writing the right way so as to attract the reader until I have read this. I definitely agree when you said that the headline must be about the reader and not about the writer and that the write up should be about outcomes more than stories. In fact, whenever I read articles on line, I get hooked up to articles whose headings tell how I can succeed and how much I can succeed in a certain area of my life.
I would say that most of my articles suffer from No. 2, not having a traffic pulling headline even though they are very nicely written and other not so well written articles beat me in the search page ranking. Great article, I have learned a lot.
Thanks for your feedback Carl – one thing to note is that copywriting is a iterative process, sometimes the title can take the longest time to write!
I agree with you on this one. I do write good article but the title lets me down. I have learned from my mistakes and now keep changing my titles based on Google keyword research and my own experience of how well the article seems to be doing..
So, like Steve mentions, it indeed is an iterative process and I have found decent success in the recent past.
These are great tips and serve to highlight how and why copywriting is the art of persuasion, not of description.
I think # 4 is especially important. Features are just a description of a product/service that the prospect does not have and he or she will not necessarily feel an emotional connection when reading such descriptions. It's up to the copywriter to reach out to that prospect and demonstrate to him or her how much this product/service will change his or her circumstances for the better.
This leads right in to what is stressed with # 6 — the importance of selling the dream, not the product/service.
Thanks very much Phyllis – Sell the Sizzle not the Steak!
You put it out so well! It indeed is the case with most people, not only while writing but also while selling. I know this because I have been there and done that.
People get carried away by their own products or services, so much so that they forget the benefits that the customer gets. Thanks for pointing that out!
this is very helpful to me , due to the fact that i am able to follow the tips.
Thanks Nicola, print it out and keep it on your desk!
Hi Steve… The main headline is highly important. But just as important – sub-heads. Sub-heads are essential for people who are skimming your sales copy – which is what most site visitors do anyway. If you do your sub-heads the right way, readers can get the 'short story' about whatever you're selling and be more enticed to read the entire sales letter.
I know when I come to a sales page I scan the headline first. If it looks interesting, I scan the sub-heads looking for the price. If it's within my spendable range, I scroll back up for the bullet points. Then I go through everything else.
Very true, thanks very much for posting your valuable advice!
I can relate to this strategy. I find that skimming through the sub-headlines on those sales pages saves me a lot of time as some of those pages are rather long!
You are right, the sub-heads are extremely important and copywriters can and should use them to their advantage.
This brings to mind the point raised in #8 — not using a variety of media. Copywriters must take into account that not everyone likes to read long sales pages. Video, images, audio and other multimedia are very important. There are people who will watch a video before they will read a sales page or who will look at photos and/or graphics. I'm actually the opposite — I'd rather skim the long page, as it saves time. But for others, a persuasive video and/or images and illustrations will have a greater impact.
Ideally, I think it's best to have the videos and graphics interspersed with the sales copy, but certainly a video right at the top, to attract interest.
These are some good tips. It is nice to have a little refresher once in a while.
I also like to use sub headings, especially if I can work in the keyword.
One thing not on the list, but I am guilty of, is not proofreading my work. Yeah, spell check is awesome but it can only go so far. You still need to read over what you have written.
I am TERRIBLE about this! When I am hitting a deadline and I am tired, all I want to do is finish the stinking article and shut off my computer. But those extra few minutes I take to proof my work has actually saved me several times from embarrassing mistakes and needless rewrites.
And the times I have blown off proofing my work, well, let's just say I have often regretted it.
Great article! Keep 'em coming!
You made several excellent points here! The part about bullet lists being for benefits was especially good to read. I see this happen in a lot of copy that clients want me to write. I try to explain this very point to them but them want what they want. The client is always right, but that doesn't mean that they cannot be, "more right" if they would just listen.
Scottf14, I agree about the bullet points. It's not surprising though that your clients may not understand this. There are catalogs and brochures which may list benefits of a product and that's appropriate.
But copywriting is not expository writing, it is more like storytelling. A copywriter is taking the prospective customers on a journey of discovery so that they will have an understanding of how their lives and/or businesses will change for the better.
After all, the end goal is to guide those prospects towards making the appropriate and logical decision…as in # 10 detailed in the article, the call to action!
Next post: Is Your Online Business Leaking?


text:
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Jonathan Kent's joyous Glyndebourne production burst[s] with opulent stagecraft...Kent is abetted by William Christie in the pit, a man of the theatre down to his gainfully-employed fingertips...Altogether... — BBC Music Magazine, November 2010, More…
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actually the fridge is an appropriate 21st-century metaphor for the frigidity of the goddess...one of the many good things about this production is the way Jonathan Kent and choreographer Ashley... — Gramophone Magazine, October 2014 More…


text:
The coefficient of restitution (COR, also denoted by e), is the ratio of the final to initial relative speed between two objects after they collide.  It normally ranges from 0 to 1 where 1 would be a perfectly elastic collision. A perfectly inelastic collision has a coefficient of 0, but a 0 value does not have to be perfectly inelastic. It is measured in the Leeb rebound hardness test, expressed as 1000 times the COR, but it is only a valid COR for the test, not as a universal COR for the material being tested.

The value is almost always less than 1 due to initial translational kinetic energy being lost to rotational kinetic energy, plastic deformation, and heat. It can be more than 1 if there is an energy gain during the collision from a chemical reaction, a reduction in rotational energy, or another internal energy decrease that contributes to the post-collision velocity.

The mathematics were developed by Sir Isaac Newton in 1687. It is also known as Newton's experimental law.

Further details

Line of impact – It is the line along which e is defined or in absence of tangential reaction force between colliding surfaces, force of impact is shared along this line between bodies. During physical contact between bodies during impact its line along common normal to pair of surfaces in contact of colliding bodies. Hence e is defined as a dimensionless one-dimensional parameter.

Range of values for e – treated as a constant

e is usually a positive, real number between 0 and 1:

e = 0: This is a perfectly inelastic collision.
0 < e < 1: This is a real-world inelastic collision, in which some kinetic energy is dissipated.
e = 1: This is a perfectly elastic collision, in which no kinetic energy is dissipated, and the objects rebound from one another with the same relative speed with which they approached.e < 0: A COR less than zero would represent a collision in which the separation velocity of the objects has the same direction (sign) as the closing velocity, implying the objects passed through one another without fully engaging. This may also be thought of as an incomplete transfer of momentum. An example of this might be a small, dense object passing through a large, less dense one – e.g., a bullet passing through a target.e'' > 1: This would represent a collision in which energy is released, for example, nitrocellulose billiard balls can literally explode at the point of impact.  Also, some recent articles have described superelastic collisions in which it is argued that the COR can take a value greater than one in a special case of oblique collisions. These phenomena are due to the change of rebound trajectory caused by friction. In such collisions kinetic energy is released in some sort of explosion.  It is possible that  for a perfect explosion of a rigid system.

 Paired objects

The COR is a property of a pair of objects in a collision, not a single object. If a given object collides with two different objects, each collision would have its own COR. When an object is described as having a coefficient of restitution, as if it were an intrinsic property without reference to a second object, it is assumed to be between identical spheres or against a perfectly rigid wall.

A perfectly rigid wall is not possible but can be approximated by a steel block if investigating the COR of spheres with a much smaller modulus of elasticity.  Otherwise, the COR will rise and then fall based on collision velocity in a more complicated manner.

 Relationship with conservation of energy and momentum

In a one-dimensional collision, the two key principles are: conservation of energy (conservation of kinetic energy if the collision is perfectly elastic) and conservation of (linear) momentum. A third equation can be derived from these two, which is the restitution equation as stated above. When solving problems, any two of the three equations can be used. The advantage of using the restitution equation is that it sometimes provides a more convenient way to approach the problem.

Let ,  be the mass of object 1 and object 2 respectively. Let ,  be the initial velocity of object 1 and object 2 respectively. Let ,  be the final velocity of object 1 and object 2 respectively.

From the first equation,

From the second equation,

After division,

The equation above is the restitution equation, and the coefficient of restitution is 1, which is a perfectly elastic collision.

Sports equipment

Thin-faced golf club drivers utilize a "trampoline effect" that creates drives of a greater distance as a result of the flexing and subsequent release of stored energy which imparts greater impulse to the ball.  The USGA (America's governing golfing body) tests drivers for COR and has placed the upper limit at 0.83. COR is a function of rates of clubhead speeds and diminish as clubhead speed increase. In the report COR ranges from 0.845 for 90 mph to as low as 0.797 at 130 mph. The above-mentioned "trampoline effect" shows this since it reduces the rate of stress of the collision by increasing the time of the collision.  According to one article (addressing COR in tennis racquets), "[f]or the Benchmark Conditions, the coefficient of restitution used is 0.85 for all racquets, eliminating the variables of string tension and frame stiffness which could add or subtract from the coefficient of restitution."

The International Table Tennis Federation specifies that the ball shall bounce up 24–26 cm when dropped from a height of 30.5 cm on to a standard steel block thereby having a COR of 0.887 to 0.923.

A basketball's COR is designated by requiring that the ball shall rebound to a height of between 960 and 1160 mm when dropped from a height of 1800 mm, resulting in a COR between 0.73–0.80.

 Equations
In the case of a one-dimensional collision involving two objects, object A and object B, the coefficient of restitution is given by:

 where:
 is the final speed of object A after impact
 is the final speed of object B after impact
 is the initial speed of object A before impact
 is the initial speed of object B before impact

Though  does not explicitly depend on the masses of the objects, it is important to note that the final velocities are mass-dependent. For two- and three-dimensional collisions of rigid bodies, the velocities used are the components perpendicular to the tangent line/plane at the point of contact, i.e. along the line of impact.

For an object bouncing off a stationary target,  is defined as the ratio of the object's speed after the impact to that prior to impact:

 where
 is the speed of the object after impact
 is the speed of the object before impact

In a case where frictional forces can be neglected and the object is dropped from rest onto a horizontal surface, this is equivalent to:

 where
 is the bounce height
 is the drop height

The coefficient of restitution can be thought of as a measure of the extent to which mechanical energy is conserved when an object bounces off a surface. In the case of an object bouncing off a stationary target, the change in gravitational potential energy, Ep, during the course of the impact is essentially zero; thus,  is a comparison between the kinetic energy, Ek, of the object immediately before impact with that immediately after impact:

In a cases where frictional forces can be neglected (nearly every student laboratory on this subject), and the object is dropped from rest onto a horizontal surface, the above is equivalent to a comparison between the Ep of the object at the drop height with that at the bounce height. In this case, the change in Ek is zero (the object is essentially at rest during the course of the impact and is also at rest at the apex of the bounce); thus:

 Speeds after impact
The equations for collisions between elastic particles can be modified to use the COR, thus becoming applicable to inelastic collisions, as well, and every possibility in between.

and

where
 is the final velocity of the first object after impact
 is the final velocity of the second object after impact
 is the initial velocity of the first object before impact
 is the initial velocity of the second object before impact
 is the mass of the first object
 is the mass of the second object

 Derivation
The above equations can be derived from the analytical solution to the system of equations formed by the definition of the COR and the law of the conservation of momentum (which holds for all collisions). Using the notation from above where  represents the velocity before the collision and  after, yields:

Solving the momentum conservation equation for  and the definition of the coefficient of restitution for  yields:

Next, substitution into the first equation for  and then resolving for  gives:

A similar derivation yields the formula for .

 COR variation due to object shape and off-center collisions
When colliding objects do not have a direction of motion that is in-line with their centers of gravity and point of impact, or if their contact surfaces at that point are not perpendicular to that line, some energy that would have been available for the post-collision velocity difference will be lost to rotation and friction. Energy losses to vibration and the resulting sound are usually negligible.

 Colliding different materials and practical measurement
When a soft object strikes a harder object, most of the energy available for the post-collision velocity will be stored in the soft object. The COR will depend on how efficient the soft object is at storing the energy in compression without losing it to heat and plastic deformation. A rubber ball will bounce better off concrete than a glass ball, but the COR of glass-on-glass is a lot higher than rubber-on-rubber because some of the energy in rubber is lost to heat when it is compressed.  When a rubber ball collides with a glass ball, the COR will depend entirely on the rubber. For this reason, determining the COR of a material when there is not identical material for collision is best done by using a much harder material.

Since there is no perfectly rigid material, hard materials such as metals and ceramics have their COR theoretically determined by considering the collision between identical spheres. In practice, a 2-ball Newton's cradle may be employed but such a set up is not conducive to quickly testing samples.

The Leeb rebound hardness test is the only commonly-available test related to determining the COR.  It uses a tip of tungsten carbide, one of the hardest substances available, dropped onto test samples from a specific height. But the shape of the tip, the velocity of impact, and the tungsten carbide are all variables that affect the result that is expressed in terms of 1000*COR. It does not give an objective COR for the material that is independent from the test.

A comprehensive study of coefficients of restitution in dependence on material properties (elastic moduli, rheology), direction of impact, coefficient of friction and adhesive properties of impacting bodies can be found in Willert (2020).

 Predicting from material properties
The COR is not a material property because it changes with the shape of the material and the specifics of the collision, but it can be predicted from material properties and the velocity of impact when the specifics of the collision are simplified.  To avoid the complications of rotational and frictional losses, we can consider the ideal case of an identical pair of spherical objects, colliding so that their centers of mass and relative velocity are all in-line.

Many materials like metals and ceramics (but not rubbers and plastics) are assumed to be perfectly elastic when their yield strength is not approached during impact. The impact energy is theoretically stored only in the spring-effect of elastic compression and results in e = 1. But this applies only at velocities less than about 0.1 m/s to 1 m/s. The elastic range can be exceeded at higher velocities because all the kinetic energy is concentrated at the point of impact. Specifically, the yield strength is usually exceeded in part of the contact area, losing energy to plastic deformation by not remaining in the elastic region. To account for this, the following estimates the COR by estimating the percent of the initial impact energy that did not get lost to plastic deformation.  Approximately, it divides how easily a volume of the material can store energy in compression () by how well it can stay in the elastic range ():

For a given material density and velocity this results in:

A high yield strength allows more of the "contact volume" of the material to stay in the elastic region at higher energies.  A lower elastic modulus allows a larger contact area to develop during impact so the energy is distributed to a larger volume beneath the surface at the contact point. This helps prevent the yield strength from being exceeded.

A more precise theoretical development shows the velocity and density of the material to also be important when predicting the COR at moderate velocities faster than elastic collision (greater than 0.1 m/s for metals) and slower than large permanent plastic deformation (less than 100 m/s). A lower velocity increases the coefficient by needing less energy to be absorbed. A lower density also means less initial energy needs to be absorbed. The density instead of mass is used because the volume of the sphere cancels out with the volume of the affected volume at the contact area. In this way, the radius of the sphere does not affect the coefficient.  A pair of colliding spheres of different sizes but of the same material have the same coefficient as below, but multiplied by

Combining these four variables, a theoretical estimation of the coefficient of restitution can be made when a ball is dropped onto a surface of the same material.

 e = coefficient of restitution
 Sy = dynamic yield strength (dynamic "elastic limit")
 E′ = effective elastic modulus
 ρρ = density
 v = velocity at impact
 μ = Poisson's ratio

This equation overestimates the actual COR. For metals, it applies when v is approximately between 0.1 m/s and 100 m/s and in general when:

At slower velocities the COR is higher than the above equation predicts, theoretically reaching e=1 when the above fraction is less than  m/s.  It gives the following theoretical coefficient of restitution for solid spheres dropped 1 meter (v'' = 4.5 m/s). Values greater than 1 indicate that the equation has errors. Yield strength instead of dynamic yield strength was used.

The COR for plastics and rubbers are greater than their actual values because they do not behave as ideally elastic as metals, glasses, and ceramics due to heating during compression.  So the following is only a guide to ranking of polymers.

Polymers (overestimated compared to metals and ceramics):

 polybutadiene (golf balls shell)
 butyl rubber
 EVA
 silicone elastomers
 polycarbonate
 nylon
 polyethylene
 Teflon
 polypropylene
 ABS
 acrylic
 PET
 polystyrene
 PVC

For metals the range of speeds to which this theory can apply is about 0.1 to 5 m/s which is a drop of 0.5 mm to 1.25 meters (page 366).

See also
 Bouncing ball
 Collision
 Damping capacity
 Resilience

References

Works cited

External links
 Wolfram Article on COR

 Chris Hecker's physics introduction
 "Getting an extra bounce" by Chelsea Wald
 FIFA Quality Concepts for Footballs – Uniform Rebound

Mechanics
Classical mechanics
Ratios

de:Stoß (Physik)#Realer Stoß


text:
Obama's Top Counterterror Adviser's Inability to Think Outside the Box Bodes Disaster
https://www.meforum.org/2662/brennan-counterterror-adviser-disaster
"The greatest hurdle Americans need to get over in order to properly respond to the growing threat of radical Islam is purely intellectual in nature; specifically, it is epistemological, and revolves around the abstract realm of 'knowledge.' Before attempting to formulate a long-term strategy to counter radical Islam, Americans must first and foremost understand Islam, particularly its laws and doctrines, the same way Muslims understand it—without giving it undue Western (liberal) interpretations. This is apparently not as simple as expected: all peoples of whatever civilizations and religions tend to assume that other peoples more or less share in their worldview, which they assume is objective, including notions of right and wrong, good and bad. …. [T]he secular, Western experience has been such that people respond with violence primarily when they feel they are politically, economically, or socially oppressed. While true that many non-Western peoples may fit into this paradigm, the fact is, the ideologies of radical Islam have the intrinsic capacity to prompt Muslims to violence and intolerance vis-à-vis the 'other,' irrespective of grievances…. Being able to understand all this, being able to appreciate it without any conceptual or intellectual constraints is paramount for Americans to truly understand the nature of the enemy and his ultimate goals."
Such were the words that opened my testimony to Congress. One year later, none other than President Obama's top counter-terror adviser, John Brennan, has come to to personify the approach I warned against, that is, the misguided phenomenon of westernizing Islamic concepts.
A Fox New's report, titled "Counterterror Adviser Defends Jihad as 'Legitimate Tenet of Islam,'" has the details:
During a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, John Brennan described violent extremists as victims of "political, economic and social forces," but said that those plotting attacks on the United States should not be described in "religious terms."
In other words, despite the fact that Islamists describe all their goals in "religious terms," Brennan sees them—you know, people like Osama bin Laden who murdered 3,000 Americans—as naught more than victims of the system. And why is that? Because Brennan believes that "political, economic and social forces"—the three I specifically stressed in my excerpt above—are the only precipitators to violence. So jihadists can openly articulate their violent bloodlust through religious terms all they want, it matters not: Brennan and his ilk have their intellectual blinders shut tight and refuse to venture outside the box.
Next, our counter-terror adviser evokes the perverse logic behind the administration's recent decision to censor words offensive to Muslims (which I closely explored here):
Nor do we describe our enemy as "jihadists" or "Islamists" because jihad is a holy struggle, a legitimate tenet of Islam, meaning to purify oneself or one's community, and there is nothing holy or legitimate or Islamic about murdering innocent men, women and children.
Inasmuch as he is correct in the first clause of that sentence—"jihad is a holy struggle, a legitimate tenet of Islam, meaning to purify oneself or one's community"—he greatly errs in the latter clause, by projecting his own notions of what constitutes "holy," "legitimate," and "innocent" onto Islam. In Islam, such terms are often antithetical to the Judeo-Christian/Western understanding. Indeed, the institution of jihad, according to every authoritative Muslim book on Islamic jurisprudence, is nothing less than offensive warfare to spread Sharia law, a cause seen as both "legitimate" and "holy" in Islam. As for "innocence," by simply being a non-Muslim infidel, one is already guilty in Islam. Brennan understands the definition of jihad; he just has no clue of its application. So he is left fumbling about with a square peg that simply refuses to pass through a round hole.
Fox News continues:
Brennan defined the enemy as members of bin Laden's Al Qaeda network and "its terrorist affiliates." But Brennan argued that it would be "counterproductive" for the United States to use the term, as it would "play into the false perception" that the "murderers" leading war against the West are doing so in the name of a "holy cause."
Fine, do define the enemy as members of bin Laden's Al Qaeda network and "its terrorist affiliates," but do also define the cause that binds these "terrorist affiliates" together in the first place. Of course, one need only read their writings to know that they adhere to one and the same cause: the establishment of a hegemonic caliphate that governs the world according to Sharia. As for Brennan calling the terrorist affiliates "murderers," would he also be willing to apply that epithet to their prophet Muhammad, who was wont to send assassins to, well, murder his critics, including poets and one old woman whose body was dismembered by her Muslim assailants—assailants who were no less convinced that they were involved in a "holy cause" than were the 9/11 hijackers?
It should be further noted that this tendency to project one's own cultural norms and priorities onto others is the height of arrogance and ethnocentrism—precisely what liberals constantly warn against. Yet the irony is that "open-minded" proponents of cultural relativism are also the ones most prone to westernizing Islam. When Brennan insists that jihadists are really not motivated by religion but rather are products of "political, economic and social forces," is this total dismissal of the "other" and his peculiar motivations (in favor of Western paradigms) not arrogant?
In the end, Brennan is not all to blame. After all, though he and I were both born and raised in North Bergen, New Jersey, perhaps my dual Middle-East/Western background gives me the advantage to understand both the Islamicate and American mindsets equally. No, seems the greater blame lies with the president whose campaign denounced ignorance and arrogance as leading us astray—only to hire a counter-terror adviser who epitomizes both.
Raymond Ibrahim is associate director of the Middle East Forum, author of The Al Qaeda Reader, and guest lecturer at the National Defense Intelligence College.
Related Topics: Counter-terrorism, US policy | Raymond Ibrahim receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free mef mailing list


Kuwait, May 5 (KUNA) - There are currently 49,130 empty apartment flats in Kuwait and 26,466 others under construction, thus more than 75,000 units need to be "absorbed" by the domestic property market in 4-5 years, according to Kuwait Real-Estate Union.
Proportion of the property units' occupation amounted in the current year to 86.8 percent, dropping by 8.2 percent as compared to the past five years -- which had soared to 95 percent, said Ahmad Al-Dewaihees, the union secretary general at a news conference.
Average monthly rent dropped from KD 278.9 (approximately USD 920.3) to KD 242 (USD 798.6), by 13.2 percent, said Al-Dewaihees, citing a report prepared by the union, "Al-Murshed 2017)." The report included a survey covering a sample of 162.576 apartment flats in 5,695 plots, at 19 locations. It studied 875 plots, including 26,466 under-construction residential units in all districts, in addition to 13,535 built ones, where proportion of new units amounted to 6.6 percent of the promoted plots.
Proportion of the expatriates' populace growth, which reached 4.8 percent over the past five years, dropped by two percent in 2017 and would fall by 1.5 percent in the coming five years.
As to ownership flats, transactions exceeded 1,000 in 2007 and 2008. Following the global economic crisis, they ebbed by 2012.
However, the market recovered, with 973 transactions in 2015 and dropped to 671 in 2017.


I was wondering if it's possible for MR to have its own personal board, or even a child board, for those who want to make stories, artworks, collabs., and cannon about MR and its people. MR is now 10 years old and has accumulated a rich history which both Raiders and Mods show through their choice of medium, but it can be a struggle to search through all the stories to find MR related content or check every single page of an artist's topic to fine MR related images.
So, I was wondering if it's possible for MR to have it's own board, or child board, for both artist and writers to share their MR related content.
Re: Can MR Have Its Own Board?
So basically a child board specifically for MRverse? Dude, I could totally get behind that. It'd be so much easier to keep up with the canon. Besides, don't I already have two or three stories already in MRverse, on top of Black Pine and the other MRverse stories? Moving them into a different board might be a little time consuming, but yes please.
I would just like a place that makes it easier to fine MR content, instead of having to look through the archives for days.
I have too much planned for that to happen for the next year or so.
I also have a few MRverse story ideas up my sleeve that I will write eventually, when I'm not crushed by everything else going on. I think there's also Manimal's ongoing story right now that could apply to that section as well.
Don't forget about the MR visual novel the mods and others have been working on for many, many years. I'm sure they'll release it by 4 to 7 years from now.
Hey, the first one is written and half coded we're not doing that bad.
But seriously, I write at least one MR Story a year, the board would get more use than some of the others sitting around here.
Moving them into a different board might be a little time consuming, but yes please.
No worries. As far as I know Coryn needs to wait for his couch between 6am to 2am from tomorrow to November. He's got time to spare.
It's coming the 21st. It made it to the store last week, but apparently the second half of the battle is getting a weekend delivery.
Welp, If it does happen, I'll be ready with at least 5 topics to start with.


Following the first month of the new financial year, tax is at the forefront of most business owner's minds. Being a small business owner through tax time can be demanding due to the many reporting requirements, particularly for those in the building and construction industry who engage contractors.
As a business owner it is essential that you are aware of your reporting requirements to the ATO. The financial consequences for failing to meet your reporting requirements can have serious impacts on the profitability of your business.
In the 2012/2013 financial year, the ATO implemented contractor payment reporting requirements for business owners within the Building and Construction industry. Contractor reporting was implemented to curb the amount of contractors avoiding income tax and GST obligations.
Business owners are required to submit a taxable payments annual report, which provides the total payments that have been made to contractors for the relevant financial year.
To detect invalid ABNs utilised by contractors.
As a result of the taxable payment reports submitted by business owners for the 2012/2013 financial year, the ATO has reportedly contacted approximately 250,000 contractors and identified over $2.3 billion in outstanding liabilities.
The consequences for a business owner failing to comply with the contractor reporting requirements involve financial penalties being levied by the ATO. The financial penalty levied by the ATO aims to reduce business owners placing the administration of the tax system at risk through failing to provide information necessary to ensure that contractors meet their obligations.
Ensure that you accurately report the total amount of payments to contractors for materials and labour.
We would be happy to assist you in understanding your reporting requirements as a business owner within the Building and Construction industry. Get in touch with someone from our office today if you require legal advice or would like us to work with your accountant on this issue.
When making plans for your Estate many people believe that drafting a standard Will automatically ensures that your Beneficiaries receive your gifts to them. However in many cases, unforeseen or remote events occur which threaten the gift left to your Beneficiary.
This is where a Testamentary Trust can be beneficial. A Testamentary Trust commences upon the death of the Testator, and allows for a Trustee to hold your Estate and deal with it on Trust for your Beneficiaries. In effect it creates a separate entity which has control over the property once you have passed away, and who can distribute it to your Beneficiaries in accordance with the powers you grant them.
There are a number of reasons why a Testamentary Trust may be required.
Gifts under standard Wills are vulnerable as they are often available to the Trustee in Bankruptcy. Therefore, if any of your Beneficiaries are at risk of going bankrupt, there is a distinct possibility that they may not receive the benefit of your gift which will instead go towards paying off Creditors. The Trustee of the Testamentary Trust will have a discretion when and how to give the gift to the Beneficiary, and as such, a Testamentary Trust can protect your assets and ensure they go where you intend them to go.
Another benefit of a Testamentary Trust is that it can operate for many years, as such you can set up the Trust so that your children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren can benefit from your Estate. Alternatively, depending on the Terms of the Trust, it can be wound up and distributed when the Beneficiaries agree or when the beneficiary reaches a certain age. Testamentary Trusts therefore can provide for a range of options which are flexible and can be utilised for a broad range of life's possibilities.
A Testamentary Trust may also be used when a Beneficiary is unable to look after their financial needs. While a Beneficiary may be the Trustee of their own Trust, you may alternatively choose to appoint another person to act in this role on behalf of the Beneficiary. This may be used when, for example, a beneficiary is a minor or has a mental or physical incapacity and may require assistance in exercising their finances.
Alternatively, where a Testator is concerned that their Beneficiary is financially irresponsible and will use the money left to them irresponsibly, for example, on gambling or an addiction, a Testamentary Trust can be established to protect the funds and Beneficiary. This may occur, for example, where the Trustee only gives the Beneficiary a monthly allowance out the Trust Funds.
As interest in a Testamentary Trust may provide greater protection for Beneficiaries in the event of a Family Law proceeding than would a straight out gift. If your Beneficiary is at risk of a breakdown in their relationship with a spouse or partner, then a Testamentary Trust can assist in protecting your property from being given to your Beneficiary's ex-spouse or partner.
Testamentary Trusts can also have a number of Taxation benefits for Capital Gains Tax as well as Taxations issues for the Beneficiaries themselves. Please contact an Accountant if you are interested in the Taxation benefits of a Testamentary Trust.
It is your legacy, so you should know where it is going. If you are concerned that your estate may not be distributed the way that you want it to be once you are gone, it is worth considering setting up a Testamentary Trust. Call our office on (07) 3667 8966 to set up an initial meeting and have one of our experienced solicitors walk you through the process.
While the term 'veil of incorporation' may not be familiar, for those companies that have extended credit to their customers only to have them default when it comes time to pay, its consequences are all too familiar. Ultimately the veil prevents a creditor from enforcing a debt against an individual person within a company, and forces them to go up against the company itself.
It is well understood that a key motivation, indeed often the key reason, for setting up a company and incorporating is to limit the risk to the owners (shareholders) of that company. This is true regardless of whether the company is a smaller proprietary company or a larger publicly traded one.
In part, this 'risk limitation' results from a fundamental principle of incorporation, that upon incorporation the company itself gains legal personality. This means that in the eyes of the law the company is the entity that enters into agreements with other parties, and as result, is ultimately liable under those agreements. In comparison, the liability of the shareholders (in most instances) will be limited to the amount of money they have paid for their shares, often as little as a $1.
It has been a well-established principle for more than one hundred years that there is nothing improper about setting up a company just for this purpose. This benefit is known as the 'veil of incorporation', and ever since its inception lawyers have attempted (with varying degrees of success) to pierce this veil or find a way around it.
With the above in mind, an essential question you need to consider is whether your ability to collect a debt owing to your business will be stopped dead by the effects of incorporation. In the worst cases this can leave you with no recourse but to try and recover a debt from a company in liquidation.
One way around this situation is through personal guarantees. In short, a guarantee expands the number of persons you can enforce the debts of the company against. It does so by creating an agreement with an officer of the debtor company (generally a director) that they will be liable for the company's debts. As directors will often have personal assets and real property, these can be invaluable in ensuring that the debt is paid.
A key mistake often made is failing to get the guarantee signed. We have seen horror stories where clients are owed a substantial sum of money by a customer and has a great personal guarantee document. Unfortunately, the guarantee not being signed leaves the client's only recourse for recovery against the (often) insolvent company.
We can help you protect your business by ensuring that your agreements and process incorporate strong personal guarantees. This will ensure the debtor finds it much more difficult to hide behind the corporate veil. Contact us on (07) 3667 8966 today to assist you in drafting the appropriate documentation.
When is the right time to purchase a business?
Purchasing a business may be the biggest transaction you enter in to during your lifetime, second only to the purchase of your home.
When considering entering into a contract for the purchase of an existing business, it is important to consider whether the purchase is suited to your situation.
9. Entitlements of employees that you might assume under the contract.
All of the above obligations should be considered during the negotiation of the contract through consultation with both your legal advisor and accountant. This ensures that all areas are adequately addressed and you are in the right position to take over the business.
At Streten Masons Lawyers we strongly advise for the inclusion of a due diligence clause in all commercial contracts, so as allow you to investigate each of the above obligations further even after a formal contract has been entered into. This can allow you to terminate the contract should you find that the purchase is not suited to your needs.
If you are thinking of purchasing a new business, phone our office on (07) 5428 1111 to speak to an experienced solicitor.
The recent decision of National Australia Bank Limited v Rice  VSC 10 has asserted that the Banking Code of Practice ('the Code') has contractual force and that banks will be bound by the terms of the Code.
In the past, the Banking Code of Conduct has merely been seen as a guide to good business rather than a contractually enforceable document. The decision handed down by the Victorian Supreme Court may indicate a willingness by the Courts to uphold the terms of the Code. In National Australia Bank Limited v Rice  VSC 10, NAB was seeking to enforce a guarantee against Mr Rose. The Court found that NAB had failed to comply with a number of obligations under the Code, including failing to advise on risk and to seek independent legal advice as well as failing to provide the proper cooling off periods.
Subsequently, NAB tried to call on Mr Rose to provide payment in accordance with the Guarantee. The Court held that the Code has contractual force, and failing to comply with its terms meant that NAB was not entitled to recover their millions of dollars in losses against Mr Rose. This is a significant development in providing consumer protection in the Banking Industry.
The Banking Code of Practice is a voluntary industry code which banks may enter into. Most banks, including the Big Four Banks have subscribed to the Code. While it has always been contended that subscription with the code creates a binding contract between the banks and their customers, in recent years the courts have been unwilling to make a definitive answer on this decision it seems, until now.
The Code itself does not expressly address legal actions for breach of the Code, however there have been a number of cases in the past which have dealt with the contractual nature of the Code. In Sam Management Services (Australia) Pty Ltd v Western Australia Ltd  NSWCA 320 it was held that the good faith requirements in the Code were merely a guide, and did not enforce a strict legal obligation on the Bank. This was further supported in Bank of Queensland v Wright  QSC 67 where the good faith requirements were called vague and an 'uncertain base for a defence'.
In Commonwealth Bank of Australia v Starrs  SASC 222 the legal effect of the Code was described as 'largely a collection of "dos and don'ts"' of bankers conduct'. As such, while it was held that breaches of the Code may be relevant when determining defined cases of unconscionability, at a basic level the Code was more of a reminder of good conduct. In Williams v Commonwealth Bank of Australia  NSWSC 335 the Court held that the despite the defendant breaching the Code, the Court would not set aside the guarantee, nor award damages. In this case the Court held that the parties would have entered the transaction regardless of the breach.
These collection of cases seem to show the Courts were unwilling to give legal effect to the Code, or were merely ambivalent to the Code. However, the Courts have not always dismissed the contractual nature of the Code. In Davies v Commonwealth Bank of Australia (Credit)  VCAT 90, the Tribunal indicated that the Code did create a contractual agreement. This view was further supported in Victor Seeto v Bank of Western Australia  NSWSC 922.
The decision in National Australia Bank Limited v Rice  VSC 10 appears to be a significant step forward in providing adequate protection for consumers in the Banking Industry. While NAB has stated that the will appeal the decision, they have said that they intend to argue that they did not breach the code, as such it appears that the contractual nature of the Code may now become widely understood. It seems likely that breaches the Code may now be used as a valid defence against actions from the banks. It will be interesting to see whether breaches of the Code may develop into an action in their own right, rather than merely providing a defence.
We will keep you updated of the progress of this appeal and any repercussions this may have.
If you have any questions about industry codes and the industries obligations relating to them, feel free to contact one of the solicitors at Streten Masons Lawyers on (07) 3667 8966.
On 13 February, 2015 the matter of Michael Castle -v- Queensland Building and Construction Commission (QBCC) was heard in the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal. At stake was the question of whether Mr Castle was to be permanently excluded from holding a builders licence, or excluded for only 5 years.
Ultimately the Applicant, Mr Castle, succeeded in his submissions. The key principle emerging from this matter and which decided the issue was that the reasonableness of the Applicant's conduct ought to be assessed by reference to his knowledge and personal circumstances at the time of that conduct.
Under the Queensland Building and Construction Commission Act 1991 ('QBCC Act'), a 'bankruptcy event' occurs where a person uses the law of bankruptcy to their advantage (they enter into voluntary bankruptcy), or is forced into bankruptcy by a creditor (they enter into involuntary bankruptcy). The result is that they become an excluded individual.
In addition, if a person was a director or an influential person in a company, and that company enters into liquidation or is wound up, that too is a relevant event (a 'company event'), the effect of which is that the director or influential person becomes an excluded individual.
The penalty for being an excluded individual is a 5 year ban on holding a builders licence.
Where a person is the subject of two relevant events, for example both a bankruptcy event and a company event, they may be deemed to be a permanently excluded individual, which as the name suggests, is an individual permanently excluded from holding a builders licence.
However the person can apply to become a 'permitted individual' if they can show that they took all reasonable steps to prevent the event from occurring.
This law is currently under review and may result in automatic bans without any ability to apply to be a permitted individual.
The potentially harsh effects of the QBCC Act are magnified when exposed to the reality of the building industry.
It is common that, for the usual reasons of risk management and financial certainty, builders form a company through which they practice their trade. Often they establish multiple companies based on an accountants' advice and when one falls down, so do the others. However, from this common business arrangement can flow serious consequences for a builder should the company get into financial difficulties.
Oftentimes, a director-builder will provide personal guarantees for goods purchased in the course of the business. When the business defaults, the personal guarantees are triggered and the director is forced into bankruptcy.
Other times the events will be unrelated but the outcome the same; two relevant events occur in a short period of time and as a result the builder is permanently excluded individual.
Mr Castle's matter concerned the latter scenario. Two events had occurred but were considered unrelated, thereby disentitling him from a defence available under the QBCC Act. In order to avoid permanent exclusion he had to show that for one of the two events, the company event, he was not an excluded individual.
His application was grounded in the argument that he took all reasonable steps to prevent the liquidation of his company. At the heart of this submission was the question of whether the determination of 'reasonable steps' should be viewed from the perspective of the company – potentially a more objective test – or from the perspective of the individual, a more subjective consideration.
If the latter argument were to be accepted by the Tribunal, then upon assessing whether the steps taken by Mr Castle to avoid his company going into liquidation were reasonable, reference would need to be made to Mr Castle's understanding of the financial condition of the company when he took those steps.
Ultimately it was decided that the latter test was the correct and preferable one, and on these grounds Mr Castle was considered to have acted reasonably. As a result he was considered a permitted individual in relation to the company event and avoided being categorised as a permanently excluded individual.
Establishing your brand and protecting your business are two of the most important considerations when setting up your business. Your logo is often the key indicia of your business that is most recognised and respected. Unlike copyright, trademark protection is not automatic and requires registration with IP Australia prior to a statutory right of entitlement being recognised.
A trademark is a symbol, logo, group of words, or even a scent that is used to readily recognise your business in the commercial world and helps distinguish your business from your competitors. A trademark will often also have a 'good will' value attached to it after years of successful use. Registering your trademark with IP Australia can be performed by the business owner; however there are numerous traps for which a person can fall into resulting in a loss of trademark protection.
1. Selecting the incorrect class for registration.
2. Registering a standalone symbol in the absence of the recognisable words attached to the business.
3. Choosing a trademark that too closely mimics another competitor's trademark.
Ensuring that adequate research is performed prior to attempting to register a trademark can also save costs. If sufficient research is not performed prior to lodging a trademark for registration then the application will be rejected as it is too similar to that of another trademark. This can often be a costly exercise, especially if multiple classes have been chosen.
For example, ABC Motors Pty Ltd carries on business in the car manufacturing industry. ABC Motors Pty Ltd in addition to selling and manufacturing cars also manufactures T-shirts with the ABC Pty Ltd logo. Mr Smith, the director of ABC Motors Pty Ltd, registers the company trademark in the vehicle trademark class. Later he notices that another company, XYZ Tshirt Pty Ltd, has started printing T-shirts with a logo extremely similar to that of ABC Motors Pty Ltd. Unfortunately, as Mr Smith did not undertake the proper searches to determine which classes his trademark should be registered (taking into account his type of business), XYZ Tshirt Pty Ltd is not technically in breach of his trademark. XYZ Tshirt Pty Ltd may continue to print the t-shirts as they have registered their logo in the clothing class.
At Streten Masons Lawyers we can help by finding the correct class for your trademark to be registered and ensuring that your trademark is adequately protected in the field your business operates. Contact rhennen@smslaw.com.au to talk about how we can help your business in this area.


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Neu-Spenrath is een plaats in de Duitse gemeente Jüchen, deelstaat Noordrijn-Westfalen, en telt 188 inwoners (2007).

Plaats in Noordrijn-Westfalen
Jüchen


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Reversible staining and removal from proteins, also used in membrane staining and protein detection.
Reversible staining is achieved by washing membranes in 1% v/v Acetic Acid in DD Water.
Detection limit 1-2 ug. Stable for 12 months at room temperature.
2% Ponceau S (w/v) in 30% TCA, 30% sulfosalicylic acid water.


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The District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority (DC Water) is soliciting offers for Request for Proposal (RFP) Number: 18-PR-DCS-45, Incident Management Simulation Program. This is an Open Market Procurement with Preference Points for Certified Local and Small Business Enterprises. The RFP will be available on Monday, June 18, 2018. Firms may download a copy from website www.dcwater.com/procurement, then click on "old vendor portal" and then "solicitations". Firms may also request a copy from Maurice Craney, Sourcing Specialist, at Maurice.Craney@dcwater.com or 202-787-2045. The date for receipt of electronic offers is Wednesday, July 18, 2018, 2:00 P.M. Local Time. Please submit all questions to the email address above by Thursday, July 5, 2018 by 2:00 PM EST.


Karen Dotrice wallpapers for your PC, Android Device, Iphone or Tablet PC. If you want to download Karen Dotrice High Quality wallpapers for your desktop, please download this wallpapers above and click «set as desktop background». You can share this wallpaper in social networks, we will be very grateful to you.
Karen Dotris is a British actress, best known for her role as Jane Banks in Disney's film version of 'Mary Poppins'. She became an actress theater (at 4 years old), then began acting in film and television, but in 1984 she left the show business to devote her time to children (Karen has three of them). In 2004, she received the title of 'Legends of Disney'.
Karen Dotris was born on November 11, 1955 in an actor's family: both her mother Kay and father Roy were actors in the theater. Karen was the third child; Both her sisters, Michel and Yvette, also became actresses.
In four years, in the production of the 'Caucasian Chalk Circle' by Berthold Brecht, the actor's debut of Dotris took place (the actor's play of Karen was led by a father who played one of the roles in it), after which the girl was noticed and invited to the USA to meet with Walt Disney.
In 1964, at the age of 8, Karen took part in the filming of the film Three Lives of Tomasina; At this time her father was busy on the production of 'King Lear' in England, and in America, about the Dotris, was personally taken care of by Walt Disney. Karen later recalled that she fell in love with him and called him 'Uncle Walt', and he really liked the lovely English pronunciation of Karen and her courtesy.
After Karen played wonderfully in 'Tomazine', there was no doubt about the performer of the role of Jane Banks in 'Mary Poppins' (also 1964). This Disney film at one time became the most commercially successful, collected five 'Oscars' and made all actors engaged in filming, famous; Critics admired the natural play of the actors-children: "the children in the film are exactly what they should be!".
In 1967, Dotris starred in the Disney film 'The Gnome-Mobile', but the film was unsuccessful and did not even get close to the tops of the box office and the glory achieved by Mary Poppins; More Karen in childhood did not appear on the screens.
In 1978, Karen in the first and only time starred in the movie in adulthood; It was the film '39 steps', where she played Alex McKenzie.
A little more Karen appeared on TV screens. In 1974, she played in a small television series (total duration of only 9 hours), a drama about the love and love of Napoleon the First, entitled 'Napoleon and Love'. In 1975 she played the role of maid Lily Hawkins in 5 episodes of the last, fifth season of the series 'Up and Down the Stairs'. This series narrated about the life of one of the families of high society of the early twentieth century, Bellamy, and their servants; He became one of the most popular television projects of London Weekend Television and went to ITV, and later gained popularity in the US and in some other countries.
In the series 'Dickens of London', Dotris played the role of Maria Bidnell, while her father inherited the role of Dickens himself. In 1977, the actress appeared on the screen in a German television movie 'Joseph Andrews' based on the novel by Henry Fielding, and in 1978, Dotris was last seen in the television series – it was 'BBC2 Play of the Week'. Then followed a break longer than a quarter of a century, and only in 2005 and 2006 the actress again appeared on the screen with roles in the series 'Young Musketeers' and 'What Are You Laughing At?'.
During the break, the actress played Desdemona (1981) in the production of Othello Warner Theater and received very unflattering reviews of critics ('this is not Desdemona, but the doll of Desdemona'); In 1982, she was replaced by Diane Uist, after which she ceased to appear in public.
In 1986, Dotris married the English actor Alex Hyde-White; In this marriage, the actress had a son, Gerrick, but in 1992 the couple parted. In 1994, Dotris married the manager of the company 'Universal Studios' Edwin Neill, and they had two children – Isabella and Griffin.
Later, Dotris worked on the scoring Disney cartoons 'Mermaid', 'Beauty and the Beast' and 'Pocahontas', and in 2004 received the honorary title of 'Legends of Disney'.


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If you need to play online games via Wi-Fi, the Nighthawk Pro is one of the...
Netgear XR500 Nighthawk Pro review
Netgear delivers high-quality hardware and an innovative router-specific operating system in a package that might be popular with more than just gamers. Here's our XR500 Nighthawk Pro review
A stylish gaming router with a new approach to network management
By Mark Pickavance | 03 May 2018
Should I buy the Netgear XR500 Nighthawk Pro?
As gaming routers go, this is a spectacular one. The DumaOS brings the XR500 into line with the operating system flexibility that you'd expect from a Synology NAS. This OS is focused on effective network management rather than providing network services, though.
We'd like it to be cheaper, but that is so true of many of the most desirable devices.
Netgear XR500 Nighthawk Pro full review
There are many challenges to the online gamer, not only distant human foes. Possibly the most frustrating of these is the timing delays that inevitably intercede at the critical point in proceedings that fall under the banner description of 'lag'.
If only the technology connecting the gamer to their network was actively working to reduce the inevitable time delays, even when that connection is via Wi-Fi. That's exactly the thinking behind the Netgear XR500, a router that tries hard to be your networking wingman forever fighting against the relentless enemy of network latency.
The XR500 costs £249, but you can pick it up for a little less: we found it for £239.99 from Amazon. In the US, it's $299 from Amazon.
That's more than the now-discounted Linksys WRT32X-UK and a little cheaper than the ASUS RT-AC88U. Though, both of those are the higher AC3100 specification not the AC2600 of the XR500.
More of a challenge is the TP-Link AC3200 Tri-Band which can be found on Amazon for less than £150. (It's not sold on Amazon US.)
For more alternatives, see our list of the best routers to buy.
All these options present the XR500 as a premium product, but does it justify the additional cost?
Features & Design
Like many of the previous Nighthawk designs, the XR500 looks like it came out of the same Lockheed Skunkworks where the F-117a 'Nighthawk' Stealth Fighter was designed.
It's been visually styled to appeal to gamers, so this is no surprise.
Strip away the esoteric styling, and what you have is an AC2600 MU-MIMO Wi-Fi platform that was built for Cable broadband or those ADSL users that use a separate modem (which applies to most UK users).
On opening the box we discovered that with the European XR500 two power supplies are included, one each for the UK and EU socket standards. Why Netgear preferred this option over a single convertible PSU, we're unsure, but that's how it comes.
The four antennas must be connected before deployment. Where the two rear-mounted antennae can be swapped out for any threaded BNC design, those on the corners have been made with extensions to reach connectors placed deep inside the case.
On the back are all the Ethernet ports (4 LAN + WAN), power on/off, reset, lights on/off and the power connection. Two USB 3.0 ports are hidden inside a recess on the left (looking front on), and WPS and WIFI on buttons are on the upper surface to the front right.
The 'beak' of the case is where all the LED indicator lights are, and reveal the use of the two frequency ranges, each LAN port and even if the Guest account is active.
As routers go, this is a theatrical design, but compared with what's inside the exterior is merely window-dressing.
DumaOS
Development of the NetDuma operating system first started in 2011, and in 2016 it spawned the DumaOS, a router tailored OS.
The XR500 is the result of a collaborative project between the NetDuma team and Netgear, and the first branded router to deliver this unique software platform.
One of the special features of DumaOS is a technology that Netgear branded 'Geo-Filter', which aims to connect online gamers to the server that's the geographically nearest and not the first that responds to a connection request.
The range of titles this works with includes World of Warcraft, Call of Duty: WWII, Destiny 2, Overwatch and eleven other popular online titles.
Out only reservation about this functionality is that for many titles the servers are now regionalised by the publishers, and it is usually only a problem that those in the USA suffer.
For most European gamers there is only one local server, but in the US it is possible for players to be allocated one on the opposite side of the continent.
Features that more gamers will appreciate are those that allow the administrator to control bandwidth allocation by connected device. This implementation exceeds what would normally be considered QoS (Quality of Service), where the aim is normally balancing.
At one level these controls avoid a device gate-crashing the router and impairing the gaming experience of existing devices, but it is also designed to make the best use of resources when there are multiple priorities.
DumaOS also has support for OpenVPN, for those that like secure connections , and the best protection against those who initiate DDoS attacks on connected gamers.
Where the XR500 is different from other routers is that the management controls here are meant to be reviewed on a regular basis, as this isn't a fire-and-forget solution.
You are actively encouraged to visit the interface on a regular basis to tweak the environment as it changes, providing a challenge to maintain the optimal experience.
If you don't like the tinker, then the XR500 probably isn't for you, as it can soon become a Tamagotchi-like challenge to create the perfect configuration.
We're inclined not to offer definitive performance values for wireless technology, mostly because it's very environment dependent. What works well in our offices or homes, doesn't always translate into the same performance elsewhere.
What we can say is that the XR500 is a good general performer especially on the 2.4GHz frequency range. Like so many routers that use the Qualcomm Atheros QCA9984, the 5GHz range is decent but not exceptional, and that weakness also impacts very slightly on the maximum performance at shorter ranges.
We're only talking a small percentage less than the very best-performing equipment. And, it's likely that the difference is down to Netgear making logical choices that deliver connection consistency over any single user.
That accepted, the user experience is very dependent on how the available bandwidth is distributed among every device attached. And, the DumaOS interface allows this to be finely honed to deliver the best performance for a range of attached devices, in ways that most other routers only aspire.
The chosen Wi-Fi chips are also used by Asus, D-Link and FRITZ!Box on a wide range of high-performance routers, making it a tried-and-tested solution. Netgear also used it in the excellent Orbi series and EX8000 Mesh extender, revealingly.
In the XR500 there are two of these modules, each handling an independent 4x4:4 MIMO configuration. One chip is focused purely on 802.11ac and 802.11an operations, while the other covers 802.11b.g/n modes.
In overall control is a 1.7 GHz Qualcomm IPQ8065, a dual-core ARM SoC that incorporates 512 MB of RAM and also provides the USB ports.
We've seen plenty of ports on routers that claimed to be USB 3.0 spec that performed like USB 2.0, but not so on the XR500. Using a high-performance USB flash drive, we recorded read speeds of nearly 70MB/s and write speeds of 40MB/s.
For what's a token NAS facility, this is more than acceptable performance and a practical alternative for those that don't own NAS hardware.
At this price, you would expect good Wi-Fi, and the XR500 doesn't disappoint even if it is only AC2600, and not the more exotic AC3100 or even AC5300 that some products now offer.
We might argue that the description of 'wireless gaming router' is a paradox. Put simply, wireless networking isn't the connection that gamers want or need. In unison, they shout 'give me wires' in a deep voice that is easily lost in behind the hum of an overclocked GTX 1080 Ti.
In the XR500 much effort has been put into isolating the gamer's data stream from other users to achieve the best possible results. It just isn't necessary to jump through those many of those hoops with gigabit Ethernet over Cat5e/6 cabling, though.
But what if you can't run wires? Well, Powerline networking is robust and usually reliable, and easier than cables to deploy rapidly.
However, some users don't have an alternative to Wi-Fi. And, for those gamers, the XR500 makes much more sense in maximising potential throughput.
Netgear XR500 Nighthawk Pro: Specs
Wi-Fi: 800Mbps (2.4GHz—256QAM) + 1733 Mbps (5GHz 11ac), AC2600
Chipset: Qualcomm IPQ8065 1.7 GHz, 2x Qualcomm Atheros QCA9984
OS: DumaOS
Standards: IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac
ROM: 256 MB
Antennae: 4
Ports: 4 x 10/100/1000 Mbps, 1 x 10/100/1000 Mbps
Buttons: Wireless On/Off, LED On/Off, Power On/Off, WPS, Reset
VPN support: OpenVPN, Gaming VPN Client Support
Security: 64/128-bit WEP, WPA/WPA2, WPA-PSK/WPA-PSK2 encryptions
Firewall Security: DoS, SPI Firewall, NAT
USB ports: 2 x USB 3.0
Dimensions: 321.9 x 243.7 x 55.0 mm (12.7 x 9.6 x 2.2 in)


An inquisitive fan had a great question answered by Sid Shuman of the PS Blog. It seems that chat is greatly improving on the PlayStation 4. Back in June/July it was revealed that the PS4 would feature a packed-in headset and a later PS4 Q&A session confirmed that Party Chat will be a feature of the console and that it will be cross-game compatible.
Shuman also confirmed that Party Chat will also be cross-platform with the PS Vita and it will support up to 8 players. We also reported that Killzone Shadow Fall would feature dedicated servers for it's online multiplayer component.
It's starting to look like Sony's claims that they're building a more serious social infrastructure into the PlayStation 4 are true. The fact that online multiplayer will require a PlayStation Plus subscription means that the next generation of PlayStation Network will have more capitol to deliver said features.


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We are excited to say that we received an overwhelming number of submissions for our first anthology, and we're so excited to start reading all of them. If you sent in a piece, our thanks! You can expect to hear from us in just a few weeks. If you don't hear from us by Dec. 15th, please contact us.
If you missed the open submissions window, don't worry, we're going to have another one for our mid-year anthology. The best way to make sure you don't miss this window is to subscribe to our mailing list.
Good luck to all of the anthology participants!