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Fraud Round-Up: Trends, Losses, and the Future of Identity Proofing
By Tulay BanJanuary 25, 2023No Comments
Many businesses have shifted to a hybrid or fully virtual environment post-COVID-19, making cybersecurity a priority.
In the past couple of years, fraud and identity theft have become increasingly serious issues, with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reporting four million cases of identity theft in 2020. This is a 45% increase from 2019, which had over three million.
For many people, 2020 was a rough year. Millions lost their jobs and struggled to make a living. The high unemployment rate may be one of the reasons why fraud cases have become rampant. People turn to cybercrime through various hacking methods, with phishing and impersonation scams being some of the most common.
Organizations can learn from these experiences to equip themselves with better cybersecurity measures.
Emerging Trends in the Fight Against Fraud
1. More advanced biometric authentication
One of the safest methods for cybersecurity is biometric authentication. This does not involve any physical ID, document, or smartphone app but uses fingerprint, eye, or facial scans. Additionally, you don't need to remember any codes since you are your own password.
Cybercriminals try to beat the system by using deepfake programs that mimic a real person's looks. Biometric methods continue to evolve, rendering them useless.
2. The use of passwordless security
When creating online accounts, it's often necessary to include personal information. If you're looking into alternatives that will prevent your personal information from being leaked, passwordless authentication can be the ideal route.
Passwordless methods can be from emails, SMS, push notifications, or biometric authentication, making logins easier and more secure since passwords can be lost or stolen.
3. Improved cybersecurity strategies with bigger budgets
In 2022, many organizations aim to allocate more funds to provide better cybersecurity. This has become essential with the massive transition of businesses online, primarily due to remote work. With the significant amount of data being transferred online, cybercriminals are more driven to steal sensitive information.
Having a larger budget for cybersecurity allows organizations to develop more secure methods for identity proofing and fraud prevention.
4. Migration to a Hybrid Cloud Model for better data security
Attackers may focus on one cloud environment, which means whatever data is in the cloud may be exposed. Because of this, many businesses have considered or shifted their attention to a hybrid approach, allowing them to manage and protect data better.
This strategy will spread your company's information in different areas, making it less susceptible to data breaches.
5. Focus on improved know your customer (KYC)
Synthetic identity fraud has been wreaking havoc across various industries—especially in the financial services sector—making it tougher to fight organized crime. Know your customer (KYC) policies with better identity proofing measures and improved multi-factor authentication implementation can elevate security to lower the chances of cyberattacks.
Losses Against Fraud
1. 4.8 million identity theft and fraud reports in 2020
In 2020, the FTC reported over four million identity theft and fraud cases. The majority of these were identity theft cases, with 1.4 million complaints filed. Before 2020, the year with the lowest number of reports was 2017, with over two million cases.
2. Federal stimulus payments were easy targets, making it the leading COVID-19 scam
Many cybercriminals found new ways to defraud people during the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of the victims were from federal stimulus payments. The Internal Revenue Service has launched a portal to assist fund distribution for those affected.
3. Around 49 million consumers lost a total of US$56 billion to identity fraud in 2020
According to a 2021 Javelin Strategy & Research study, identity fraud scams have become a new threat to businesses and their consumers, with a total combined loss of $56 billion in 2020, $43 billion of it from identity scams.
The COVID-19 pandemic worsened things with the shift to the online setting, making companies more susceptible to these scams.
4. The U.S. Department of Labor lost $26 billion in unemployment benefits from theft
The high unemployment rate has had a considerable influence on the increase in cybercrime. The U.S. Department of Labor reported that $26 billion was lost in unemployment benefits. As COVID-19 continues to ravage the world, it's expected that cybercrime cases will continue to rise, making it crucial to improve your cybersecurity.
5. Identity theft was rampant in California, Illinois, Texas, and Florida
The population size plays a significant role in this data. In 2020, the three states with the most identity theft reports were California (147,382), Illinois (135,038), Texas (134,788), and Georgia (101,367).
6. Credit card fraud was most common in the United States
In 2019, credit card fraud rose by a staggering 44.7%, with up to 397,207 reports. The following year was no different, with 393,207 reported cases. Bad actors continue to find more creative ways to steal people's identities and commit credit card fraud.
7. New credit card account breaches rose from 9% to 48% from 2019 to 2020
Another critical finding about credit card fraud involves new credit card accounts. The key figure here is the 39% difference between the new and existing accounts reported. New accounts had 365,597 cases of breach while existing accounts had 33,852 cases.
8. Data breaches hit up to 300 million victims
Despite the numerous frauds and scams, data breaches have significantly dropped from over 2.5 billion in 2016 to over 300 million in 2020. This is a 19% drop, but it does not mean it's good news. It means the cybercriminals have lost interest in stealing large amounts of information and instead target businesses with considerable payouts.
The Future of Identity Proofing
1. Artificial intelligence and machine learning
AI plays an integral role in identity verification and fraud protection. Cybercriminals have turned to more sophisticated methods to steal information, which can also be AI, so using AI against these criminals can be effective. An example is combating deepfake profiles with built-in algorithms that detect production artifacts in the footage.
2. Remote identity proofing and digital onboarding
Faster identity proofing, verification, and frictionless digital onboarding are the hallmarks of effective identity and access management solutions. These can help identify any suspicious activity, such as a fraudulent attack, allowing you to onboard customers more securely. It acts as another layer of protection while allowing you to speed up your work.
3. Decentralized identity solutions
Blockchain technology is fast becoming a cybersecurity tool for many businesses, using it for identity and access management (IAM). The blockchain is a decentralized system, protecting identity with a user-centric model. This means the user controls their data.
More importantly, this method only asks for the necessary information and guarantees authenticity without storing personal data, lowering the risk of data breaches and scams.
4. Digital IDs
The transition to digital IDs can be safer since there are centralized government locations that distribute these IDs with high levels of security. Canada has started its own verification system, with the Digital Identification and Authentication Council of Canada developing it.
5. More advanced biometrics
As mentioned above, biometric authentication is continuously evolving to play an integral role in the security of many businesses. This may be something you want to consider or integrate into a multi-factor authentication security protocol to keep your data safe.
It doesn't require a password that you can forget and adds another layer of security, making it harder for cyberattacks to occur.
It's Time to Reinforce Your Security
Data has become a valuable commodity for cybercriminals to target. There is always that uncertainty that you feel towards the safety of your information in the digital landscape. It is time to learn from the losses and study the trends to improve your cybersecurity.
Starting with a simple biometric method can work wonders. From there, you can include other methods to add more security layers.
Q5id provides an identity verification system to reduce fraud in your organization. If you want to learn more about improving your security, check out our Cost of Account Takeover whitepaper now.
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Tulay BanJanuary 30, 2023
Deepfake and Synthetic Identity: A Dangerous Combination for Fraud
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August 27, 2013 / Autumn 2013 / Issue 72 (originally published by Booz & Company)
How to Design a Winning Company
The eight components of your organizational genome hold the secret to unleashing superior performance.
by Ashok Divakaran, Gary L. Neilson, and Jaya Pandrangi
Illustration by Aad Goudappel
Sometimes epiphanies come by email—or, in this case, three emails. It was Saturday at 5:17 a.m., and Joanna was already at her laptop. As the new CEO of the fictional Seabright Publishing Company, just four months into the job, she had returned the night before from a 90-day "listening tour" of the company's operations. She hadn't slept well.
A recognized turnaround expert, Joanna had been hired by a board looking for organizational change. Seabright had a new strategy. It was shifting from print-based books and magazines for professionals to global digital information products. Everyone agreed this was the right direction for the company. Yet the former CEO, despite making a major push for restructuring and change, hadn't gotten much traction or support. That failure had cost him his job.
Joanna had concluded that the strategy itself was sound, and Seabright's people seemed to both understand the need for a turnaround and value the shift to digital media. But they couldn't execute it, especially when they had to work across company boundaries. The first few digital products were struggling to gain a foothold. When pressed, even the digital product managers grumbled that they'd be foolish to change too rapidly; their bonuses were linked to last year's metrics. The organization's culture also seemed to be holding them back. On the listening tour, when Joanna asked people what needed to be fixed, they pointed fingers at one another.
So, on what was supposed to be her first weekend off since taking the job, Joanna woke before sunrise to plot a course of action. First, she checked her email. At the top of the queue was a note from Seabright's senior vice president of production:
About that R&D project—I think we're looking at about $13 million. How soon could we seek budget committee approval?
That was followed by one from the head of marketing and consumer insight:
As I mentioned last week, I know that the app will deliver. Only remaining question is costs. I got an estimate today of ~$12–15m. Can we talk further?
The third was from her head of sales:
The new digital tool will address a lot of the issues we had with the numbers last quarter. Expect it'll be $10 million-plus to develop. How rich are we feeling these days?
Here was a perfect illustration of the problem. Three departments, with similarly sized propositions, that clearly weren't talking to one another. Joanna rolled her chair backward and closed her eyes. This was more than a communication issue. The company's organizational design, which had evolved in an ad hoc fashion over its 80-year history, was out of sync with its strategy. Each business leader had good intentions, but the company had too many initiatives under way, all projecting hockey-stick growth and rosy return on invested capital. The reality was underperformance, confusion, conflict, and spiraling costs.
The organizational design was simply too fragmented to meet the challenges the company faced. As long as that design remained in place, Joanna realized, getting Seabright to execute in the digital realm would be like entering a minivan in the Indy 500.
The Case for a New Organization
The Seabright story that unfolds in this article is a composite, derived from several actual cases in various industries. It is written to illustrate how to design a more effective alignment between your strategy and your business structure: how to gain a consistent advantage, or a "right to win" in the marketplace, through the way you are organized. To succeed consistently in the marketplace, a company must have a clear and differentiated way of creating value for its customers, supported by well-defined capabilities—things it does exceptionally well that are central to its ability to perform, and hard to replicate. All this should be reflected in its portfolio of products and services. But those elements will lead to sustainable success only if the company has the right organizational design, one that enables it to execute its strategy.
Every company's situation is unique, and therefore the right design for one company will probably not work for others, even within the same industry. But the symptoms of having the wrong organizational design are regrettably common. They include business units and functions that protect their own domain's priorities to the detriment of the overall business, hoarded or wasted resources, strategic goals without follow-through, and a culture that dismisses or ignores accountability. These problems are not just a matter of personal ill will, incompetence, external pressure, or cultural resistance. They exist because organizational design determines behavior. When a company's organizational forms are inconsistent with the broader objectives of the business, that misalignment affects the day-to-day actions of individual employees. It leads perfectly competent people to chronically underperform. Conversely, a company with a strong link between its strategy and its organizational design can, like an engine firing on thousands of cylinders instead of a few, generate energy and creativity at all levels.
Even when leaders recognize that their problems are organizational, they try to solve them in ineffective ways, by making rapid, reactive changes to the organizational structure. They shift the "lines and boxes" of the org chart, or divide up responsibilities differently. They may also force a few recalcitrant leaders to resign, sending an implicit message to current executives: "If you can't deliver, I'll get someone who will." But these fixes don't address the actual cause of underperformance: a misaligned organizational design.
At Seabright, Joanna was able to diagnose the problem because she had seen it at other companies. By making a few major changes to the organizational design, she could enable the new strategy to deliver. Given a job this big, the main question was where to start.
Designing for Strategic Fit
How do you translate a business strategy into an organizational design? How can you connect the dots between company-wide objectives and the concrete details of reporting relationships, information flows, decision rights, and social networks? The answer is not obvious. Figuring it out requires a new way of thinking about organization: what might be called organizing for essential advantage. "Essential advantage," in this context, refers to the creation of meaningful, lasting value for customers. Although mission statements and lists of business objectives are plentiful, it's rare to find a statement that explains precisely how a company creates value. As described in several recent books—notably, The Essential Advantage: How to Win with a Capabilities-Driven Strategy, by Paul Leinwand and Cesare Mainardi (Harvard Business Review Press, 2011)—these statements can be distilled down to two elements: a "way to play" and a system of differentiating capabilities. The way to play is how a company engages with the market, its fundamental value proposition. For example, some companies choose to distinguish themselves as innovators, continually introducing new products and services, whereas others are value providers, offering their products or services at an attractive price point. Capabilities are cross-functional combinations of technology, processes, skills, and mind-sets that work together synergistically. Differentiating capabilities are the few (typically, three to six) capabilities that enable a company to stand out from competitors and consistently provide value for its chosen customers that no one else can match.
A successful company doesn't gain its way to play and capabilities system by accident. Like an athlete picking a game he or she can win, and then honing skills to play that game more successfully, the company seeking a strategy looks to build on its strengths and its prospective market opportunities by choosing the path that encompasses both. Inevitably, this means choosing not to pursue some directions. That's a difficult decision for many companies, particularly those in rapidly evolving sectors, which have many opportunities and few certainties. Nonetheless, being clear and consistent about where to play and where not to play is a necessary step toward building a coherent strategy, where everything the company does fits well together.
A coherent strategy also provides the necessary starting point for the organizational design process. Without clarity about the "what" (the way the company creates value), one can't possibly define the "how" (the way to organize to create value).
Take our fictional company Seabright. Historically, its way to play had been as a premium producer; it provided targeted information to business professionals in several industries. It had a well-known brand name and strong customer retention; leaders in some industries could not function without it. But in recent years, as the value of print publishing faded relative to the value of the Internet, the company had lost its identity. On any given day, it was hard to tell whether it wanted to be a reputation player (building, like many other media companies, from a long-established brand name), a digital innovator, or a value player offering inexpensive data through online platforms.
Much of Seabright's reputation had come from its mastery of rapid print distribution. It could outpace rivals with its network of printing plants and other facilities, optimized to reduce costs and speed up delivery. Unfortunately, that capability was rapidly becoming obsolete. But another was more relevant than ever. Over the years, through its loyal subscriber base, Seabright had refined its ability to measure and understand customer insights. It also had a strong innovation capability, with the skills to tailor new products to meet customer expectations.
The existing organizational design, in formal and informal ways, tended to favor the print-related capabilities over those with more digital relevance. Joanna had already known, coming in, that she would have to reorient the company's strategy. Now she saw that she would also need to rapidly shift the organization to support the movement to digital.
Eight Building Blocks, One Design
Two weeks after her email epiphany, Joanna convened one of the most critical meetings of her tenure at Seabright. Gathered around the conference table were the heads of several business units and functions, along with two promising midlevel executives, Jill and Sanjay. Jill was a talented operations manager with a decade of experience in manufacturing. Sanjay had run finance at two digital media startups. Both were well respected in the organization and had a knack for delivering unpleasant truths with a minimum of drama.
"Effective today," Joanna said, "you two have a new assignment: Develop a fresh organizational design and bring back your high-level recommendations to this group in a month. At that point, we'll see how it fits with our company strategy, and I'll make the call on whether to detail out the new design and how to adopt it. This is the top item on my agenda."
Jill and Sanjay exchanged a glance. Joanna could tell, in that moment, that they appreciated this rare fast-track opportunity, but they also saw the risks. One major reshuffling effort had gone down in flames just two years before.
"I know," Joanna continued. "It sounds like a big, unwieldy job, but it boils down to deliverables. First, I want a diagnostic of our organizational problems: critical bottlenecks, pain points, and areas where we're stepping on ourselves or replicating efforts."
"OK," Sanjay said quietly.
"Second," Joanna said, "I want a plan to rectify those issues. That means a new organizational design for the company."
"From scratch?" Jill asked.
"Not entirely from scratch," Joanna said. "We're a decades-old company, with more than 15,000 employees. We can't—and wouldn't want to—just rip up all our institutional heritage. But you should be bold in your proposal, and especially clear about how it will explicitly support our digital growth strategy."
"Anything else we should know?" Sanjay asked.
"Yes. Don't limit yourselves to the org chart. We can all agree the last redesign was a bust, and that's one reason for it. You can't simply shift people around and expect to truly change the way they work. You have to look at the other mechanisms that influence the way people make decisions—including their attitudes and our culture. Finally, let's be clear: If you succeed, the company succeeds. And if you fail.…" She let the thought hang in the air before continuing. "One other thing: Don't assume any individuals belong in any specific boxes. Once we figure out the overall design, we'll sort out who does what."
"Where do we start?" Sanjay asked.
Joanna slid a printout across the table. "Start here."
The printout contained a diagram, taken from an article that Joanna had used before in other companies, a blueprint for effective organizational design (see Exhibit 1). It showed eight fundamental levers—vehicles for change—divided into two groups: formal and informal. Formal levers are factors that a company can precisely articulate, codify, and measure. These include the structure of the organization chart, along with incentives, decision rights, and rules that are fairly well defined. By contrast, the informal levers are factors embedded in culture, personal relationships, and behavior. They cannot be precisely codified, but they have a profound impact on an organization's effectiveness and efficiency, because they represent the everyday habits of its people. In the same way that good product engineering must incorporate both software and hardware, good organizational design must incorporate informal elements along with formal rules and structures.
Like the elements of a string of DNA, the elements of organizational design can be divided into four "rungs" in a ladder. The first rung is related to authority and the governance of behavior. On the formal side are decisions—the statements, often set into rules, bylaws, or policies, that describe the underlying mechanics by which decisions get made, including how and by whom. They include aspects such as governance policies, approval processes (for everything from product launches to expenses), guidelines for delegation, and the creation of advisory panels.
At Seabright, Sanjay knew, there was a reasonably clear approval process for financial transactions. However, the approval process for new product development needed major changes. Ideas sprang up from multiple places, and they tended to get funding as a result of internal lobbying. Innovations in digital media were particularly prone to being overlooked. To rectify this, Jill and Sanjay would ultimately propose a cross-business-unit process that could collect, analyze, and prioritize competing projects—and that would give preference to digital products, especially those that analyzed user requests, profiled their likely interests, and customized information accordingly.
The informal counterparts of decisions are norms—the unwritten shared values and standards of behavior that lead people to expect others to act in certain ways. A norm is typically expressed in statements like "We rise to challenges. We never say 'We can't do it' unless there's no alternative." Norms are often learned through apprenticeship, or passed down from mentors. They describe what separates the people who "belong here" from the people who don't.
For example, at Seabright, people tended to discuss problems only when they could propose a workable solution. This led people to routinely understate challenges and propose small measures that tended to wither away without effect. Jill and Sanjay knew this component would have to change as well.
The next rung addresses the way the company governs behaviors. The formal elements, motivators, are traditional mechanisms for reward, promotion, and recognition. They include performance objectives and incentives such as bonuses and promotions. Motivators can be immensely influential.
Seabright had a strong incentive program; as much as 30 percent of a typical manager's compensation came through end-of-year bonuses, but the bonuses were pegged to the margins of each business unit. This structure inadvertently devalued the new digital products, where the margins would likely take a hit for the first year or so.
The informal components, commitments, are unwritten aspirations that, when fulfilled, become part of a company's identity and sources of pride for its employees. One classic example of a commitment was FedEx's early slogan, "When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight." The company was proud to be held to that promise. Seabright had its own long-standing commitment: "We deliver must-read information." In many industries, its publications were the first thing that executives read each morning. For commitments to be meaningful and sustainable, they must be backed by distinctive capabilities that allow the organization to deliver. This was a bedrock element for Seabright: Jill and Sanjay knew they could build on it.
The next rung involves flows of knowledge and insight. Its formal element, information, encompasses the measurement of performance (through key performance indicators and other metrics); the coordination of activities; and the flow of explicit, codified knowledge.
The informal component is mind-sets. These deeply held attitudes and beliefs affect how employees engage with customers, design and make products, and solve problems. For example, some companies collectively believe that they must serve a social purpose in addition to their commercial interests; others have a mind-set that superlative products require superb product design. This element often separates great companies from also-rans.
The remaining rung is traditionally aligned with the concept of organizational design. On the formal side is structure—the "lines and boxes" of the organization chart, defining critical roles, responsibilities, and formal relationships. Structure is especially important for large, global companies, which must carefully design the lines and boxes, no matter who occupies the various roles. Smaller firms can more easily compensate for a flawed structure with processes and talent. For this reason, and because the chart is so closely linked to traditional thinking about organizational design, many large-company redesigns start with the org chart and, all too often, stop there as well. Although a good structural design can be important, it is never sufficient by itself. It needs to be aligned with changes in other formal and informal elements. It should generally be the capstone, not the cornerstone, of a design effort.
Although Seabright had already gone through a redesign, its structure still had significant problems—but it also had some strengths. For example, a new chief digital officer (CDO) position had been created, and that executive was well placed to bring new products to market. But the current CDO lacked authority and accountability, and had only a few direct reports.
The informal counterpart of structure is networks: connections among employees that transcend the lines and boxes of the formal organization. Networks can be organized deliberately; many centers of expertise are designed to bring together individuals with shared interests and skills. Other networks emerge on their own, as groups of individuals who consult one another because of shared interests or business needs. In general, networks provide a necessary complement to the formal structure, and they can also reveal difficulties with the overall design. If a group with a mandate for influencing performance is systematically bypassed in daily decision making, that's a clear problem.
As you put together these eight elements, the formal and informal versions of the four rungs of the ladder, your objective as senior management is to define a single strategically aligned organization. Rather than starting with the eight elements, you begin with your way to play and capabilities system. Identify the essential shared attributes of an organization that would best serve the strategy you have already defined (see Exhibit 2).
The purpose of this exercise is to lay a foundation that should guide the rest of the detailed design. As you move through the organization to specify the elements of particular functions and departments, some variation is inevitable. For example, an overall blueprint for a premium auto manufacturer like BMW, Audi, or Mercedes-Benz may not identify frugality as a central tenet. But even luxury carmakers keep a watchful eye on the efficiency of their operations. The organizational design for such a company might specify incentives related to efficiency and norms of frugality for its operations group, but not for marketing and sales.
The New Organizational Design
One month after the initial meeting at Seabright, Jill and Sanjay presented their findings to Joanna and an expanded executive team, including chief functional officers for finance, operations, marketing, and R&D. Sanjay began. "We've made a lot of progress," he said. "We started with our way to play as an innovative value provider—using digital technology to cut prices while being more relevant than ever. This requires an organization that can continually improve print while making the transition to digital. We focused on the areas we need to improve most: the formal controls of decision rights and motivators, and the informal leverage of commitments and networks."
"What about the other elements?" Joanna asked. She already knew the answer, but this was a small test.
"Well, we can't tackle all eight at once," said Jill. "We need some clear priorities. We already have a strong commitment to excellence, and although our organizational restructuring was painful, the resulting structure could actually serve us well—if we bring the other elements up to par."
"That sounds right," Joanna said. "So what's first?" Sanjay explained how they would strengthen the CDO's role and expand that leader's jurisdiction; Jill then talked about motivators. "Right now," she said, "business unit evaluations are based on individual performance. So everyone's working hard, but they're not working together. We want to adjust the bonuses, linking them to the new behaviors we want in addition to margin performance.
"Next," she said, "we need to build our information capabilities. We have access to a lot of customer data—the salespeople are fantastic in maintaining those relationships—but we don't have the capability yet to synthesize that data from multiple places, make sense of it, and translate it into the products and apps that we need."
"I thought we were already building this," said the senior vice president of production.
"We are," replied Sanjay. "That's the problem. We have five different groups working on aspects of it, but they don't know what the others are doing. We need to be innovative in a more systematic way, but without more structural constraints. Eventually, we will have to upgrade our information infrastructure, but the first step is to get people collaborating across boundaries. So we're setting up long weekly lunches among the five groups. We're also asking everyone to make a common commitment to customers—to raise our game further, giving them the information they need faster than anyone else does. To help pull that off, we're setting up some dialogues between our content generation staff and our leading customers."
Joanna sat back in her chair. Jill and Sanjay had said the right things so far. "I know I pushed you hard to turn this around quickly," she said. "Are you convinced it will get us aligned?"
Sanjay and Jill both nodded. "It'll at least point the ship in the right direction," Jill said.
"And," Joanna asked, "how will these recommendations help us strengthen the critical capabilities that we need?"
Jill and Sanjay both smiled. Jill reached into a folder in front of her. "Already done," she said, passing out a sheet of paper to the people in the room (see Exhibit 3).
It took several months to close the gap between the organization that Seabright had and the design that it needed. The first challenge was the board of directors. Because the previous restructuring had been so difficult, Joanna had to convince them (along with some top executives) that this redesign would be different. Next, she set up a handful of working teams—on product development, on customer acquisition and retention, and on information infrastructure—to lay out the details of the new organizational design. Each working team had a sponsor from the top team, ensuring that the most senior leaders would get involved.
Joanna worked directly with the global HR head to revamp the bonus system. She took pains to ensure that all employees understood the new system and what it would mean for them. The formulas were posted on Seabright's intranet, along with collective scores by business unit and geographic market.
By her one-year anniversary at Seabright, Joanna was able to demonstrate results to the board. Thanks to the efforts of the newly empowered chief digital officer, several new products had sailed through beta testing. Several follow-on initiatives were in the works—all informed by consumer insights and all with a clear strategic justification. It was too early to tell for sure, but the results seemed promising; customer response and retention were favorable, and metrics on employee engagement were trending in the right direction.
Seabright's organizational blueprint would not fit the needs of any other company. But a process like this one can help any company, ensuring that its strategy, capabilities, and organization are all aligned to support one another.
That quality is often overlooked in organizational design, but it is probably the most important factor of all, and a critical enabler of your company's ability to deliver on its strategy.
Reprint No. 00194
Ashok Divakaran is a partner with Booz & Company's organization, change, and leadership practice, and is based in Chicago. He specializes in strategy-driven transformation for product- and innovation-based companies.
Gary L. Neilson is a senior partner with Booz & Company based in Chicago. He focuses on operating models and organizational transformation.
Jaya Pandrangi is a partner with Booz & Company based in Cleveland. Her work focuses on growth and cost fitness strategy as well as sales and marketing effectiveness for consumer products and retail companies.
Deniz Caglar, Jaya Pandrangi, and John Plansky, "Is Your Company Fit for Growth?" s+b, Summer 2012: Organizational design can be an integral part of a more strategic approach to costs, helping companies prepare for the next round of expansion.
Gary L. Neilson, Karla L. Martin, and Elizabeth Powers, "The Secrets to Successful Strategy Execution," Harvard Business Review, June 2008: Why decision rights and information flow are better starting points for organizational leverage than fixing the lines and boxes on the org chart.
Booz & Company Org DNA Profiler Survey: A short diagnostic tool that explores the formal and informal elements of your organization's design.
For more thought leadership on this topic, see the s+b website at: strategy-business.com/organizations_and_people.
Topics: design, innovation, leaders, manufacturing, execution

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Have more cars than your garage can hold?? Why not extend it with a Walker Home Improvements Carport Cover. The below before and after shots show what it looks like have a double carport cover extension added to your garage.
Cladding looking old and disheveled? Contact Walker Home Improvements to give your cladding a facelift. Check out the below before and after shots!!
A few of Walker Home Improvements completed Carport Covers installed in Newcastle, Hunter and Lake Macquarie Area`s.
Before and After shots of a carport cover installed by Walker Home Improvements.
Upgrade your entertaining area by contacting Walker Home Improvements and ask for one of our fantastic enclosed rooms. Check out below for the before and after pics of a recently transformed room!!!
Have unused yard space?? Why not consider utilizing the extra space and build a beautiful glass enclosed room. Check out the below before and after images of a Glass enclosed room provided by walker home improvements.
Before and After shots of a patio cover built over a second level veranda. Perfect addition to keep dry but still have family and friends around for a BBQ.
Before and After shots of a patio cover which provides a lovely shady and weather protected area for use all year round. Utilizing Stramit Sunset Patio Panels, which are a purpose-designed roofing material, provides a smooth flat ceiling finish look.


Lawn Baptist Church is a place where believers in and around Lawn, Texas have chosen to come and worship God. We are people from all walks of life seeking to follow Jesus Christ in how we live, learn, and love.
We meet together weekly to study the Bible and to worship God - but there is much more to this church than a Sunday morning service. We invite you to come and discover how God's love can change you, too!
"I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace."
To create a Breeze login, click on the link below. Please note, the church must have a current name & email address for you to gain access to Breeze. If you are having troubles, or if we do not have your current information, please contact the church for us to update the information.
Below are a couple of Family Resource links that could be helpful. You can subscribe to each of these & they will be emailed to you on a weekly basis. I just listened to the podcast "Parenting Teens with Richard Ross." It covers kids from 4th grade all the way to college-lots of good information! Best of all, they are free-click below to be redirected to the resources.
The monthly newsletter can now be found on our website-just click the Monthly Newsletter tab at the top of the page!
Meal beginning at 5:45 pm, followed by either worship, community groups or a service/hands on project.
We have Bible Study Groups for all ages.


When you're with a client, you're incredible.
Someone could be having the ugliest of emotional breakdowns, and you know exactly what to do next to take care of them.
You can spot a limiting belief from a mile away.
And you are 100% fluent in body language.
You excel at knowing just how to serve your clients when they're most in need.
But put you in front of a room full of people in your target market….
You can't even pretend that it's just trouble with a learning curve. As a healing professional, you're pretty darn insightful into your own hangups.
And you know that the biggest thing standing between you and a wildly successful practice is your own mind.
You may have tried to get over it yourself. You've done the yoga, you've done the mindfulness, you've done all those New Agey practices to shift that block, but it's not budging.
You've talked to all your friends in the profession. You've read all the books. You've even gone in for a therapy session or two yourself.
And when that didn't take, you might have looked outside your industry for help, investing way more than you'd like to admit in workbooks, courses, and that one online purchase that has Facebook targeting you with ads for 90 Day Business Reboots.
I can help you feel just as excited –– and competent –– in working on your business as you do working with your clients.
I know the particular flavor of frustration that comes with a one-step-forward, two-steps-back approach to building a practice from the ground up.
I've experienced the ugly mix of anger and hopelessness that comes with taking on a turnkey practice that's not turnkey at all, and is instead a giant rat's nest of legal, financial and ethical issues.
I've lived through it all, come out the other side, and now I help other healing professionals do the same.
I know how to guide you from struggle to success, and from pain to profit.
Through my 15+ years of experience as a social worker, therapist, and ICF-certified coach, I've developed both the know-how and the intuition to understand what's holding you back and help you see it too, all while we create the action plan to bring your vision for your business to life.
And I do it using a robust methodology based on evidence-based protocols that I developed specifically to meet the unique needs of helping and healing professionals entering the world of entrepreneurship.
The result? The hundreds of professionals I've worked with and presented to learn how to cultivate the mindset to build a thriving business, embrace the joy that comes with mindfully serving clients they love, and create the meaningful life they want.
You have an incredible potential to serve your clients.
But you can't do that unless you have both the skillset and the mindset to be an entrepreneur who's both effective and empathetic.


Your order is often shipped within 24 hours of payment (not including weekends, holidays, or inclement weather), but can take up to 2 business days.
Shipping fees are flat rates based on country, not weight, in order to provide you the most economical shipping charge. No matter how much you order, your package will ship for the amounts shown below.
While great care is taken in the packaging of your order, once your order has been been received by the USPS, Feed Your Craft is no longer responsible for lost, stolen, or damaged items. If you need your order shipped in a manner other than First Class, please contact us for additional options.
If you are an international customer, you are responsible for any customs fees, duty and/or other taxes.
Once nexus has been established between Feed Your Craft and the state you live in, sales and/or use tax will need to be collected on your purchase. This list will kept up to date as new states are added and/or as tax rates change.
Virginia residents are responsible for paying sales and use tax at the current rate in Loudoun County on any items that require shipping. Gift cards and products that are digital-only are tax exempt.
California residents are responsible for paying sales and use tax at the current state rate on any items that require shipping. Gift cards and products that are digital-only are tax exempt.


text:
Sukari gold mine yields to Egypt amount to $200M by August
Fri, 18 Aug 2017 - 03:11 GMT
Gold - via Flickr
CAIRO – 18 August 2017: Egypt received $200 million from Sukari gold mine since the mine started operating and until the beginning of August, Centamin Egypt General Manager Yousef Al-Rajhi said Friday.
Around $100 million of the yields are the mine's profits since the beginning of the profit distribution between the company and the Egyptian Mineral Resources Authority (EMRA), affiliated to the Ministry of Petroleum in October and until now, Rajhi told Egypt Today, adding that the remained $100 million is a royalty to the beginning of July.
Rajhi highlighted that EMRA has received around $10 million over three installments during July, while a fourth one worth $1.5 million was paid in August.
Total output of the mine amounted to 90 tons since the beginning of the production in the mine in 2010 and until the end of June, the managing director said.
Centamin, the operator of the country's only commercial gold mine, has previously said that the terms were not competitive enough to take part in the bidding.
Egypt is hoping that gold production can be a future source of growth for its struggling economy. It began accepting bids in January for five concessions in its first tender for new gold exploration since 2009.
Sukari
Centamin
Egypt economy
Egyptian Mineral Resources Authority


text:
<!doctype html>

    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <title>2016-AR-11</title>
    <link class="module" rel="stylesheet" href="../../../_common/modules/pemFioi/taskStyles-0.1.css" id="http://www.france-ioi.org/modules/pemFioi/taskStyles-0.1.css">

الصورة المضغوطة

                  أوجد الرقم الذي يعبر عن الصورة "الهدف".

اضغط على الأرقام لتلوين صورتك

تنبيه: يمكنك حل المسألة بدون إستخدام الصفر

تنبيه: لون المربع يتأثر بلون المربع أعلاه

Solution

On place un 0 pour représenter une case blanche, et un 1 pour représenter une case grisée.

Pour décrire la figure, on indique le nombre de cases blanches à remplir depuis le début, puis le nombre de cases grisées à remplir ensuite, puis le nombre de cases blanches à remplir ensuite, etc... en avançant ainsi jusqu'à la fin. Par exemple, la séquence "4 3 2" permet d'afficher 4 cases blanches, suivies de 3 cases grisées, suivies de 2 cases blanches.

La suite de chiffres décrivant l'image souhaitée est ainsi :

Observez qu'on continue sur la ligne suivante quand le nombre de cases à dessiner dépasse le nombre de cases restantes sur la ligne courante. C'est ce qui se passe par exemple au début, avec "2 2 3" : la troisième case blanche associée se trouve alors placée sur la deuxième ligne.

Pour décrire la figure, on indique le nombre de cases qui sont d'une couleur différente de celles de la ligne du dessus, puis le nombre de cases qui sont de la même couleur que celles de la ligne du dessus, puis le nombre de cases qui sont d'une couleur différente de celles de la ligne du dessus, etc.

La suite de chiffres décrivant l'image souhaitée est ainsi :

Remarque : à un moment, on a 17 cases de suite où à chaque fois la case est de la même couleur que celle de la case située au-dessus d'elle. Comme on ne dispose pas du nombre 17, on est obligé d'utiliser deux chiffres dont la somme vaut 17, en les séparant par un 0, ce que l'on peut obtenir soit en écrivant "9 0 8", soit en écrivant "8 0 9".

Astuce : pour cette version, il est en fait possible de résoudre le sujet sans rien comprendre à ce que représentent les chiffres. La stratégie est la suivante : essayer, de manière répétée, de placer le plus grand chiffre possible qui permet de ne pas faire d'erreur de coloriage. Ainsi, on commence par 9, on voit que ça dessine des cases de la mauvaise couleur, donc on le retire et on essaie le 8 à la place, puis le 7, puis le 6, etc... jusqu'au 3. Comme le chiffre 3 ne dessine que des cases de la bonne couleur, on le laisse. On passe alors au chiffre suivant, en repartant du 9, et ainsi de suite, jusqu'à ce que toutes les cases aient la bonne couleur. Certes, c'est un peu fastidieux, mais ça fonctionne à tous les coups !

C'est de l'informatique !

La version facile de ce sujet illustre un encodage de base d'une image en noir et blanc en informatique, avec un 0 pour chaque case blanche, et un 1 pour chaque noire.

La version moyenne de ce sujet illustre une technique de compression d'image. La compression permet de décrire une image en utilisant une plus petite quantité d'information. Ici, la méthode pour comprimer les données exploite la propriété que l'image n'est pas aléatoire : on a souvent des longues successions de 0, ou bien des longues successions de 1.

Ainsi, par exemple plutôt que d'écrire "00000000000011111111" on peut écrire juste "12,8", pour dire qu'on met 12 fois 0 à la suite, puis 8 fois 1. Cette méthode de compression, appelée encodage RLE, était utilisée dans les fax, moyen privilégié pour envoyer des images avant l'avènement d'internet.

La version difficile de ce sujet illustre une technique avancée de compression d'image, et suggère que la manière dont on décrit une case peut dépendre de la couleur de la case voisine (ici, la case du dessus). Ce type de méthode est utilisé notamment dans les méthodes modernes de compression d'image, comme par exemple dans le format PNG, très répandu sur internet.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


a beer. Take the U3 towards Ottakring and leave the train in Westbahnhof. Only 5 minutes from a very reasonable shopping mall, the underground to the rest of Vienna, and the CAT train which takes you directly to Vienna airport in 20 minutes for 12 euro. With single bed, minibar and safe, high-speed Internet, satellite TV and movie channels. Pleasant dcor, helpful staff and a very good breakfast. The Vienna Marriott is located on the right hand side. From oil of olay in shower lotion coupon to,.4 km, post Otto Wagner - From the Postal Savings Bank to post-modernism, exhibition. Onto the A4 motorway (partly tollroad).
Take an scenic stroll through beautiful Stadtpark, or visit famous attractions via Westbahnhof Train Station, both only minutes away from.
She didn't and we went on with our day. By Car From the Vienna Airport: Leave the parking lot by turning right on Office-Park-Allee and then straight left to Ausfahrtsstr. After 97 m turn left onto "Gumpendorfer Gürtel/B221" and follow the road for about 750. Available with bath or shower. The overall experience was very enjoyable and the hotel is certainly well worth a visit. Distances Directions, transportation, u-Bahn Westbahnhof, station "Westbahnhof". The room on this stay was small for the price paid.» The stay was good.
Keep on the right side, to get on the Gumpendorfer Gürtel. Then when we went to check out, the woman at the front desk said"That will be 64 for the breakfasts. From to,.2 km, jean-Claude Volot, exhibition. Anonymous Solo - AccorHotels certified review «I enjoyed my stay.» The hotel was comfortable, friendly, efficient and very well located. But the staff was amazingly helpful and nice with this. From to,.9 km, egon Schiele, exhibition. However, the checkout overshadowed the experience, which is why I chose to take the survey and tell you. The only down side was that the hotel restaurant seemed pricey for evening meals and had a limited choice of main courses - and only 1 was gluten free. From to,.2 km, the Long Night of the Museums of Vienna. Business - AccorHotels certified review «very old fashion and the shower was a nightmare whereas I asked to change it» very bad for a mercure / they don't propose me another room whereas the shower was broken: 2 days without a real shower is just. Location was good - on a quiet street and only fifteen minutes' walk from St Stephen's Cathedral. Double bed, minibar, safe, tea/coffee-making facilities, free high-speed Internet access, satellite TV and movie channels; available with bath or shower.


text:
Q: Get class name Jsoup I am trying to parse some html for android app, but I can't get the value for the data-id class
Here's the html code
 <div class="popup event-popup Predavanja" style="display: none;" data-id="246274" data-position="bottom" >

How can I parse the 246274 value?

A: If you have the Element object of the div tag, then this code will work:
String attr = element.attr("data-id"); // get the value of the 'data-id' attribute
int dataID = Integer.parseInt(attr); // convert it to an int

Optionally, if you want to check first if the attribute even exists, use this:
if (element.hasAttr("data-id")) // etc.

A: I think you can do like this
Document doc  = JSoup.parse(""Url");
Element  divElement = doc.select("div.popup event-popup Predavanja").first();//Div with class name

String dataId = divElement.attr("data-id");

Follow this link https://jsoup.org/cookbook/extracting-data/selector-syntax

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


This little apple tree is just beautiful! It has sweet blossoms on the reverse side making it even more lovely! Perfect for small worlds, seasonal tables, or simply a beautiful display on a shelf. As usual Ostheimer quality is amazing, love, love, love!
A gorgeous apple tree for any farm or small world setting.


text:
"Defeated" is a song by American rock band Breaking Benjamin. It was released as an airplay-only single on May 12, 2015 from the band's fifth studio album Dark Before Dawn.

Background
According to Chad Childers of Loudwire, the subject matter of the song is about "overcoming obstacles and standing on your own."

Charts

Personnel
Band
 Benjamin Burnley – lead vocals, guitar
 Jasen Rauch – lead guitar
 Keith Wallen – rhythm guitar, backing vocals
 Aaron Bruch – bass guitar, backing vocals
 Shaun Foist – drums

References

2015 singles
Breaking Benjamin songs
Hollywood Records singles
Songs written by Benjamin Burnley
2015 songs
Songs written by Jasen Rauch

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Ref. 986 - Beautiful village house with 3 rooms enjoying a nice open view over the roofs on the countryside. Large bright living room, mezzanine, two bedrooms, bathroom and shower room, large roof terrace, cellar and large cave. In perfect condition.


Another Monday has found its way into existence, and here we are once again with a new Haulix Blogger Spotlight. This feature is the longest running on our still-young blog, and this week it gains one of its lengthier entries to date. If you have someone you would like to nominate for a future installment of this series, including yourself, please do not hesitate to email james@haulix.com and share your story.
PropertyOfZack founder Zack Zarrillo was the very first blogger to be featured in this series, but only a fool would think everything POZ has accomplished in recent years resulted from the efforts of one barely twenty-something with a laptop and a lot of big ideas. In fact, the contributing staff that helps keep POZ atop the alternative news game numbers in the dozens, and amongst them lies one curious soul by the name of Jesse Richman. He may not be the top news writer in digital journalism, but his work on artist features has helped widen the gap between POZ and their closest competitors while simultaneously helping usher in a new wave of talent to alternative scene.
Sometimes you meet influential people in the strangest of places, and other times it's more a twist of fate. For Jesse Richman and I the latter was definitely the case. SXSW 2013 was fast approaching and before I could log on to book a hotel I learned all rooms in the immediate vicinity of downtown Austin were completely booked. A chance conversation with Zack Zarrillo put me in contact with Jesse, and before long I had found a temporary home with him less than a mile from Austin's biggest events. We had never met or spoken before arriving, but in the days that followed I was able to watch his masterwork first hand as Jesse prepared and conducted interview after interview with talent from all walks of life. In between press events he would catch bands, usually chosen ahead of time to maximize coverage, and on the off-chance he found himself with a free moment he would begin working on his posts for the following day via phone or laptop. His work ethic is unlike anything I have witnessed elsewhere in the industry, and it's an honor to share his story here today.
We spoke with Jesse about his life before music, what got him interested in writing in the first place, and where he sees the music industry headed in the years ahead. You can read his thoughts on all this, as well as few details on what PropertyOfZack has in store, below. If you would like to know more about Jesse we highly encourage you to stop by his Twitter, or his personal portfolio site.
JR: My name is Jesse Richman. I'm a Senior Writer at PropertyOfZack, which I've called home since 2010. I also do sporadic work for other sites, and maintain my own music blog as well (generally for more personal writing) at MakeupForTheSilence.com.
H: What was the first album you really connected with? How did you discover it?
JR: Music has been a part of my life since literally before I can remember; when I was a baby, I refused to sleep if there wasn't a record on the turntable.
That said, the first album that really felt like it was mine was Live's Mental Jewelry. I remember catching the video for "Operation Spirit (The Tyranny Of Tradition)" on MTV one afternoon and just being blown away by it – visually, lyrically, sonically. When I learned soon after that they were a bunch of 20 year old kids from a town less than two hours away, it became clear they existed specifically for me to find.
H: What inspired you to get into writing in the first place?
JR: It's just something I've always enjoyed, and always had a bit of a knack for. A lot of it was just loving reading, and wanting to make something others would love and learn from too. A handful of good English teachers to encourage me didn't hurt. That said, I never really had the creative impulse for fiction writing; expository writing, whether journalistic or biographical, has always been more in my wheelhouse.
H: You went to school to study law. What attracted you to the world of entertainment journalism?
JR: I did go to law school, and I actually still practice law full-time – it's the day job which affords me the opportunity to pursue writing as more than a hobby despite the collapse of the marketplace. As for what attracted me to entertainment journalism, I've been a voracious reader of music literature for as long as I've been a music listener. I have memories of Study Hall periods spent in the school library, churning through decade-old issues of Rolling Stone. You'd have been hard-pressed to find a day where my backpack (covered with band logos drawn on in White-Out) didn't have at least one music bio crammed in among the school books. I think it's just always been in the cards that I would write about music.
H: Your work can usually be found on PropertyOfZack, a site that we have featured before. What is it about the content offered on POZ that separates you from your countless competitors?
JR: in our early days, POZ really distinguished itself with its video content – Live's, Acoustic sessions, documentary coverage of things like the GK Holiday Fest. Over the last year we've made a strong push to expand our written content to match. We've introduced Perspective (our features series), weekly Friday Discussions, our retrospective Decade pieces, and now Inside – multi-article deep digs on key players in our scene. We've got a really strong core of writers, and we're giving them the opportunities and the tools to explore their passions. Everybody wins – the site, our writers, and especially the readers.
H: The majority of your features involve interviews. Do you recall your first interview experience as a journalist?
JR: I'm sure I did some interview work for my high school paper that I've long forgotten, but I really cut my teeth working for the Arts section of my college paper – I think I sat down with every band on campus at some point.
H: Every writer is guilty of having stock questions they fall back on when times get tough. If you had to guess, which question do you think you've asked most often over the course of your career?
a tough interviewee is to get them talking about something they're passionate about.
H: There are a growing number of people who view what you do as a possible career path for themselves. What advice would you offer those who hope to make a name for themselves in writing these days?
JR: Write, write, write. Read other writers. Talk with other writers – it's never been easier than it is right now to get in touch with virtually anyone. Debate, test their ideas, make them test yours, listen to feedback. Then, write some more.
H: You've racked up quite a list of interviewees over the years. Who is left on your "interview bucket list"?
JR: Anyone who's made music that makes me feel! I don't really have a list, but there are definitely some childhood musical heroes I'd love to really get in deep with someday – Ed from Live, Raine from Our Lady Peace, Colin and Mr. C of The Shamen. And if the ghosts of Kurt Cobain or Doug Hopkins of the Gin Blossoms feel like dropping by for a chat, I'm game.
H: What would you say is your ultimate goal as a writer?
JR: To be read. And to have something to say that's worth reading. I might be putting the cart before the horse there.
H: PropertyOfZack is known for breaking up and coming rock bands. Where do you turn when hoping to discover new music?
JR: My fellow POZ staffers. Our fellow websites, like Under The Gun Review and AbsolutePunk. My friends in the blogosphere. I follow a list of 300+ music-related folks on Twitter – musicians, songwriters, producers, PR folks, journalists. Tumblr has a vibrant, if echo-y, critical community. Podcasts – I subscribe to probably 10 music-related podcasts.
I've also built up something of a mental list of must-read music critics – folks who, through their skill and insight, make me think about music in new, exciting, eye-opening ways. Nitsuh Abebe, Maura Johnston, Tom Ewing, Stephen Erlewine, Steven Hyden, Luke O'Neill, Leor Galil, Jason Pettigrew, Annie Zaleski, and many more. Everyone who posts at The Singles Jukebox. Apologies to everyone I'm forgetting. There's so much more to writing about music well than just discovering new acts.
H: Speaking of music discovery, you probably receive a lot of submissions from young artists vying for a spot on your news feed. What advice can you offer young artists hoping to stand out in your inbox?
JR: Don't bother. Really. I ignore virtually everything I get sent from publicists (and, sadly, from bands themselves). Write good songs, play good shows, build a buzz. I keep my ear to the ground, and if you're doing something interesting, odds are it'll make its way to me.
JR: We wouldn't be here doing this interview if we didn't both think Haulix was the bees knees, right? I want tracks I can stream, and preferably download too – I'm a New Yorker and do a lot of my listening on the subway, where streaming isn't an option. Haulix is straightforward and intuitive.
JR: I'd find some way to put the money back into it! The last 50 years were a bubble, and that bubble's burst, but it was a glorious bubble to live in, wasn't it?
H: You tweet a lot about having big plans for the future. Before we let you go, can you tell us a bit about what you have planned in the months ahead?
JR: I'm really stoked for Riot Fest, both as a writer/interviewer and as a fan who never had the chance to see The Replacements live. CMJ is coming, and I've already started making plans for next year's SXSW. In between all of that, I'm just going to keep writing as much as I can!


text:
Q: running a job in unix I have the following small script - myjob.qsub:
#!/bin/sh -login
#PBS -l walltime=00:15:00
#PBS -l nodes=1:ppn=1
#PBS -l mem=2gb
#PBS -N myrun05168
/myexecutable >mylog.log

I did make it executable by:
chmod u+x myexecutable

When I try to run by changing directory to the folder of executible and then sumbit the job:
qsub myjob.qsub

gives me error of no  /myexecutable file or directory.
I tried to use "./":
     #!/bin/sh -login
     #PBS -l walltime=00:15:00
      #PBS -l nodes=1:ppn=1
      #PBS -l mem=2gb
     #PBS -N myrun05168
    ./myexecutable >mylog.log

but doesnot help.
when I just tried to run my executable in command line as, it works:
./myexecutable

As I can not run this as this job need to be submitted as job in cluster computer.
Any suggestions ?

A: you need to give the full path to the script, I assume the script isn't actually in your root directory, maybe it should be /home/username/myexecutable

A: Your script runs with -login, is that needed?
You should change your script to use the relative pathname, like
myruns/p_runs/Fw2010/seed1/myexecutable >mylog.log


"He's the only one going down!" Cynthia Guy told the special agent.
After discussing the details of her ex-husband's murder, counselor Cynthia Guy left the hitman — an undercover special agent — with some disturbing parting words.
The Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation agent was promised $4,000 with "two Gs" upfront to "blast" Terry Thomas, whom Guy had divorced a few years prior. The lengthy and acrimonious proceedings had concluded with Thomas being awarded the majority of the couple's financial assets, including a home in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and rental properties in Casper, Wyoming.
Earlier in the meeting, Guy said putting the hit out on Thomas was "emotional" for her, but ultimately it was just "f*cking business." She then asked if his death could be made to look like a suicide, and the agent said staging a robbery would be easier and less suspicious.
"[W]hatever's gonna less alert the cops," said Guy.
The two agreed the agent would text Guy, "I'm at the gym," to signal the hit was completed and Thomas was dead. A few days later, the agent said he would text Cynthia, "Meet me at the gym," meaning they would drive to a nearby casino to exchange the rest of the money.
The conversation, which was recorded by a hidden camera and featured on "Murder for Hire," premiering Sunday, April 7 at 7/6c on Oxygen, was the last piece of evidence investigators needed to charge Guy with solicitation of first-degree murder. While she denied having any knowledge of the murder plot at the time of her arrest, she later made a plea deal. Guy was ultimately sentenced to 20 to 25 years in prison for solicitation to commit aggravated kidnapping, according to the Casper Star Tribune.
To hear more details about Guy's case, watch "Murder for Hire" on Oxygen.


Since X-Plane 11 has become so very popular. I though we could start a thread to share some screenshots and scenery.
Morning from a beautiful FALE.
Have you tried the Zibo 737?
Not yet, but it's on my list to add.
Joburg bound from King Shaka.
That Zibo mod really is incredible.
They're also going to be releasing the 737MAX soon - also gratis.... It's better than the PMDG in my opinion..
I was testing out the SR-71 between FACT and FAOR for a record breaking flight.
What was your flight time?
It was around 42 minutes from releasing brakes until full stop at FAOR. My navigation could have been a bit better, plus ATC had me coming in from the North on the day.
Lots of fun learning to fly this beast. She can be quite temperamental in the climb.
Anyone using world traffic 3 for xp11? Most aircraft will approach and the initiates a missed approach and aircraft parked at the gates does not taxi for take off. Would be glad to hear you guys post replies.
Hi, yes I'm using WT3. I don't seem to have that issue. The only odd thing I seem to get is that the schedules results in one or two flights flying very close to each other. I'm not sure if its some sort of code sharing issue in the scheduling.
Taking a break from the 1:1 version.
Getting ready for some bush flying in California.


text:
Q: Mysterious ArgumentNullException Visual Studio 2012 mscorelib.dll error I have an asp.net c# web application. Since a few days, without changing anything in the code, there is a mysterios error after I click on the "start debugging" button:
Error message:

Disassembly:

If I run the exact same project on my Laptop with the same vs2012 version there is no error and everything works fine. I think the error must be located somewhere in my system or anything like that.
I have tried:
- Reinstalled Visual Studio 2012
- Reinstaller all .net Frameworks
- Copied the mscorelib.dll from Laptop to workstation in all .net 4.0 directories
But the error is still there. Hope someone of you can help me with this. Thanks in advance.

A: Check the call stack. Looks like your trying to parse null as an enumeration somewhere in your code.


text:
#ifndef RECURSIVE_MUTEX_TEST_H
#define RECURSIVE_MUTEX_TEST_H

void vStartRecursiveMutexTasks( void );
portBASE_TYPE xAreRecursiveMutexTasksStillRunning( void );

#endif


text:
Movie Genre
Arnold Schwarzenegger stars in The Last Stand. Directed by KIM Jee-Woon and written by Andrew Knauer, The Last Stand also stars Forest Whitaker, Johnny Knoxville, Rodrigo Santoro, Jaimie Alexander, Luis Guzmán, Eduardo Noriega, Peter Stormare, Zach Gilford and Genesis Rodriguez. The film is produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura.
The Last Stand will be Arnold Schwarzenegger's first leading role since Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines in 2003.
Filming started on October 17, 2011 in Belen, New Mexico and Nevada. On December 17, 2011 shooting of the film was briefly interrupted, but on January 3, 2012 is continued. The processing is ended February 2, 2012 and the subsequent post-production continued in Los Angeles. The theatrical trailer premiered with The Expendables 2 and has been available online since August 2012.
After leaving his LAPD narcotics post following a bungled operation that left him wracked with remorse and regret, Sheriff Ray Owens (Schwarzenegger) moved out of Los Angeles and settled into a life fighting what little crime takes place in sleepy border town Sommerton Junction. But that peaceful existence is shattered when Gabriel Cortez (Eduardo Noriega), the most notorious, wanted drug kingpin in the western hemisphere, makes a deadly yet spectacular escape from an FBI prisoner convoy.
With the help of a fierce band of lawless mercenaries led by the icy Burrell (Peter Stormare), Cortez begins racing towards the US-Mexico border at 250 mph in a specially-outfitted Corvette ZR1 with a hostage in tow. Cortez' path: straight through Summerton Junction, where the whole of the U.S. law enforcement, including Agent John Bannister (Forest Whitaker) will have their final opportunity to intercept him before the violent fugitive slips across the border forever.
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Bryan Hitch drew a few issues of Transformers.
Red Sonja by Becky Cloonan.
Kamala Khan commission by George Kambadais.
By Bruce (who is working on the tanker).
"Take a signature 8-eye shape with marceline print and contrast black fur lining on the tongue. Add a zip down the inside to make them easy to get on and off, and you've just made yourself an instant classic."
Knights of Sidonia by Tsutomu Nihei via.
Jupiter Ascending: Kalique by Michael Kutsche.
Judge Dredd #1 cover by Paul Hanley.
The giant and everyone else from Downtown by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis.
Tori Kelly's Giger-esque gold suit.
The astronaut dancers from Nick Jonas's Levels performance.
"What if Stephen Hawking's voice box is actually the first A.I., using its robot brain to theorize on the universe and he's just riding along, as tripped out as the rest of us but unable to show it?"
"And the voice box is recommending that we don't create AI because it fears another AI would instantly recognize the voice box as AI and out it." Via.
Panther enthusiastically teething on a human hand.
New at Dead End Thrills.
Card art for the "Jump To Lightspeed" set of Fantasy Flight Games' "Star Wars: The Card Game." This character was first introduced in the Masters of Teras Kasi Playstation game, and is notorious for having a pretty impractical costume. So I really had a blast getting the opportunity to redesign her into something that I think is more reflective of her actual personality and fighting style.
"a painstaking yearslong effort to reproduce 100 studies published in three leading psychology journals has found that more than half of the findings did not hold up when retested"
See also: Wikipedia's summary of glaring flaws in the famed Stanford Prison Experiment.
1. "Two top executives at Dole are on the hook for $148 million after a judge ruled that CEO and chairman of the board David H. Murdock, and the company's former chief operating officer, C. Michael Carter fraudulently drove down their company's stock price so they could shortchange shareholders and buy the business on the cheap."
2. "Welcome to your dystopian future. Reports from yesterday say that a US drone strike in Syria has killed a British-born computer hacker who had joined ISIS and was involved in that group's online activities"
4. Grand Theft Auto 5 mod puts a Mass Effect Reaper over the skies of Los Santos.
Aside from describing his pitch for The Fantastic Four movie, in this podcast, Max Landis explains that Twitter is a perfect tool for super villains.
As the number of drivers continues to dwindle, between 80 and 120 cabs sit empty on any given shift. Yossri recalls one day recently when there were only enough drivers to send out 24 cabs, and 147 of them sat empty.
When he can, Kiouvas moves the cabs directly from one spot to another while still abiding by alternate side parking rules. More often, he parks them in the dispatcher's crowded lot temporarily. When street cleaning ends at 1:00 p.m. dispatchers, mechanics, and body men pitch in to help Kiouvas get all of the cabs back onto the street—quickly, before neighbors' cars fill in.
Here are my 2015 Boston Comic Con commissions! People made requests and I did my best to sculpt them on the fly. I got a great bunch of requests this year.
I stared at the screen. What? After a moment, I decided yes, I was most definitely up for a challenge.
Over the next two weeks, I solved five more problems.
1. "Masked Men Armed With Assault Rifles Rob Rolex Store in Century City, Get Away"
During the panel Walker, a black man, mentioned something about the character that I had never considered; [DC Comics hero] Cyborg is an emasculated black man. In his New 52 origin story, he lost the entire bottom half of his body, which means that before becoming Cyborg, he was castrated.
For instance, in the case of Obamacare, the interests of the poor, who need universal healthcare, have become aligned with the rich, whose companies have, in recent years, increasingly relied on independent contractors or part-time labor rather than full-time employees to reduce costs and increase profits; Obamacare has effectively accelerated the erosion of the concept of full-time employment in its fulfillment of one of the the former social obligations of employers. Put another way, why hire an employee and pay for their healthcare and social security when you can hire an independent contractor and let the worker and the government split the cost?
4. "'Aloha': Reliving This Decade's Worst Movie Catastrophe"
It is not socially acceptable for a grown man to watch a twelve-year-old girl in her dance class for an extended period of time, through glass, from the street.
This incredibly wide-ranging collection of maps—all inspired by literary classics—offers readers a new way of looking at their favorite fictional worlds. Andrew DeGraff's stunningly detailed artwork takes readers deep into the landscapes from The Odyssey, Hamlet, Pride and Prejudice, Invisible Man, A Wrinkle in Time, Watership Down, A Christmas Carol, and more. Sure to reignite a love for old favorites and spark fresh interest in more recent works as well, Plotted provides a unique new way of appreciating the lands of the human imagination.
"'Paparazzi Proof' Penthouse in Los Angeles is Listing for $50 Million"
The developer declined to identify buyers, but said there has been a lot of interest from Hong Kong and Singapore. The project will break ground in October and wrap up in late 2017.
"The Day Someone Signed Me Up For An Ashley Madison Account (That Day Would Be Yesterday)"
Yesterday afternoon, I got a message telling me "Welcome to Day 1 of your Ashley Madison Experience." Someone using my email signed me up, using the rather creative account name "masnicator." I'm kinda surprised that Ashley Madison is still even allowing online signups (let alone not using an email verification system, or for that matter even keeping the site up at all). But, perhaps even more ridiculous is that in the "welcome" email, it highlights how the service is "100% Secure."
Perhaps even more amusing is that just three minutes after this fake registration, I also got a fake message from someone.
Optimistic enough, in fact, to throw a Hugo Losers Party—a tradition he'd started back in 1976, but then let fall into other hands. Martin printed up invites—"Losers Welcome. Winners Will Be Mocked. No Assholes!"—hired a band, and rented a 12,000-square-foot historic mansion. Winners who showed up—including Kevin Liu, the translator of the Cixin Liu's Best Novel-winning The Three-Body Problem—had to don rubber coneheads. Losers got magic markers to write on the cones.
"Goodwill goes upscale with new boutiques"
The Orange County group has opened four high-end stores in the last two years and has plans for more, especially in the southern part of the county, where rents tend to be higher and residents wealthier.
"Food has replaced music at the heart of the cultural conversation"
I wonder if it's because food and dining still offer true scarcity whereas music is so freely available everywhere that it's become a poor signaling mechanism for status and taste. If you've eaten at Noma, you've had an experience a very tiny fraction of the world will be lucky enough to experience, whereas if you name any musical artist, I can likely find their music and be listening to it within a few mouse clicks.
Game of Throne hypothesizing by Ertaç Altınöz.
Cloak and Dagger by Frazier Irving.
Rebekka Dunlap for the New Yorker.


Starting next week I am going to have a weekly "Green Tips" post. To get things started, I thought I would start now with a "foundation" tip. Deciding to live a greener lifestyle is a great choice, but I know that when you are first getting started it can be completely overwhelming! Where do you start? What should you change first? How do I do this? You can keep going round and round in circles with questions and never get the ball rolling. So my first tip: take it one step at a time! You are so much better off focusing on one small thing at a time rather than trying to change everything at once. You can start with the easiest thing to change or perhaps something that is most important to you. When you decide what it is you want to start with, research it. Educate yourself and other members of your household so every one is on the same page. And then just do it!
Remember to stop by on Monday for my first weekly Green Tip!
Do you have a great Green Tip that you can share with us? Please email your tip to me (along with your URL) at greenmamaspad(at)gmail(dot)com and I will post it with a link back to your blog.


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Netflix's Gerald's Game is a graceful, mold-breaking Stephen King adaptation
Mike Flanagan's taut film subverts our expectations with an added dose of feminism.
By Aja Romano@ajaromano Sep 30, 2017, 9:40am EDT
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Aja Romano is a culture reporter for Vox, focusing on criticism and the ethics of culture. Before joining Vox in 2016, they were a staff reporter at the Daily Dot.
Unlike most Stephen King film adaptations, the new Netflix movie Gerald's Game, about a woman who becomes trapped in a remote vacation house after her husband dies, doesn't announce itself as being based on a King novel. In a year when King is everywhere, that may be surprising — but it's also indicative of how different both Gerald's Game and its source novel are from most of their peers.
That's a good thing for Stephen King fans, not only because Gerald's Game is quite good, but because it indicates that Hollywood is stepping outside of the typical Stephen King sandbox to find stories that challenge our expectations of King as a writer, as well as our expectations of horror itself.
Gerald's Game is a timely, feminist locked-room horror movie
One of the best things about this movie is its smallness. Almost the entirety of the film takes place in a single room — the master bedroom of the remote lake cottage that Jessie (Carla Gugino) and her husband Gerald (Bruce Greenwood) have rented for an isolated weekend retreat. With no neighbors around for miles, they're eager to engage in a few sexual games to reignite their marriage — until it rapidly becomes clear that they haven't fully discussed their respective boundaries and desires, and Gerald's "game," a crude rape fantasy, immediately falls apart.
But instead of abandoning the idea right away, Gerald resists. And then he has a heart attack, leaving Jessie handcuffed to the bed. At that point, still reeling from the trauma she's just experienced, she must escape to save her own life, lest she eventually die of starvation. Upping the stakes are the presence of a starving stray dog, a strange reaper-like bone collector dubbed the Moonlight Man who may or may not be a hallucination, and Jessie's own resurfacing memories of childhood sexual assault.
Gerald's Game comes from director Mike Flanagan, who scored two horror hits in 2016 with Hush, also a Netflix exclusive, and Ouija: Origin of Evil. Though Flanagan has justly earned critical acclaim for his smart pacing and well-crafted storytelling, his movies — all of which he has written or co-written — have consistently felt uneven, especially in terms of their writing. Gerald's Game is his first feature film adapting someone else's material, and the difference is immediately apparent. By reducing the book's cast, cutting much of its final act, and confining most of the film's action to its one-room set, Flanagan strips King's source novel to its core elements, in a way that allows the drama of Jessie's predicament to unfold while centering her interior life in a way that we rarely see in horror.
The resulting adaptation isn't perfect; its weakest moments come when Flanagan and his co-writer Jeff Howard step away from the original King story and get preachy about men controlling women, or water down an already basic look at BDSM and female empowerment into something even more oversimplified. But Gerald's Game is still a taut, eerie thriller with plenty of tension and a few surprising moments of grace — particularly when a hallucinated Gerald tries to tempt Jessie to give up and welcome death. In those instances, King's understated concept gains full force, as we realize Jessie's struggle is not just to escape from the bed but to escape from a lifetime of feeling trapped.
Most Stephen King novels follow certain themes. Gerald's Game upends them all.
As the record-breaking success of the recent remake of It reminds us, the quintessential "Stephen King movie" tends to have a distinct style and tone. These movies are often set in small towns with dark underbellies and are rife with deep-rooted nostalgia, themes of male bonding (particularly between men and boys) and boys becoming men, and allegories for the creative process. Even his non-horror classics like Stand by Me and The Shawshank Redemption exhibit many of these traits, and his most well-known works, like The Shining and It, comprise pretty much all of them.
Gerald's Game, in contrast, is about none of these things. The novel came out in 1992 (during a period of low acclaim for King's work after critics had panned 1991's Needful Things), followed six months later by another novel, Dolores Claiborne. Originally intended to be part of the same work, both stories stand apart from the King canon for their depiction of women experiencing domestic abuse and sexual assault.
But where the character of Dolores Claiborne found her agency through violence, King vividly constructs, through Gerald's Game's Jessie, an allegory for the lived experience of surviving sexual assault through a single concept: A woman is handcuffed to a bed in which she has recently experienced a rape attempt, and has to free herself.
In Gerald's Game, not only are the typical King tropes absent, but King deliberately distorts many of them. Flashbacks to Jessie's childhood are shot through with horror, not nostalgia; her coming of age is defined by survival rather than empowerment. Family bonds are distorted and corrupted, and it's female bonding — an aspect that's sadly significantly reduced in Flanagan's film — that helps ensure Jessie's survival.
This is all wildly atypical for a Stephen King novel, let alone a screen adaptation of one. Flanagan has made a habit of directing female protagonists in small spaces (Oculus and Hush both feature female protagonists confined to a single location, for example), and the parameters of Gerald's Game allow him to do what he does best — explore his female characters while ratcheting up tension.
The story's supernatural elements, which are deliberately ambiguous in the novel, are explicitly negated in the film. But there's still a touch of magical realism present, particularly in the couldn't-be-timelier element of a solar eclipse that occurred the day of Jessie's past assault. And it's this part of the plot that gives Flanagan a unique cinematic opportunity. Thanks to the director's surreal solar eclipse filter, we see the world through blood-colored glasses; that cynical stylization brings home just how refreshing this assured adaptation of an atypical King story is, and reminds us of how timely King's uncanny powers of social observation and humanizing horror can be in the upside-down landscape of 2017.
Gerald's Game is currently available to stream on Netflix.
Next Up In Culture


Each Sunday, Pitchfork takes an in-depth look at a significant album from the past, and any record not in our archives is eligible. Today, we revisit a folk classic that came to the world stage with a perspective crystallized in society's margins.
A spotlight comes up on Tracy Chapman as she moves into the a capella song "Behind the Wall." She sings from the point of view of a neighbor hearing a woman screaming in the apartment next door. Her trembling contralto soars and then, just as quickly, falls into a whisper. Between verses, she lets the air settle into silence before charging into the dark scene once again. The last lines—"The police/Always come late/If they come at all"—ring off into nothing. Chapman wrote the song in 1983, while she was still a student at Tufts University and busking in Boston for distracted passersby. Within five years, she would perform it for a television audience of 600 million in a packed Wembley Stadium for Nelson Mandela's 70th birthday benefit concert.
On her self-titled debut, which had been released on Elektra two months earlier with only modest sales expectations, "Fast Car" is a counterbalance to the weightiness of "Behind the Wall." The low verses mix bleak recognition with quiet hope before building to a chorus so wistful, so joyfully tender it can transport you to a time in your life when you were younger and maybe a little less scared. Most of the people watching her performance at Wembley did not arrive knowing Chapman's power, and most likely had never heard of her before. But they experienced in real time her ability to lift hearts into people's throats. She performed her songs the same way she had on the streets for years: alone and brilliantly exposed.
We've witnessed the worst this world can throw our way, Chapman suggests on her debut, at times through her working-class characters. But the album creates a world where no force exists without a counter. The worst of what we've endured, she also offers, makes righteous justice inevitable. It's a worldview that many could tune into. By the end of the summer of 1988, a few months after the Nelson Mandela tribute, Tracy Chapman was a platinum album and the singer was a star.
Some credited her rise to fame to that fateful Wembley appearance. Others speculated audience dissatisfaction with the ever-elaborate status quo of pop music of the time had something to do with the singer's wild popularity. But however this folk- and blues-heavy singer-songwriter album became a hit in the synth- and glitter-flecked late '80s, Chapman came to the world stage with a perspective crystallized in society's margins. The only thing that critics struggled with as much as her unexpected success was uncovering how this plainly dressed, androgynous, black woman with a voice as warm and woody as a bassoon created one of the best folk albums in a generation.
Chapman was as self-effacing in real life as she was singing from behind the characters in her songs. She hated interviews, almost never bantered on stage, and wasn't shy about her displeasure at being coded a "protest singer." And unlike folk artists like Joni Mitchell and Joan Baez, to whom she is often compared, Chapman's music wasn't as explicitly confessional as much as it was a portrait of the environment that first fostered her stark but fiercely optimistic worldview.
Born in 1964, Chapman grew up in the Cleveland during a time when economic and social pressures were visibly bursting through. The schools were struggling to become integrated, the demographic makeup of neighborhoods was shifting, white people were fleeing to the suburbs, and the African American residents that remained faced housing discrimination and scarce economic opportunities. Fires frequently dotted the streets, the result of arson and also property owners looking to clear out abandoned buildings, while a series of riots and strikes crippled neighborhoods and school districts. By Chapman's 12th birthday, Cleveland had earned the nickname Bomb City for the simple reason that people were setting off a lot of them there.
Yet, for all the violence and hopelessness Chapman captures in her lyrics, there's an equal measure of radical and at times naive conviction that a more just world is on its way. "Why?" asks basic questions about widespread injustices—"Why is a woman still not safe/When she's in her home"—before answering with an insistent assurance that "somebody's gonna have to answer" for the destruction modern society has wrought. "Talkin' 'Bout a Revolution," the opening song, is arguably the clearest view into Chapman's political ethos. It's a simple folk-pop anthem with a fervent, bright-eyed assurance that "Poor people gonna rise up/And get their share." These brazen statements of faith in a better future emerge as encouragements for the downtrodden to continue on. Only someone who has seen society's murky underbelly can convince you of its redeemability. She wrote the song when she was 16.
The dreams of social justice running through the entire album offset Tracy Chapman from its top-selling contemporaries. But with the eponymous words of "For You" resonating into the final seconds, love emerges as the underlying motivation for survival. Love is what all the figures she gives voice to ultimately want. And thanks to Chapman's careful wording—the lover of the "checkout girl" from "Fast Car" is never gendered, while the only gendered part of the downbeat and mysteriously desperate "For My Lover" comes with the line "deep in this love/No man can shake"—it's a body of work that one can easily read centered on queer desire. Chapman was notoriously private about her own sexuality and romantic life, even as she created love songs that welcomed all listeners to share in its subjectivity.
After its release, critics praised the album for its overtly political focus, hailing it as popular music's return to authentic artistry. But Tracy Chapman didn't change the course of a Top 40 ecosystem in tune with the era's glorification of wealth and greed. Rather, the album was produced in isolation from popular music, and in defiance of it. She wasn't a herald of change within the industry so much as she was an example of the innovation to be found outside of it. In pop music at the time, there was no archetype with which to classify the kind of artist Chapman was. And so, as she shrunk away from the spotlight, so did the gritty environment that contextualized her and her work.
Though the album showcased a descendant of white artists like Baez and Dylan, it also showed one who drew from the spiritual folks stylings of Odetta and the influence of blues singers like Bessie Smith. Nevertheless, once she rose to fame, critics debated the relative blackness of her music, her audience, and by extension herself. In 1989, Public Enemy's Chuck D summed up a sentiment some critics touched on regarding the perceived whiteness of her audience frankly for Rolling Stone: "Black people cannot feel Tracy Chapman, if they got beat over the head with it 35,000 times." The lack of nuance leveled at her music and identity highlighted just how far outside of the mainstream her artistry was rooted, and just how little mainstream outlets understood about black artists and audiences, even as Tracy Chapman held steady on the Billboard charts.
And while a wave of socially critical singer-songwriters did follow her—like Ani DiFranco, Melissa Etheridge, Liz Phair, and Fiona Apple—it would be several more years before another black woman with an acoustic guitar, Lauryn Hill, caught the world's sometimes unwanted attention. Chapman exposed a hole in expectations of who could be the voice of a generation, an entry point through which women in popular music entered and beat their own path. As Chapman reached for innovation through her own diverse musical influences, she and her debut album stand as evidence of the futility of boxing black female artists in.
At times, the footage of her on stage at Wembley reveals an artist trying to draw as little attention to herself as possible. She looks down and away, stands in one spot, her guitar strap blends into her shirt, which blends into the stage. But through her set, as she weaves chilling silence between ribbons of rapturous melody, it feels like a threat to look away.


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