text:
Startup Spotlight: The 888 Collective
Jana Dowling, Founder, The 888 Collective
This month, Jana talks to us about her experiences as the founder of social enterprise, The 888 Collective.
Can you introduce your start-up? What is it, and how did it come about?
The 888 Collective empowers people and organizations to take control of their mental fitness.
It came about after my own personal experience with mental fitness deterioration at work culminating in a severe depressive episode in which I spent 5 weeks under 24-hour watch as a high-risk suicide patient. I was diagnosed with Bipolar disorder and started a course of medication. After 2 months I wanted to get back to work, hit another wall, who will hire me? What job can I do? Do I tell the truth? A friend came to the rescue and gave me a job as her P.A. After being the worst P.A in the world with her support and help I was back to my "normal" high functioning self. I've met many people since then who are struggling to understand how to measure and control their mental fitness. So I decided to start up a company to do exactly that.
Where are you in your startup journey?
I launched selling toasties in a shed in November 2016 – my original plan was to set up a café and hire anyone that was suffering from poor mental fitness that wanted paid work. The shed turned into selling toasties in companies (mainly WeWorks – they were awesome) that then led to me designing a Personal Development and Mental Health Management Course that I teach for free to those out of work and also Managing Mental Health in the Workplace (again I teach from WeWork Locations) and now I'm currently building a board and on the way to being a fully funded startup with the focus on developing an app that will allow people to take control and manage their mental fitness.
To date, what has been the biggest triumph for your business?
Every week I have a new one but my favorite is after my Personal Development and Mental Health Management courses I put on 888's, ticketed evenings where we deliver a pop up restaurant completely staffed by people who have been on our courses and out of work for a while. When the night runs it's just great to see everyone working together and enjoying life and work. Securing initial funding also is pretty badass I suppose considering I started in a shed.
How have you found being a sole founder, and do you have any advice you would give to other sole founders?
I'm the sole founder. It has made things easier now I'm locking in funding, when it comes to decisions it's just me. It's tough and can be lonely but actually I've surrounded myself with wonderful mentors, which means I have great sounding boards and support.
How do you manage to balance growing a start-up with having a personal life?
Erm… I haven't really. I don't see my friends very often but they know why and they are real so support me regardless of my absence. To be fair most of them are doing the same thing I am with strong careers so we are all in the same boat.
How do you cope with the pressures that come with building a business?
I just take things day to day, I try not to look too far ahead or worry about things that are out of my control. I solely focus on taking positive action every day to progress.
Did you pursue investment? If so what advice would you give on pitching? What was your secret weapon?
Not in that way, I secured investment by meeting people and talking about my vision and experience. My initial investors are mentoring me through getting ready to pitch for full funding.
If you could name one thing that you wish you knew when you started, what would it be?
That the idea of a startup changes on a daily/weekly basis – so not to worry when things take a different path, usually that's the right one. Just to always do what you can that day to make things happen and they will.
To date, what has been your most important lesson?
To trust myself and my instincts and not to rely on anyone else to make decisions for me.
Do you have any tips or advice for anyone thinking about starting up their own business, or who have just started their journey?
Keep it simple, you don't need to spend money to make money at the beginning. Take advice from people who know the industry/market. If it's not working change it.
What has been the most challenging part of your start-up journey so far?
Getting my head around scaling up and believing that it's actually happening. From selling toasties in a shed to a company empowering organization's and people to take control of their mental fitness through training, courses, partnerships and events and tech. It's been very quick and a huge learning curve.
What's next for your business?
Confirming my board, confirming full funding and then building the app, courses and continuing to build partnerships.
Startup Business Plans: The 3 Cs you need to create the perfect plan
Advice, Investment
James Church2021-01-07T17:48:03+00:00January 7th, 2021|Advice, Investment|
Financial Projections for Investment: The Three Fundamentals Investors Demand from your Figures
James Church2020-12-04T14:50:52+00:00December 4th, 2020|Advice, Investment|
Business Plan for Investment: why entrepreneurs without a proper business plan fail
James Church2020-12-04T14:12:28+00:00November 18th, 2020|Advice, Investment|
Keep up to date with what we're up to via email
HomeServicesAboutTeamWorkBlog
Suite 12: 81 Rivington Street, Shoreditch, London, EC2A 3AY
Copyright © Robot Mascot Ltd. All rights reserved.
Suite 12: 81 Rivington Street,
Shoreditch, London, EC2A 3AY
roboteditor2018-08-29T15:43:06+00:00August 9th, 2018|Categories: Startup Spotlight|
We use cookies to monitor the performance of this website and improve the user experience. To find out more about cookies, what they are and how we use them, view our privacy policy. Accept Privacy Policy


text:
About Novartis
Locations in Slovenia
Lavicka collection
Be a Star
International Career
Creative Environment
Expanding Access to Healthcare
Doing business responsibly
Marking the Antibiotic Awareness Week
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) marks November 18 as an Antibiotic Awareness Day, while the World Health Organization holds a whole week to increase awareness of global antibiotic resistance.
Antibiotic resistance, which occurs also as a result of the persistent overuse and misuse of antibiotics, is one of the biggest threats to global health. It occurs when bacteria change in response to the use of this type of medicines and the antibiotics are no longer effective.1
Administration of a single-dose antibiotic is one of the ways to ensure that the patients strictly follow the instructions on use. An example of such an antibiotic is a drug for treatment of acute uncomplicated urinary tract infection in women, newly brought onto the Slovenian market by Lek.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) celebrates November 18 as an Antibiotic Awareness Day while the World Health Organization holds the whole week, running this year from 18 to 24 November, to increase awareness of global antibiotic resistance. The aim is to campaign on the rational use of antibiotics to increase awareness about the ability of bacteria to resist the action of an antibiotic and promote best practices in the treatment with these types of medicines among healthcare professionals and the general public to prevent and control the spread of antibiotic resistance. Antibiotic resistance is namely one of biggest threats to global public health.1
Antibiotics are medicines used for the treatment of a wide variety of infections caused by bacteria, including respiratory tract infections, ear infections, urinary tract infections, sexually transmitted diseases and skin infections. Since their discovery, they have been a cornerstone of modern medicine. In the pre-antibiotic era, even minor infections and medical interventions represented a potential death threat. Today, with the appropriate use of antibiotics, a number of serious diseases, such as tuberculosis and pneumonia, are curable. However, the overuse and misuse of antibiotics accelerate the occurrence and spread of antibiotic resistance. The resistance occurs because bacteria change in response to the use of these medicines and antibiotics can no longer function. They become ineffective and infections remain in the body, which increases the risk of damage to health and the spread of infection to other people.1
The world urgently needs to change the way it prescribes and uses antibiotics
Apart from health professionals who educate patients about the prudent use of antibiotics, provide appropriate instructions on how to take antibiotics and prescribe them in a responsible manner, the patients themselves also play an important role. The reasons for the development of antibiotic resistance include taking antibiotics when not needed (for example for the treatment of viral infections such as the common cold and flu) and not following the instructions for use when patients prematurely discontinue the antibiotic treatment and/or do not take them at the prescribed hours (time intervals). Due to a premature discontinuation of the treatment, bacteria become resistant to the antibiotics used or even to other antimicrobial medicines which can lead to resistant infections.1,2
Strict compliance with the instructions on how to use antibiotics is important
Sandoz, a part of which is Lek, is one of the largest providers of high quality and affordable antibiotics in the world. Sandoz is aware of its responsibility and acknowledges the need to find the right balance between improving access to existing antibiotics and ensuring that they are used in a responsible way. In light of this, last year Sandoz published a statement of intent, demonstrating its commitment to play a leading role in global efforts to combat the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance (link). In addition to providing access to high quality antibiotics, Sandoz also focuses on raising awareness about prescribing the right medicine, in the right dose, at the right time and the correct duration of treatment as well as raising awareness about the importance of patients following instructions for use given by a healthcare professional.3
An antibiotic taken as a single-dose is one of the ways to ensure that the patient takes the medicine exactly as directed by the doctor. An example of such an antibiotic is a drug for the treatment of acute uncomplicated urinary tract infection in women. Administering a single dose will less likely lead to antibiotic resistance and at the same time such a dosage regime is also a patient-friendly solution.
What can we do as individuals towards responsible use of antibiotics:
Only use antibiotics that were prescribed to you personally by your doctor and make sure that your family members will do the same.
Never expect or demand an antibiotic for the treatment of viral infections such as the common cold or flu as they will have no effect.
Take all prescribed doses at the prescribed hours (time intervals), even if you already feel better.
Never share antibiotics with others and never use leftover antibiotics from your previous treatment.
https://www.who.int/en/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/antimicrobial-resistance
https://www.sandoz.com/stories/access-medicines/spreading-knowledge-not-resistance
https://www.sandoz.com/sites/www.sandoz.com/files/Sandoz_Statement%20of%20Intent%20on%20AMR.pdf
Novartis is the leading provider of medicines in Slovenia, where Lek, Novartis Pharma Services and Sandoz, operate. Together we are building and maintaining the reputation of a dynamic, ethical, and trusted pharmaceutical company. Lek develops, manufactures, and markets effective, safe, and high quality medicines and active pharmaceutical ingredients. With our knowledge, quality, and experience we have gained an important role in Novartis' organizational structure, especially in the Novartis Technical Operations, Global Drug Development, Novartis Business Services, and the generic division Sandoz. We are the leading Sandoz development center, and one of the key development sites for technologically complex projects. We invest a great deal in the development, education, and training of our employees. Over the last seven years, the company has created more than 2,250 jobs, making us one of the biggest employers in Slovenia. Novartis invested in Slovenia more than EUR 2.3 billion since 2003.
About Sandoz
Sandoz, a Novartis division, is a global leader in generic pharmaceuticals and biosimilars. Our purpose is to pioneer access to healthcare by developing and commercializing novel, affordable approaches that address unmet medical need. Our broad portfolio of high-quality medicines, covering all major therapeutic areas and increasingly focused on value-adding differentiated medicines, accounted for 2018 sales of USD 9.9 billion. Sandoz is headquartered in Holzkirchen, in Germany's Greater Munich area.
Sandoz is on Twitter. Sign up to follow @SandozGlobal at http://twitter.com/Sandoz_Global.
Novartis is reimagining medicine to improve and extend people's lives. As a leading global medicines company, we use innovative science and digital technologies to create transformative treatments in areas of great medical need. In our quest to find new medicines, we consistently rank among the world's top companies investing in research and development. Novartis products reach more than 750 million people globally and we are finding innovative ways to expand access to our latest treatments. About 108 thousand people of more than 140 nationalities work at Novartis around the world. Find out more at www.novartis.com.
This press release contains statements and conclusions based on projections of Lek's future business operations. These estimates are derived from the best information currently available. In case these forecasts prove unreliable, the actual results could prove different from those projected.
For additional information contact:
Katarina Klemenc
Lek Pharmaceuticals d. d.
katarina.klemenc@sandoz.com
Legal Notices | Privacy Statement | Cookies

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
<?php
class HttpPlugin extends Object
{
	public function redirect( $url )
    {
        if ( headers_sent() )
        {
			echo "<script>document.location.href='$url';</script>\n";
		}
		else
		{
			header( 'HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently' );
			header( "Location: ". $url );
		}

		exit();
    }

    public function httpPage( $type )
    {
        header('HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found');
        include( locale( 'http'.DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR.'404.html' ) );
		exit();
    }
}
?>

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Petar Naumoski es un exjugador de baloncesto macedonio que ocupaba la posición de base. Nació el 27 de agosto de 1968, en Prilep, RFS Yugoslavia.

Clubes
1989-1991  KK Split
1991-1992  Rabotnički Skopje
1992-1994  Efes Pilsen Estambul
1994-1995  Pallacanestro Treviso
1995-1999  Efes Pilsen Estambul
2000-2001  Pallacanestro Treviso
2001-2002  Mens Sana Siena
2002-2004  Olimpia Milano
2004  Ülkerspor
2008 Pall. Guido Rossi
2008-2009 Derthona Basket
2009- Pall. Guido Rossi

Palmarés
 Euroliga: 2
KK Split: 1990, 1991.
 Recopa: 2
Pallacanestro Treviso: 1995
Mens Sana Siena: 2002
 Copa Korać: 1
Efes Pilsen Estambul: 1996
 Liga de Yugoslavia: 2
KK Split: 1989-90, 1990-91
 Liga de Turquía: 5
Efes Pilsen Estambul: 1991-92, 1992-93, 1993-94, 1995-96, 1996-97
 Copa de Yugoslavia: 2
KK Split: 1989-90, 1990-91
 Copa de Turquía: 5
Efes Pilsen Estambul: 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998
Ulker: 2004
 Copa de Italia: 1
Pallacanestro Treviso: 1995

Enlaces externos
 Perfil en la web de la liga turca

Baloncestistas de Yugoslavia
Baloncestistas de Macedonia del Norte
Baloncestistas del KK Split
Baloncestistas del Anadolu Efes S. K.
Baloncestistas del Ülkerspor
Baloncestistas de la Lega Basket Serie A
Baloncestistas del Olimpia Milano
Baloncestistas del Pallacanestro Treviso
Baloncestistas del Mens Sana Basket
Baloncestistas del Derthona Basket
Baloncestistas del KK Rabotnički
Baloncestistas de la selección de Macedonia del Norte
Nacidos en Prilep

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Ultrasonography of the rotator cuff. A comparison of ultrasonographic and arthroscopic findings in one hundred consecutive cases
J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2000 Apr;82(4):498-504.
S A Teefey 1 , S A Hasan, W D Middleton, M Patel, R W Wright, K Yamaguchi
1 Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology and the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, Missouri 63110, USA.
Background: There has been limited acceptance of shoulder ultrasonography by orthopaedic surgeons in the United States. The purpose of this retrospective study was to determine the diagnostic performance of high-resolution ultrasonography compared with arthroscopic examination for the detection and characterization of rotator cuff tears.
Methods: One hundred consecutive shoulders in ninety-eight patients with shoulder pain who had undergone preoperative ultrasonography and subsequent arthroscopy were identified. The arthroscopic diagnosis was a full-thickness rotator cuff tear in sixty-five shoulders, a partial-thickness tear in fifteen, rotator cuff tendinitis in twelve, frozen shoulder in four, arthrosis of the acromioclavicular joint in two, and a superior labral tear and calcific bursitis in one shoulder each. All ultrasonographic reports were reviewed for the presence or absence of a rotator cuff tear and a biceps tendon rupture or dislocation. All arthroscopic examinations were performed according to a standardized operative procedure. The size and extent of the tear and the status of the biceps tendon were recorded for all shoulders. The findings on ultrasonography and arthroscopy then were compared for each parameter.
Results: Ultrasonography correctly identified all sixty-five full-thickness rotator cuff tears (a sensitivity of 100 percent). There were seventeen true-negative and three false-positive ultrasonograms (a specificity of 85 percent). The overall accuracy was 96 percent. The size of the tear on transverse measurement was correctly predicted in 86 percent of the shoulders with a full-thickness tear. Ultrasonography detected a tear in ten of fifteen shoulders with a partial-thickness tear that was diagnosed on arthroscopy. Five of six dislocations and seven of eleven ruptures of the biceps tendon were identified correctly.
Conclusions: Ultrasonography was highly accurate for detecting full-thickness rotator cuff tears, characterizing their extent, and visualizing dislocations of the biceps tendon. It was less sensitive for detecting partial-thickness rotator cuff tears and ruptures of the biceps tendon.
Rotator Cuff / diagnostic imaging*
Rotator Cuff Injuries*
Shoulder Pain / etiology*
Tendon Injuries / diagnosis
Tendon Injuries / diagnostic imaging
Tendon Injuries / surgery


I thought I'd share this week's progress, particularly since it includes a sewing project. Wednesday seems to have come around very suddenly this week. Luckily I've had quite a bit of craft time as MrCraft has been working overtime so I've had some empty evenings.
The mermaid tail I started last week is coming on well, there are only around 20 rows to go and then I can begin working on the fin.
I've also been taking time to work on the advent calendar which I introduced in Christmas craft is stepping up a gear. I've made 2 rows of pockets and been sewing on the trim. Hand sewing is surprisingly time consuming but once the mermaid tails are finished and posted to their new homes I can begin to devote more time to it.
I've also been working on something just for me but I will take a photo of it in better light. I'm not so keen on these dark evenings as I relied on natural light for taking my blog photos. I'll have to rig something up for the winter, or just stop adding photos!
Your projects look great! The photo-taking in diminishing light seems to be an issue for a lot of us. I think we maybe need British Craft Time instead of British Summer Time!
It's the silly yellow light in the living room, I'm sure I could do some editing but it wouldn't be the same. The conservatory is far better for photography! I'm looking in to setting up a light box for small items though, DIY obviously!
Yes, I just like that early evening light, so no flash needed but the colours really pop. Won't work for winter though so a DIY light box is also on my to do list.
That's when I like to take mine too. I forgot to do any this afternoon though so had to make do with rubbish ones.
I didn't see 'rubbish' photos!
please keep us fans updated on your progress! Both projects are just lovely!
Ooooooooooooooh the colours of the mermaid tail are lovely! What yarn are you using?
I am working on a poncho atm. It's corner to corner and I am now past the half way point so hopefully I will finish soon. I am also working on a chunky shawl/scarf thing. I am hoping to finish that tomorrow as I need the bag it's in to transport a new project with me on a weekend to Manchester this weekend!
Sounds like you've got a few fab projects on the go. The yarn is ice yarns magic glitz, it's surprisingly soft even with the metallic thread.
I will have to have a search for it. I do love a bit of purple and glitz!
Lots of lovely crafting going on for you 😃. I'm cross stitching at the moment but my purple knitted blanket is shouting for some attention from its summer hibernation. It'll be nice to sit under it while knitting some more so I must get back to it.
Beautiful – love the stitch pattern!
I adore the stitch you've used for the tail. I can't let my small girl see that or she will demand a replica. I'm still plodding along on my Mrs Weasley jumper. Teenage daughter wants it for Halloween but there's not a hope!
It's still drying but I will put it on display soon! Harry Potter maniacs in this house!


text:
Tag is exactly HS6301
1–26 of 26
Title Identifier Class Created Date (numeric:timestamp) Ascending Descending
"Ways to Connect Despite Social Distance: Empower Ecuador"
When being part of the program Empower: Ecuador at my school, we were preparing ourselves to travel to Guayaquil, Ecuador to be present with the families in the community. The families in the community were called our neighbors. Prior to traveling and meeting families in person, each person from the class was given a bookmark with a picture of a neighbor and a brief description of who they were. We were supposed to pray for the person selected and have him/her in our hearts until we meet them in person. Due to COVID-19, we were never able to meet these people whom we felt very close to and it was very sad. Therefore, we were tasked with the beautiful idea of writing letters to them about our prayers and best wishes for them in times of trouble. After a couple of months, I received a message through Messenger, and to my surprise, it was the person I wrote the letter to. She was thanking me for the letter and for how happy she felt when she received it. Also, she shared the desire to get to know me more through social media. It was a beautiful moment and proof of how we could connect with each other despite the social distance. To express this story I am sharing a screenshot of a conversation through Facebook (messenger) with a neighbor from Guayaquil, Ecuador. She is telling me that she received the letter I sent and how grateful she is for it.
Interview with a San Antonio high school student, Jacoby Mena
Jacoby Mena, a 9th grade student, shares his views on staying home, the BLM movement, anti-maskers, and staying safe during the pandemic.
Oral History Interview with student Chris Vazquez at St. Mary's University
This oral history interview was conducted on Thursday, November 12, 2020, with Chris Vazquez, a student and Residential Assistant at St. Mary's University. In the interview, the narrator discusses how life on campus has changed during the pandemic, how he has adapted to virtual learning and his hopes for campus life after the pandemic.
Recent College Graduate Trying to Maintain Employment as a Substitute Teacher during the COVID-19 Pandemic
This is an interview with a recent college graduate that started her career at the beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic. She describes pre-covid conditions to COVID-19 rules in the kindergarten classroom.
Interview with Active Air Force Reservist during COVID-19
This is a audio interview with a active Air Force Reservist, describing how the Covid pandemic has impacted his work environment and personal livelihood.
Interview with a San Antonio Nurse, Christina Mena
Christina Mena, a nurse in San Antonio, shares her experiences of working in a cardiac clinic during the pandemic.
Oral History of a Teacher, Wife, and Mother - Helen Farrar
Oral History of Teacher, Wife, and Mother, Helen Farrar about her experience during the pandemic while her husband was activated on the COVID-19 Relief Mission with the Texas Army National Guard.
Miguel Ramirez Oral History, St. Mary's University student
Miguel Ramirez, a St. Mary's University student, shares his remote learning experiences.
First Sign of VA Benefit Contact During COVID-19
My first steps to contact the VA for Voc Rehab benefits started in the summer of 2019, I was denied, – even with 6 hours to finish my undergrad the councilor wanted me to start construction education and career. If it wasn't for my new VA representative at St. Mary's University that showed me much interest, I would not have perused the program again. This email comes after my initial conversations with the StMU VA office back in late April of 2020. Realizing that this email was from another state, I worried if the counselors would be "just" to me being located in Texas. Covid-19 was making things almost impossible to complete quickly, and now I am emailing with people across the country. How long will the process take?
Oral History of National Guardsman Peter Bain
An interview of Texas Army National Guardsman Peter Bain who served on both the COVID-19 Relief Mission and the Civil Unrest Mission during the summer of 2020.
How it started v. How it's going: How StMU planned to incorporate COVID-19 precautions for the Fall 2020 semester and how that's played out
These images are screenshots of emails from St. Mary's University detailing how the university will adapt for the Fall 2020 semester, updating students on the ongoing changes to in-person classes, tracking the number of COVID-19 cases throughout the summer and into the fall, and showing how St. Mary's slowly begins to open up and allow in-person gatherings. In the beginning of the semester, St. Mary's University was very cautious in thinking of how and when to resume in-person classes and welcome students back to campus. The first couple of weeks were strictly virtual, and this virtual learning was even extended in response to a mild spike in cases across San Antonio. Classes resumed in person one week after the Labor Day weekend, and St. Mary's didn't experience a significant outbreak in those initial weeks. Towards the end of September, the number of COVID-19 cases began to mildly grow. As of right now, the University has had 25 COVID-19 cases since March 2020. In October, keeping up with Halloween and other events to come, St. Mary's began allowing small in-person events. These events were usually outside, with the exception of some indoors. All events have a maximum number of students allowed to participate, and some even require temperature checks and confirmation of negative tests. I, at first, thought it was concerning that as the number of COVID-19 cases in the St. Mary's University community grew, campus began and continued to organize and advertise on-campus gatherings. I was afraid that St. Mary's was giving in to the celebratory attitude across the city for "Spooky Season" and fall weather, but neglecting the health of students. However, I think St. Mary's has been doing the best job they can to provide the "college experience" within the safety parameters set by the CDC. Our mild number of cases may be considered an accomplishment when compared to larger outbreaks at a number of universities such as Baylor, Angelo State, Sam Houston State, Texas Tech, and Wayland Baptist (to name a few). The New York Times breaks down campus outbreaks for most campuses in each state linked in this post. The number of COVID cases began slowly rising towards the end of September, which is also when campus organizations began hosting in-person events. Despite happening simultaneously, there has not been a major spike following these events (so far). In speaking with resident students, the attitude shared on campus seems to be one of caution, which starts at the top. St. Mary's is not just implementing social distancing and capacity limits in classes and events, the university is maintaining these standards within all campus facilities and student are complying. Reflecting on these emails and thinking about Texas universities all together, I consider myself fortunate. I'm thinking that because San Antonio has a harder history with COVID-19 in the city, our universities are more diligent than those situated in towns or cities that are not. It can feel like campuses are a completely different town within a city or town, but I think St. Mary's sees themselves as part of the larger San Antonio community.
JBS Meatpacking Plant Outbreak
I wanted to include these news articles about an event that happened in my community. 287 workers at JBS meatpacking plant tested positive for COVID-19 at the beginning of Summer 2020. I am ~somewhat~ familiar with this meatpacking plant. When I attended Mountain Crest High School in Hyrum, I ran cross country and one of our running routes required us to pass this building. I usually did not like this route because the smell combined with running often made me nauseous. I believe it was bought or acquired since my running days by JBS because we used to refer to this place as "Miller's". Fast forward about nine years later when these news articles were published. This was the first huge outbreak in Cache Valley. It took some time before COVID-19 hit Northern Utah. Yeah, I think we had a few cases here and there. But it always felt "manageable" to me before this event. But with this outbreak, I began feeling unsafe in my corner of the world. I was especially upset at the injustice of this situation because most of the workers at JBS were Hispanic/Latinx. It felt like no measures, like paid leave or free testing services, were being taken to protect these workers. According to a Bear River Health Department report for June 1, 2020, Hispanic/Latinx accounted for more than 40% of COVID cases. Yet, only about 10% of the population here is Hispanic/Latinx. I strongly feel that this is because of JBS. I feel frustrated living here in Utah during the pandemic. So many people do not care about the situation we are in. Meanwhile, there are people who make sacrifices by working on the "front lines". For the Hispanic/Latinx community in Cache Valley, it doesn't feel like a voluntary sacrifice. But rather, another example of unfair systemic racism. Meanwhile, it seems so trivial and unjust that my community still insisted on having a county fair and little league baseball this year. I understand the economic consequences and reasons why people are hesitant to take precautions in certain situations. It is complicated and we don't really have a great safety net for people in America. That being said, I hate seeing the flippant attitudes while people are literally dying. This weekend, we reached a record spike in COVID cases in Utah. And Election Day is this week. I feel so anxious all the time. And I am trying to reach for some peace wherever I can find it. I really hope that soon we will start taking this pandemic seriously.
stmarysstulife Instagram posts from Student Development & University Programming Council
These two posts are from the @stmarysstulife account. The Student Development and University Programming Council (UPC) made Tik Tok videos to the Full House "Everywhere You Look" song and the @stmarysstulife posted them. I think they posted this to show we're all in this together at St. Mary's and there are multiple people we can go to for help and support.
How has COVID-19 challenged your VA 2020 school registration?
Reaching out to my school's student veterans, I was able to acquire one response. I emailed out a few questions about how the Covid-19 pandemic effected their registration process, and any other thoughts that may pertain to school and the pandemic. Even for myself, trying to find volunteers to participate in this project is difficult; not being able to visit the campus and collaborate with classmates proved I did not have an abundance of volunteers to work with at a moments notice. Before the pandemic we were able to ask for almost anyone's help with school projects, something that seems like a luxury at this time in the middle of Covid-19. I want to thank the individual for participating in my project, and wish them well with their classes throughout this difficult times that we are experiencing.
Grandfather, Son, and Granddaughter Reunited at Last
While serving with the Texas Army National Guard on the COVID-19 Relief Mission in Houston, TX, Josh Farrar was visited by his parents, wife, and daughters when he was given a day off by his Commander. In order to get outside, they all went to the park. This video is of the granddaughter and grandfather playing on a slide while the father (Josh Farrar) interacts with his dad. This video is important as it shows an extended family interacting during the pandemic in an outside venue while a family member is supporting the COVID-19 Relief Mission. This day was very supportive and therapeutic for the Soldier after months dealing with COVID-19 testing.
Coming Off Orders
I served on the COVID-19 Relief Mission for 93 days with the Texas Army National Guard. The attached orders and email detail my timeline on the mission and my preparation in late June to come off orders by my end date of 18 July 2020. I will not give any more details than that when it concerns orders or paperwork for orders in this public forum. I just wanted to add to military and National Guard perspective of this story as thousands of National Guardsman served on the COVID-19 Relief Mission. In Texas, the same rules applied to this mission as to an OCONUS deployment in terms of leaving mission. The orders were also longer than 90 days for most Soldiers which allowed them to earn 50% Post 9/11 G.I. Bill College Benefits if they had never served on Active Duty Orders (outside of training) before.
COVID-19 Military Service Leads to Scholarship
I decided to attend St. Mary's University while on the COVID-19 relief mission with the Texas Army National Guard during Summer 2020. The attached email is the email I received when I was notified that I had earned a scholarship that would lower my costs of attending graduate school. I was overwhelmed. I applied to the scholarship with the following essay: I am currently a graduate student completing my Graduate Certificate for Dual Credit Teaching in U.S. History. I am on track to graduate in May 2021. I work as an Anthropology Instructor at Blinn College. I currently serve as the Anthropology Instructor to RELLIS Campus for the joint Texas A&M Engineering at Blinn Program. Students are co-enrolled in the College of Engineering at Texas A&M University and Blinn College. Given the expansion of the Blinn RELLIS Campus, there is a need for instructors who are certified to teach in multiple disciplines. Though my Ph.D. is in Anthropology, I possess a B.A. in History. I decided to go back to school in order to become certified to teach History courses so that I could further advance Blinn's vision for the RELLIS Campus. I have a proven track record of academic excellence that I intend to continue at St. Mary's University. I finished my undergraduate studies and previous graduate studies with GPA's over 3.90, receiving various awards along the way (see C.V. for details). The most important thing in my life is not my job or academic achievement, but my family. I am married to a loving and supportive wife, Helen, who works as a high school math teacher. We have two amazing daughters – three-year-old Annie and one-year-old Rose. Though difficult, I have decided to surrender some of my limited time with them in order commit to and finish this graduate certificate online by May 2021. Finally, in addition to my work at Blinn College and my family obligations, I serve as a Commissioned Officer in an Airborne Company with the Texas Army National Guard. Most recently I was activated for the COVID-19 Relief Mission, leaving my wife behind with the children. My orders ran from 18 April-18 July. While on this mission, I initially served as a COVID-19 Mobile Testing Team (MTT) Officer-in-Charge (OIC). Subsequently promoted to 2nd-in-Charge/Executive Officer (2IC/XO) of Texas Region 6, I led a staff of 18 Soldiers in personnel management and logistical resupply for 12 MTTs, encompassing 229 Soldiers and Airman. In all, my region served 8.2 million people in 25 counties - 29% of Texas. Working with multiple civilian agencies, including the Texas Department of Emergency Management, Texas Emergency Management Task Force, and Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service, I managed the resupply of 546,825 medical supply items and the testing of 58,550 COVID-19 patients at nursing homes, assisted living centers, meat packaging plants, drive-through sites, and walk-up sites in the region. Thank you for making this scholarship fund available to non-traditional students like myself. Additional funding would significantly lighten the overall family burden of completing this graduate program. Thank you once again for your generosity. It was very uplifting that my hard work with the military also allowed me to attend school full time upon returning from duty.
Excitement of Graduation Dimmed By COVID
Dave Ruff is a military veteran and recent graduate of the PhD program in Anthropology (Nautical Archaeology) from Texas A&M University. Dave was working in Croatia on a Roman shipwreck for his dissertation project. Dave is a really great friend and mentor. He is always willing to talk about his life experiences - in and out of the Navy - especially when it comes to money and investments. Dave is a hard-working individual who takes his role as an academic very seriously. I was extremely happy for Dave when I found out that he would be graduating in May 2020. He started in the program at Texas A&M a year or two before I did, but he moved from Texas to North Carolina to be closer to his grandchildren and this pushed him back a little. Dave and I had been planning graduation for a few months. We helped each other check all the final boxes on the graduation checklist and buy robes. We were both really excited for the event. I hadn't seen Dave in about a year, so I was excited to see him in person at the graduation. Graduation in May 2020 was cancelled due to COVID-19. This email details a conversation between Dave and I. I was serving on the COVID-19 mission with the Texas Army National Guard and used the money I earned from that mission to pay off my house. I thanked him for his money mentorship throughout the years. The email goes on to detail how all of Dave's summer plans for research had been cancelled due to COVID-19, but that being a grad and being locked down had given him time to work out and lose some weight - a goal that we both had, but he fulfilled better than I! I wanted to highlight this email chain, as I feel that it brings humanity to the experience of Veteran PhD students, recent graduates, and researchers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pandemic Playlist: Reflections of Quarantine Life Through Music
In March I was laid off from my full-time job of 6 years. Those first few weeks of unemployment found me struggling to stay productive and positive. With too much time on my hands I did what any well-adjusted person would do in that situation—listened to sad music to make myself feel worse. Tom Waits – More Than Rain Like many Americans, I live paycheck to paycheck. I knew that missing even one pay period would mean falling behind on several bills. I get paid weekly which means that even though I don't make a lot of money, I at least always have enough to make it through to next Friday. Being broke made me feel like a failure. I resented my pre-pandemic life of always being so busy and going the extra mile at work. What did I have to show for it? "None of our pockets, are lined with gold Nobody's caught the bouquet There are no dead presidents we can fold Nothing is going our way" The "our" in this song made me think of all the other people who were in the same situation as me. I was sad not just for myself, but for everyone else who was out of a job. It reminded me to be grateful for the things I still had. Tom Waits is someone who I admire for his humor, but this particular song is void of any playfulness. The best way I can describe this song is to call it a cross between a lullaby for pirates and a circus ballad for depressed clowns. It features a melancholic vocal and a wearisome accordion sluggishly making its way through the song. "It's more than rain that falls on our parade tonight It's more than thunder It's more than thunder" The pandemic is much bigger than what we initially took it for. It's poverty, depression, isolation, death… The Specials – Ghost Town The Specials are my favorite band, and this song which is perpetually on my playlist took on several new meanings for me. "Ghost Town" was originally written in response to unemployment and racial tensions in Thatcher era England. Now the song seems as though it was written against the backdrop of Trumpism. "This town, is coming like a ghost town All the clubs have been closed down This place, is coming like a ghost town Bands won't play no more" Driving around downtown San Antonio during the early days of quarantine was incredibly eerie. All the usual sights had vanished: tourists waiting at crosswalks, work trucks driving to their next job sites, bicyclists slowing down traffic, mariachis playing at restaurants, and people strolling the Riverwalk. San Antonio was dead. "This place, is coming like a ghost town No job to be found in this country Can't go on no more The people getting angry" The harmonized ghostly screeches in the chorus set the spooky tone for the song. How can we possibly live in a city that is dead? When everything was closed, I felt like a ghost--dead and unable to enjoy my favorite hobbies. I couldn't visit friends, travel, or waste time browsing clothing stores. I had a difficult time figuring out how to enjoy life. Ginger Rogers – We're in the Money Of course a depression era song would resonate with me. For the first time ever I had money in my savings account. This was only possible because I was temporarily laid off and able to receive unemployment benefits. I begrudgingly went back to work when my boss received a Paycheck Protection Program loan. Not only did I have to work in-person putting my health at risk, but I also had to do so at my regular pay rate which was much lower than my unemployment benefits. Body Count – Body Count I discovered this song while watching a video montage of BLM protests on Instagram. I was immediately drawn to Ice-T's angry vocals complemented by an equally aggressive punk rock backing. The lyrics sound like they written this year, but they are from 1992—a year after the Los Angeles riots. "God damn, what a brother gotta do To get a message through To the red, white and blue What? I gotta die? Before you realize I was a brother with open eyes" The Specials – B.L.M. Just like Ice-T, The Specials have been singing about Black lives for decades. In 1980, Specials guitarist Lynval Golding wrote a song called "Why?" after he was violently attacked because of his race. In that song he seeks understanding and asks his attackers "Why did you try to hurt me?" Almost 40 years later, Golding wrote another song about his experiences with racism. Again, he takes a gentle approach by telling the listener: "I'm not here to teach you I'm not here to preach to you I just want to reach out and say Black lives matter" Cher – Chiquitita These days everything exhausts me, and I feel like I have no time to rest. As soon as Cher opens with "Chiquitita tell me what's wrong?" I start crying. Thanks for checking up on me, Cher. As with most of her songs, I get happy when her music comes on because I know I'm about to do an ugly sing-along. Nowadays this song just hits different. "You were always sure of yourself / Now I see you've broken a feather" I have never felt so uneasy and uncertain in all my life. I used to be the shoulder to cry on when my friends needed comfort. I no longer have the energy to offer my strength. Lila Downs – Una Cruz de Madera Despite being a song about death, the Lila Downs version is a happy, upbeat tune. She turns it into a party song. The overall translation of the song captures how I want my loved ones to handle my passing. Instead of a fancy funeral, I'd prefer a big party in my honor. I don't want my family and friends to shed tears, or feel any sadness. The only thing I want at my wake is a serenade in the early morning. Toots – Got to Be Tough Toots is one of those artists who radiates positivity. It's hard to be in a bad mood when his upbeat tempos and powerful, soulful voice booms through the speakers. I saw him perform live a few years ago and watched him with awe. He would step away from the microphone and continue singing at an impressively loud volume—his voice filling up every corner of the auditorium. I was pressed up against the stage because he motioned for everyone to get closer. Toots came over to me several times and squeezed my hand and sang directly to me. In those moments I felt so happy and lucky to be alive. My best friend was right next to me and we both had tears in our eyes. How lucky we were that this Jamaican icon came all the way to perform for us in a stuffy San Antonio venue! We swore that we would see Toots again. I was excited when Toots dropped his new single "Got to Be Tough" earlier in the year. It meant that a tour would follow. The song itself was also a great comfort. "Got to be tough when things get rough You got to be tough and this is a warning You got to be smart, living in this time It's not so easy to carry on" Sadly, Toots passed away from Covid-19 two weeks after his "Got to Be Tough" album was released. Listening to the title single doesn't bring me much comfort anymore. It makes me think of how excited I was that I was going to see him next year. Now it just makes me nostalgic for the days when we could go to shows and experience a more intimate connection with music. Nothing beats bonding with thousands of strangers who are singing, crying, and dancing to the same music as you. The song makes me miss being as happy as I was that day Toots held my hand and sang to me.
Responding to the COVID-19 crisis as a student from a different state: Arumi Ortiz
This is an oral history with Arumi Ortiz conducted by Victoria Villaseñor. Arumi was born in Veracruz, Mexico and moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma when she was 15 years old. Arumi is now a senior at St. Mary's University.
Responding to the COVID-19 crisis as a foreign exchange student: Ximena Barbagelatta
This is an oral history with Ximena Barbagelatta conducted by Victoria Villaseñor. Ximena Barbagelatta is a foreign exchange student from Lima, Peru studying at St. Mary's University in San Antonio, TX.
Triggering Tik Tok Sounds
The sounds in this video are from about 7 months ago, March 2020. Relatively, it wasn't that long ago. And for me and many others, it feels like a lifetime ago because so much has happened this year. Many of us have had to grieve the loss of loved ones or our lives before the "new normal". There's been so much uncertainty with COVID-19, the economy, the 2020 election, and even our plans for next week. I was really struck by all of the comments accompanied with this video. And it really interests me how we turn to particular habits or media to cope with loss, uncertainty, and trauma. I feel like Tik Tok is a significant facet of 2020, especially for young adults and teenagers.
Carly's Quarantunes
This is a playlist of songs I've listened to during quarantine and an explanation about each of them.
Interview with St. Mary's University IFC President, Eduardo Lopez
This is an interview I had with Eduardo Lopez over Zoom. He is the Interfraternity Council President at St. Mary's University, San Antonio, Texas. I interviewed him from Providence, Utah while he was living in St. Louis, Missouri.
This photograph is taken in Houston, TX as part of a news conference with Rep. Al Green and Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner. On 29 April 2020, the city of Houston staged a news conference at a COVID-19 testing site run by the National Guard in Houston, TX. At the end of the conference, LTC English (who is a Nurse Practitioner and Texas Army National Guard Senior Medical Advisor) was interviewed for his opinion on public health and safety during the pandemic.
Graduating in the Age of COVID-19
I graduated from Texas A&M with my PhD in Anthropology in May 2020. The graduation was in early May. I had defended my dissertation in late January and was working as a graduate assistant at Texas A&M and as an instructor at Blinn College when the COVID-19 came to Texas in March 2020. My jobs went online for a month, then I was activated with the National Guard on 18April2020. In this photograph from early May, I am attending my remote graduation ceremony from my workspace at the Region 6 COIVD-19 Response headquarters in Houston, TX.


Raymond Moser is past Chairman of the Count Basie Theatre Board of Trustees and currently serving on the Board of Advisors. He is also Treasurer of the Capital Campaign Leadership Counsel.
The Count Basie Theatre is owned and operated by the Count Basie Theatre, Inc., a section 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation dedicated to serving the people of Central New Jersey by maintaining, operating and programming the historic Count Basie Theatre.
Moser Taboada is proud to have sponsored its fourth annual scholarship given to a Monmouth County high school senior whose life, academic and career choices have been impacted by the arts. These scholarships are our way of giving back to the community while encouraging creativity and life-long learning.
As part of the Basie Awards on May 24, 2017, this year's winner, Sean Molicki, a senior at Mater Dei Prep High School in Middletown, was presented with a $2500 scholarship. He will be attending college in the Fall of 2017 and plans to major in Business.
Raymond Moser is a Trustee.
The Hydrocephalus Association was founded in 1983 to provide support, education and advocacy for individuals, families and professionals coping with the complex issues of hydrocephalus.


text:
More public holidays for a sustainable society
December 26, 2017 John Quiggin43 Comments
As I mentioned in relation to their advocacy of an end to coal, the Greens occupy a position where they can put forward policies that are outside the range of possibilities taken seriously by the commentariat. Another recent example is their proposal, during the Queensland election campaign for four additional public holidays. Of course, this idea was ridiculed by the major parties, which are still stuck in a mode of thinking where "jobs and growth" are ends in themselves rather than means to a better life. Jackie Trad, for example, was quoted as responding that "the election was about jobs, and that the proposal was "populist", while Tim Nicholls described it as "loopy". The attitudes expressed by Trad and Nicholls are typical of the neoliberal* thinking dating back to the 1980s that still dominates much of the political class.
Before the 1980s, it was generally understood that the benefits of technological progress included reductions in the paid work time needed to achieve a decent standard of living. Over the first three quarters of the 20th century, standard working hours were reduced from 48 per week to 44 then to 40, annual leave became a standard condition of employment, increased to four weeks a year in the 1970s, and the number of public holidays was increased. The last significant move in this direction was the 38 hour standard working week, introduced in 1983. Some more progressive Labor governments, such as that of the ACT have pushed for more public holidays. That's the exception though: the general direction of public policy has been to push for more "flexible" (that is, flexible at the employer's discretion) hours and working conditions, fewer long weekends and so on.
If we are to move to a more sustainable economy, a shift away from ever-increasing material consumption is necessary. A reduction in the time devoted to market work and production, as well as being desirable in itself, is an essential part of this process. An increase in the number of official public holidays, and a restoration of penalty rates for holiday work, would be an important signal that the era "jobs and growth" neoliberalism, setting the alarm clock early, and so on, is behind us.
* Here. I'm using "neoliberal" in the broad pejorative sense of "bad assumptions associated with the era of market reform that began in the 1980s" rather than in reference to a coherent theoretical position, for which I would typically use the term "market liberalism". There's nothing inherently free-market about the rhetoric of harder work, productivity and "competitiveness", but the empirical fact is that they go together.
A good year for the global climate.
Ten years ago, when Bob Brown and the Greens called for a plan to end coal exports, their position was way outside the Oveandrton Window (the range of opinions taken seriously by the political class and commentariat). Ten years later, it's entirely normal for financial institutions to announce that they will no longer fund coal projects, and for major national governments to join an alliance with the self-explanatory title Powering Past Coal.
The news isn't all good. For a variety of mostly temporary reasons, China has increased its coal consumption in the last year, so that CO2 emissons are likely to have risen in 2017. But the general direction of public policy and energy investment is clearly right, and even reactionary governments like those of Turnbull and Trump have been powerless to do much about it. After all the posturing of the National Energy Guarantee, the coal lobby in the government had to swallow the announcement that the AGL Liddell power station would be closed and replaced by renewables.
More significantly, the threat that the massive (though low-grade) coal reserves of the Galilee Basin might be developed as a result of the Adani mine-rail-port proposal appears to have been staved off. Labor's victory in the Queensland state election meant a veto of public loan funding through the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (a veto which also encompasses a rival rail project put up by Aurizon) makes it highly unlikely that Adani will find any commercial lenders. This conclusion was confirmed by the announcement that Adani has parted ways with Downer EDI, with which it had a $2 billion agreement to operate the mine. Downer is just the latest in a string of Adani partners to walk, or be pushed away (Posco, Worley Parsons and the bankers who were lining up to lend a few years ago). In the US, Trump's efforts to save coal have been similarly ineffectual.
Looking beyond coal, we've had major developments in battery technology, symbolised by Tesla's 100 MWh SA battery, which has already proved its worth and discredited the Turnbull/Abbott rhetoric about the reliability of coal. That goes along with electric cars and the announced decision of numerous national governments and some carmakers to go all-electric.
None of this should cause complacency. Turnbull, Trump and various likeminded governments (mostly nascent or actual rightwing dictatorships) are still doing their best to sabotage the planet, and the urgency of the problem is clearer than ever. But overall, this has been a very good year for the global climate.
The strategic supply curve
December 22, 2017 John Quiggin9 Comments
A plug for a recent paper: one of my Twitter followers asked for a non-technical explanation, so here it is.
Flavio Menezes and I just released the latest version our paper "The Strategic Industry Supply Curve," available here. The central aim of the paper is to extend the standard graphical analysis of supply and demand, familiar to every first-year economics student, to cases where markets are imperfectly competitive (monopolies and oligopolies). At present, these markets are analyzed using quite different theoretical tools, making only limited use of graphical representations.
The main innovation is the notion of the strategic industry supply curve, representing the locus of Nash equilibrium outputs and prices arising from additive shocks to demand. Special cases include monopoly, Cournot and Bertrand oligopoly and competition in linear supply schedules.
As in the standard graphical analysis, we can
* use measures of consumer and producer surplus to determine the distribution of the welfare gains from trade between consumers and producers
* derive elasticity measures for supply and demand
* analyse the comparative statics of cost shocks
Our analysis allows us to view imperfect competition as analogous to a case where producers engage in 'cost-padding'. That is, the difference between the strategic supply curve (an equilibrium concept) and the industry supply curve (the sum of the supply curves of individual firms) can be seen as the measure of the 'economic rents' afforded by imperfect competition.
Our analysis has important implications for competition policy. For example, competition regulators examine industry supply curves, but do not directly assess the efficient costs of production. So, they are unable to distinguish directly between efficient costs and the 'cost-padding' associated with strategic behavior. Rather, the extent of such cost-padding is implicit in the the specific form of competition that it is assumed in the analysis (e.g., Cournot versus (differentiated) Bertrand). Conversely, assumptions about the form of competition are largely arbitrary and not informed by data. The approach in merger regulation contrasts sharply with that of monopoly price regulation, where the focus is on determining the monopolist's efficient cost, so as to set efficient (in a second-best sense) prices.
The arbitrary nature of economists' assumptions about the strategy spaces appropriate for game-theoretic representations of economic problems has been a long-standing theme of ours (refs). In this paper, we have turned this criticism around and shown how an explicit treatment of the strategy space can not only yield powerful new tools for economic analysis but can enhance the scope of such familiar tools as demand-supply diagrams.
The end of open access to universities
I've had plenty of disagreements with Andrew Norton about education policy. But I couldn't write a better response to the government's decision to end open access to university education for young Australians than this one. So, I'll just link to it and open comments.
Socialism and social democracy
From a comment on a Facebook post by Max Sawicky, asking about the difference between socialism and social democracy (sadly, I think the context was one of the internecine disputes in which the left has long specialised, though the right has now caught up and surpassed us).
I've switched back and forth between the two terms, with a more or less constant understanding of their meaning. For me, "social democracy" refers to the actual policy program advocated and to a significant extent implemented by social democratic parties in the mid-20th century: free and universal health care and education, a social welfare system sufficiently broad and generous to eliminate poverty, full employment and strong unions, in the context of a mixed economy. "Socialism" refers to a fundamental transformation of the capitalist system incorporating and going beyond the social democratic program to end large-scale capital and dependence on wage labour.
That is, as I use the terms, social democracy refers to a contemporary policy program and socialism to a utopian aspiration. During the period of neoliberal dominance, , I described myself as a social democrat, defending the achievements of the 20th century and trying to extend them where possible. Now that there is an opening for the future, we need the kind of utopian vision I associated with "socialism".
A new sandpit for long side discussions, conspiracy theories, idees fixes and so on.
Another Monday Message Board. Post comments on any topic. Civil discussion and no coarse language please. Side discussions and idees fixes to the sandpits, please.
Quiggin quizzical
My observations on the electricity demand associated with Bitcoin made it into the ABC News Quiz last week, which is a kind of fame, I guess.
Meanwhile, I had another piece in the Guardian, this time looking at the fact that, despite being called a "cryptocurrency", Bitcoin is used even less as a currency now than it was several years ago. The core problem is that the system is so overloaded by miners creating new coins that processing transactions is slow, costly or both I mentioned the fact that game company Steam had stopped accepting coins and that the list of merchants accepting Bitcoin is small enough to fit on one page. Checking further I concluded that this list is out of date, but not in a good way. Lots of those included, such as Expedia, no longer accept Bitcoin, if indeed they ever did. Here's one person's experience. Bitcoin is now a "crypto asset" which is even more obviously a Ponzi fantasy than the original currency story.
One response I got was that transaction speed would soon be greatly improved by something called Lightning. Checking on this it appears that this is software in an alpha (very early) stage of development, which would allow any two parties to set up a transactions account separate from the main Bitcoin blockchain, and only occasionally update the main account. An analogy, for readers of a certain age, is the era before Bankcard, when, if you wanted to do something other than paying cash, you maintained a separate credit and debit account with every store you dealt with. This does not seem like the dawn of a new era to me.
Coalition politics and the end of market liberalism
Lots of commentators are making a fuss over the prospect of the Greens taking the seat of Batman following the likely and unlamented departure of Labor MP David Feeney (if not under S44 then at the next election). The underlying claim is that the election of Greens candidates represents an existential threat to Labor. This is typical of a commentariat mindset that sees anything other than majority Labor or LNP governments as recipes for disaster (the phrase "hung parliament" is indicative), even though we have decades of experience of such governments operating successfully both federally and in (I think) every state and territory. The reality is that, however fractious their relationship may be at times, Labor and the Greens constitute a centre-left coalition. As I said a year ago
For Labor that means giving up the idea that the Greens are a temporary irritant that will go the way of the DLP, if they are abused and/or ignored long enough. For the Greens, it means abandoning Third Way rhetoric suggesting that they represent an unaligned alternative to a two-party duopoly.
The details of the alignment between the two will vary according to the circumstances, from formal coalition to general support, but there is no alternative.
The problem of coalition politics is much more problematic on the right. Despite the frictions, I'm not thinking primarily of the LNP "coalition" (so rusted together that, even where they aren't merged, the two are lumped together as a single "major party" in most commentary). Rather, the problem is the relationship between the LNP as a whole and the tribalist/Trumpist right, represented in various forms by One Nation, the Liberal Democratic Party, Bernardi's Conservatives* as well as a large faction within the LNP itself. These two groups have nothing in common except that they have common enemies, and even that common ground is limited. They all hate greenies and unions, but the overt racism of One Nation and the religious bigotry of Bernardi repel lots of mainstream LNP types, while the Trumpist base is suspicious of banks and multinationals.
Most importantly, the ideological framework of market liberalism (aka neoliberalism, economic rationalism) and so on has lost its power, which always rested more on the idea that There Is No Alternative than on any positive appeal. Sermons about the need for reform, budget surpluses, more competitive tax regimes and so on no longer get the kind of automatic approval from the political class as a whole that they used to. So, the mainstream LNP no longer stands for anything in particular. Meanwhile, the Trumpists want nostalgic gesture politics without any concern for coherence or practical consequences.
For the immediate future, at least, politics in Australia has resolved itself into a struggle between two coalitions. Both are going to be fractious, but the big problems are going to be found on the right.
* There's also the Katter party, but Katter is too idiosyncratic to fit into any classification.
A barbarous relic
That's what Keynes called the gold standard nearly a century ago, and he was right. I was reminded of this by the commentary on my latest piece on Bitcoin, published in the Conversation and also the ABC. I restated the points I made in my 2015 article on the massive and wasteful use of electricity in Bitcoin mining. The key points are that the cost of mining Bitcoins will inevitably rise until it is equal to the price for which Bitcoins can be sold, and that the great bulk of this cost is the electricity used to run specialised computer systems.
The responses included a great deal of huffing and puffing to the effect that I know nothing about cryptocurrency and shouldn't comment, but showed no understanding of the central point, let alone any attempt to refute it. The scale of Bitcoin's electricity use (which was hard to observe directly when I wrote in 2015 is now so massive as to be undeniable.
The other response, standard in cases like this, is whataboutery, that is, attempts to point out other wasteful uses of electricity compared to which Bitcoin is allegedly insignificant. I addressed one of these in the article, responding so someone who claimed that the electricity used by Bitcoin (serving at most a few million people) is "only" one-third of that of the rest of the global financial system.
Some other whatabouts led me to some interesting thoughts. One, which I plan to look at further is the use of electricity in electronic equipment on standby. The other, pushed with some vigour by commenters is gold. So, is gold worse than Bitcoin


Good morning love doves, and Happy Valentine's Day! How was your weekend?
I'm so glad you chickadees loved the Indulgence Friday recipe! If you missed it, have a look and make it now, mmk?
So in the spirit of my love for all things quick-and-dirty (get your minds out of the gutter people), I am going to TRY to ramble a tad less than usual. But only a little.
Quick, delicious. I don't have a spiralizer because I am a cheapo so I used my vegetable peeler and ate the middle part that wouldn't noodlify:).
Topped with Amy's Low Sodium Marinara, nooch, and raisins obv.
Then for dessert, I whipped up a double batch of my Raw Chocolate Mousse, and it was gone by the end of the night, I think that says everything mmk.
The night was spent eating lots of that and watching Greek on Hulu. Ob. sessed.
Con banana slices, bloobs, rasps, and cacao nibs.
I woke up, made a delicious Brendan Brazier Thrive energy pudding, and then went to the gym to kick some surrious Dreadmill bootay with an easy seven-miler, it was glorious.
Then I came home, showered, did my makeup, did my hair, got changed, and packed my breakfast all in half an hour. I think it is safe to say I am a PRO.
And yes, I ate my cookie dough breakfast in church. Priorities, people.
Then I went to another raw event hosted by the lovely Damaris! It was a scrumdiddlyumptious raw Valentine's Day lunch, and I left with the happiest belly ever in the whole world.
Beet It juice (beets, carrots, swiss chard, apple, and ginger) alongside the Apple Curry Salad in a Collard Wrap (apple, carrots, celery, avocado, tomato, cucumber, sunflower seeds, raisins in an orange curry sauce) and a Carrot, Beet, Raisin salad.
This was to. die. Give me anything with sunflower seeds and raisins and I will love you forever.
Almond Ginger Nori Roll (almonds, ginger, marinated veggies in Tamari (wheat-free soy sauce), garlic, miso, spinach, avocado, sprouts).
I told you I'm a messy eater!
If you don't believe me my sister took a picture, don't look at my face I look icky that is not my good side.
Raspberry Ganache Cake and Strawberry Macaroons.
Words cannot even express. Why have I not had raw macaroons sooner?! These were so good, I usually am not a big fan of the co-co-nut, but these turned me from a coco hater to a coco LOVA.
So freaking good, it was like a strawberry milkshake on crack but better because it is solid.
And this Raspberry Ganache Cake…can I just say my life has been changed forever. This was the most delicious, rich, and perfectly chocolatey cake I have ever had.
Perfectly sweet, and perfectly bitter.
Okay the bathroom at the brunchy brunch was creepy, ghetto, and in a basement. Hence, CGB.
Have you ever seen the Blair Witch Project? You should. The corner the guy stands in at the end…yeah, this basement looked exactly like the house. I swear to bejeezus it was filmed here.
Normally this would freak the sugar out of people, but instead I was basically hopping up and down as Sacha was warning me about the creep factor.
Little did she know, I am a crazyins and this was like Christmas Morning. I am a sucker for crazy stuff.
Then, I came home and whooped some schoolwork, then headed off to a new youth group with my sister, and it was so. much. fun. These people are as crazykins as I am, so you can imagine how skipdiddlydoo happy I was.
One kid hugs everyone, gave me candy, and counted the number of colors on my shirt with me.
Go wish Janae a Happy Late Birthday!! She got a crazy hot treadmill, one day I will find a man that will buy me awesome toys like that.
Did you watch the Grammys? Thoughts?
Do you eat in church too?
Yes, I cannot go more than 2 hours without food, I would start gnawing on the Bible.


There is a powerful Black population in the U.K., which relishes the richness of their roots. Here, hairstyles, fashion, cuisine, music, celebrations and traditions are woven into an intricate tapestry of life and prosperity. Blackness is celebrated at cultural centers, exhibitions and events that bring communities together. Some of my favorite Black musicians hail from the U.K. And so, despite the persistence of white supremacy, Black Britons continue to thrive.
Finally, a filmmaker has come to the forefront to confront the identity question in the post-Obama Trump era. Filmmaker Mtume Gant beautifully asks pertinent questions about what it means to be Black in today's times in his 20-minute short, an official SF Black Film Festival selection called "White Face." This political satire, an artsy, comedic drama, is a must see for all the politically minded readers out there. Check out the genius of filmmaker Mtume Gant in this exclusive Q&A.
On April 19, 2015, Freddie Gray of Baltimore, Maryland, was murdered by officers of the Baltimore Police Department while in their custody. An article published in The Atlantic three days after Gray's death pointed out the historical precedent for this particular kind of state violence. The author wrote, "Black men dying at the hands of the police is of course nothing new." The "peculiar institution" of this violent and racist system can be better understood by tracing the lineage of the police back in time.
So this poem is for everybody on planet earth, even though I start it out by saying: When I was younger ... I used to wonder ... why my elders would be talking holes in my clothes about Blackness? I just thought it was to make me feel better about my situation: being a Black man in America. But a funny thing happened to me while I was searching for my blackness: I found God!
Redevelopment comes in and out like thieves in the night turning the remaining community members into back-stabbing vultures and because we hate the very flesh that clothes our veins, we are pacified with deceiving gifts and fake promises of fair land distribution.


text:
Q: How do I fix the older version error asked when running my project on android Emulator. It works on Google Chrome and Edge though Recently I opened my old project and there is a warning right now that nothing like this was happening before
Flutter Fix ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ [!] Your project requires a newer version of the Kotlin Gradle plugin.                       │
│ Find the latest version on https://kotlinlang.org/docs/gradle.html#plugin-and-versions, then │
│ update C:\Users\abc\Desktop\Flutter Work\E-Commerce                                  │
│ App\e_commerce_app\android\build.gradle:                                                     │
│ ext.kotlin_version = ''

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
You are here: Home / Abortion911 / Second Ambulance in Four Days At Planned Parenthood Involved in Illegal Baby Parts Trade
Second Ambulance in Four Days At Planned Parenthood Involved in Illegal Baby Parts Trade
Abortion911, Medical Emergencies, Planned Parenthood, Press Releases / March 28, 2018 by Cheryl Sullenger / 1 Comment
Orange, CA – Just four days after an ambulance transported a Planned Parenthood patient just before dawn on March 22, 2018, an ambulance was called for yet another woman who required emergency transport to a hospital.
Pro-life activists on the scene snapped photos one couple entered the Planned Parenthood building just as the paramedics pushed a gurney into the abortion facility, located on Tustin Avenue in Orange, California.
"Nothing says 'think twice' like an ambulance outside an abortion clinic," said Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue. "Two ambulances in four days is a very bad sign that there may be ongoing serious problems inside that abortion facility that are placing women in grave danger."
Safety risks are a particular concern in California, where abortion safety laws are being relaxed. However pro-life activists such as Paula Bandini explain that the Planned Parenthood in Orange is more dangerous that people might believe. She shared the most recent ambulance photos and told Operation Rescue that she has personally seen "many ambulances" at the Planned Parenthood in Orange, which serves as the headquarters of Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties, Inc.
This facility was involved in supplying aborted baby body parts to DaVinci Biologics and DaVinci Biosciences, which in turn sold the human remains worldwide. The DaVinci companies were sued by the Orange County District Attorney's office for illegally profiting from the sales.
The DaVinci companies admitted guilt, paid $7.8 million in a settlement, and agreed to stop doing business in California.
The DaVinci companies were owned by Ecuadorians who were convicted of financial crimes in their home nation, then paid large contributions to Democrats in the U.S. that resulted in then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expediting their immigration into the U.S.
However, the House Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives, which investigated the illegal trafficking of aborted baby tissue and organs for profit, issued criminal referrals for the DaVinci companies, but had not yet obtained evidence Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties was paid by the DaVinci companies. The Panel's term ended before their investigations were complete.
"Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties were the sole supplier of aborted baby parts to DiVinci Biologics and DaVinci Biosciences, which were owned by convicted criminals who had help from the Obama/Clinton administration in escaping an eight-year prison sentence in Ecuador," said Newman. "Other Planned Parenthood organizations in California and other states were referred to the U.S. Department of Justice for criminal investigation and prosecution for multiple crimes related to the illegal sale of aborted baby remains. We hope the DOJ investigation will find the missing financial link between the Orange County Planned Parenthood and the DiVinci companies. Shutting that abortion business down would be the best thing that could happen for the safety of babies and their mothers."
I live near this facility on Tustin Ave, Planned Parenthood & anyone who does business with them needs to be put out of business permanently, I live here in Orange County when you pass by this Planned Parenthood facility from the 22 freeway heading towards Long Beach, you can see a camera on the building, abortion is MURDER & I'm actively practicing my Catholic faith. Maybe we can enlist the help of citizen journalists like Dennis Michael Lynch (DML) & James O'Keefe from Project Veritas to expose the EVILS of abortion. Yes I can pray the Rosary to end abortion, America Needs Fatima is active in pro-life causes but our younger generation should be involved & engaged in this discussion to end abortion, not just confirming Judge Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court. Senator Kamala Harris & CA AG Xavier Becerra received funding from Planned Parenthood, more like Planned Genocide & WE as Americans, not just CITIZENS of California should NOT allow our most vulnerable to be murdered, talk about ripping babies from their mothers as a wedge issue for immigration but I digress. Abortion is a SCOURGE on our nation, REPEAL Roe v. Wade & DEFUND Planned Parenthood


text:
The Best in Video Games 2022
'Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity' Is Maddening
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity Will Be a Monumental Disappointment to Breath of the Wild Fans
Set a hundred years before the 2017 Legend of Zelda masterpiece, this game feels like the Star Wars prequels all over again.
By Dom Nero Published: Nov 18, 2020
While playing through Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, I kept thinking to myself, "How would I sell this game to someone who, like me, cherishes The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild?" Calamity is a prequel set a hundred years before the events of Breath of the Wild. The latter, of course, was a sad, somber story about a failed kingdom and the fractured remains of a hero who no longer remembers how to save the world. This new game promises to unfold the events leading up to Hyrule's demise, including the rise—and fall—of the Champions, the legendary protectors from the four corners of the kingdom who aided you in Breath of the Wild from beyond the grave. Pretty good sell, right? I wish it was that simple.
Five minutes into Calamity, you'll find that this prequel is almost nothing like the quiet, meditative open world game from 2017. Sure, since Calamity is technically a spinoff of Koei Tecmo's Dynasty Warriors series, you might expect it to be big, splashy, and bombastic. But I don't think fans of Breath of the Wild are prepared for just how disorienting it is to drop back into the leafy, watercolor-textured world of an abandoned Hyrule, only to find it resembling something close to a 1990s Major League baseball game, back when all the players were hulked out on performance enhancing drugs.
'Mario 64' Is Nintendo's All-Time Creepiest Game
How a Glorified Calculator Changed Nintendo
'Ocarina of Time' Has Only Gotten Better With Age
You'll pick up the controller and find that Calamity functions a lot like Breath of the Wild, except everything is, well, pushed to the max. Like, if Link pulls out a remote bomb, he doesn't pull out just one, he hurls five or six of them, blowing up the entire battlefield and painting the screen with dismembered Moblin parts. The models of these once humble characters are precisely the same as before, but this time, their powers are god-like. The cut scenes are in the old art style, but instead of brimming with mystery, they rattle around like slapstick gags from a Spy Kids movie.
Despite how jarring it may initially feel, one of the biggest draws of Calamity, though, is that it's a different kind of game than Breath of the Wild. Chief among these differences is the ability to play as more characters than just Link. You have at your disposal quite quickly Impa and the Champions—Daruk, Mipha, Revali, and Urbosa. Each of them plays a bit differently, with unique combos, special moves, and dialogue lines, and they even collect their own weapon upgrades at the end of each battle. Gaining a character onto your squad is a thrill, making the game's opening feel like a rollercoaster that starts mid-drop.
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity - Announcement Trailer - Nintendo Switch
There's so much promise here. Age of Calamity had the chance to show the kingdom of Hyrule in all its glory—thriving, living, alive. It had the opportunity to show us Link and Zelda's first meeting, to show us how their fateful bond was made. It could have explained where these four Champions came from and what their homes looked like before Ganon's forces blew their doors down. It could have shown us Hyrule's last stand against the end of the world—and, yes, it could have shown us the end of the world, too.
Age of Calamity hardly delivers. I don't think it's a bad game; I found a lot of joy in wiping hundreds, sometimes thousands of opponents off the screen. But as a prequel to Breath of the Wild, it's a monumental disappointment. It puts such an irritating lump in your throat that I had flashbacks to when I attended a midnight screening in 2002 of Attack of the Clones.
Nintendo Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity
The campaign, which initially shows promise, oscillates between explosive action scenes and some of the dumbest—and I mean dumbest—narratives moments in recent memory. Characters come racing into the story in grand fashion, only to disappear from the plot and never be heard from again. You'll spend hours beating up a mid boss, and then find yourself fighting him again five minutes later because of some flimsy logic like, "He escaped for now! We'll get him later! Sorry!"
The scattered worlds of Hyrule, colorful as they may be, feel even emptier than they did in Breath of the Wild. Unlike the 2017 title, though, I don't think this was an artistic choice. In the timeline of Calamity, these diverse little alcoves should be bursting with life and prosperity. But for some reason, all that appears in the recycled Breath of the Wild settings are foot soldiers, monsters, and more monsters. It's sometimes hard to watch the cutscenes and stomach what feels like the great and inevitable dumbing down of Breath of the Wild's magnificent legacy. In place of the tender, quiet moments of mourning is now a tonal mishmash of kid's movie comedy, Avengers-style team up moments, and incoherent plot twists that may have you screaming at the television.
What becomes apparent in the first Chapter of Calamity is that this game, really, is not a story about Champions or Link at all. It's a story about Zelda. This would be a huge selling point for my fellow Breath of the Wild heads. In that game, Zelda is imprisoned in the castle, using what remains of her magic power to encase Ganon in the castle walls, waiting for Link to resurrect himself and join her in rooting out the demonic scourge once and for all. How did she find herself in this horrific 100-year standoff with malice incarnate? Calamity, giving you control of the young princess shortly after the game begins, promises to answer that question.
There's joy to be found in wiping hundreds of opponents off the screen.
Instead, Zelda, who easily has the most important character arc in the game, spends most of the campaign whimpering in the corner, crying because her power still has not awakened, or quite literally hiding behind Link. And when you do get to control her, she's clunky and slow. I think many players will, like me, do everything they can to avoid having to use her on the battlefield. What a goddamn shame that is. Breath of the Wild did wonders for Zelda, awakening the agency—and heroism!—in a character that had been weighed down by the same tired "rescue the princess" narrative for decades. In Calamity, they knock that progress back a few years.
I suppose my disillusionment, really, is my own fault. As I tore through Calamity, I was surprised at how protective I began to feel of Breath of the Wild's legacy. I don't often find myself treating video games as sacred texts or claiming ownership of stories that are, objectively, not mine to claim. Again, I'll admit, this is an entry in the Dynasty Warriors series and an adequately fun one at that, but since it tries to walk in the shadows of the landmark 2017 game, it's almost impossible not to regard it as anything other than a massive misstep. And once this storyline began to sour my memory of Breath of the Wild, I started to feel like Marlon Brando in The Godfather: "Look how they massacred my boy!"
Get All the Best Gaming News, Every Day
Join Esquire Select
And I can't even tell you about the part of Calamity that really caused me to jump ship; under a reviewer embargo, I'm not permitted to talk about redacted redacted redacted and the redacted redacted's redacted. You see, the first hours of Age of Calamity, silly as it may be, are actually pretty thrilling, as the story begins to draw together the Champions, the villainous Yiga Clan, the brewing onslaught of evil forces that is threatening King Rhoam and his far-stretching lands of Hyrule, Link's journey to realizing his destiny as the Hero of Time, and Zelda's surprisingly emotional turn as she tries in vain to wake the ancient power that lays dormant inside her. For a second there, a Seven Samurai setup seems to be coming together, and it actually rocks.
But then, right when you get to that point in the prequel where Anakin starts to murder the Tusken Raiders, right as the Emperor kills Mace Windu and takes over the Senate, right when it all seems to (rightfully!) be turning dark, something, well, occurs, and Calamity goes from enjoyable to downright maddening. I'll just say this: By the time I finished the game, I felt so cheated that I thought I might have been better off never playing this prequel at all. Maybe I'm still recovering from the whole Ninja Yoda scene in Attack of the Clones. I don't think so, though.
The 17 Best Multiplayer PlayStation Games in 2023
The 15 Best Video Game Movies of All Time
The 13 Greatest Consoles in Gaming History
The Best Handheld Gaming Consoles of 2023
The Best Wireless Mouse For Gaming
Shop Top Nintendo Switch Games on Sale on Amazon
The 12 Best Gaming Earbuds of 2023
61 Gifts Any Gamer Will Be Psyched to Receive
Al Pacino Was At the 2022 Game Awards?!
The 2022 Esquire Gaming Awards
The 'Oregon Trail' Movie Will Give You the Shits
The Trombone Champ... Is Me.


text:
Apply Live Chat
About UT Austin
Locations & Schedule
UT Austin Boot Camps
How Tools Like GroupMap Help Remote Teams Collaborate Effectively
For employees and companies around the world, the impact of COVID-19 has changed the landscape of workplaces everywhere in record time, replacing physical office spaces with virtual environments. It's also created many open-ended questions about the future of work: Is remote work as efficient as being in a shared office? Is it sustainable beyond the pandemic?
While the future of remote work remains uncertain, companies like Spotify have committed to continuing remote work even after COVID-related safety requirements are no longer in place. Other companies have considered a hybrid approach that would offer the flexibility to work both in-office and from home.
Whether companies remain fully remote, return to the office, or adopt a hybrid approach, most have found value in certain aspects of virtual work and will likely continue to use them. To help individual employees, people managers, and product managers overcome common obstacles and learning curves associated with working virtually, organizations like GroupMap have built easy-to-use management tools that facilitate efficient and effective collaboration for product managers and remote teams.
The Evolution of Remote Teams
"The virus has broken through cultural and technological barriers that prevented remote work in the past, setting in motion a structural shift in where work takes place, at least for some people." – The McKinsey Global Institute
In a survey conducted by Pew Research Center of employed U.S. adults who said that the majority of their professional responsibilities could be done from home, only 20 percent worked from home all or most of the time prior to the COVID-19 outbreak. As of October 2020, that percentage of people working primarily from home had skyrocketed to 71 percent.
Before the pandemic, many companies believed that allowing employees to work from home would result in reduced efficiency. But is that true? As the world's biggest work-from-home experiment has revealed, companies have found no such link between productivity and working remotely.
"In most cases, this forced experiment around remote working as a result of COVID-19 has shattered those perceptions to prove that most employees can actually be trusted to get their work done from home," explains Lauren Mason, a principal and senior consultant at Mercer, in an interview with the Society for Human Resource Management. "As organizations are thinking toward the longer term, they are looking at how they can execute flexibility at scale to deliver on the value of flexible working, like enhanced performance and productivity, a better employee experience, an expanded talent pool, and, in some cases, potentially reduced costs."
For many, remote work has proven to be a positive adjustment that allows for lower commute times and added flexibility. One research study by Slack found that out of more than 9,000 workers surveyed, 72 percent prefer a hybrid model moving forward. However, in order to support this hybrid model, 72 percent of US executives surveyed by PWC in late 2020 said that they were planning for increased investment in tools for virtual collaboration.
Virtual Collaboration Challenges
From video conference etiquette to remote product management, the myriad social and technical learning curves associated with remote work present several challenges. For many individuals, the transition marked their first experience working in a nontraditional environment.
In a report by ESG Global evaluating the impact of COVID-19, 1 in 3 workers say they were not given the appropriate level of instruction on how to work safely and efficiently from home.
Even before the pandemic, CEO and Founder of remote work website Flexjobs.com Sara Sutton Fell wrote extensively about how to operate successfully as a remote company. Fell says one of the best ways leaders can successfully lead teams remotely is by emphasizing processes and procedures rather than face-to-face interactions, which is so often relied on within in-office settings.
Virtual Team Building Strategies for Product Managers
While product managers adjust to collaborating with teams remotely, individual employees are also adapting. Some of the most common struggles for new remote team members involve adjusting to the lack of physical or mental barriers provided in a physical office. Like a mental buffer separating home from work, a commute offered a neutral zone for employees to mentally prepare for the day ahead — or decompress afterward. Now, with everything being done in the same space, creating these distinctions falls on the individual.
To help individual team members retain a positive mindset, Entrepreneur.com explains how employers can help workers facilitate a healthy work-life balance by creating healthy boundaries, providing clear communication, and garnering a sense of community.
Sara Sutton Fell recommends four key ways that people and product managers can help:
Facilitate proactive communication through regularly scheduled individual meetings with specific questions and problems.
Set clear guidelines about which communication channels to use, and when to use them.
Translate a collaborative and healthy company culture into virtual settings.
Reserve time for fun, celebration, and praise for a job well done.
Engaging Activities
Brainstorming and creative planning sessions are a great way to utilize everyone's unique individual strengths within a team. And although teams may not be working together in the same room, there is still virtual space for creativity and collaboration.
According to Brent Tworetzky, Chief Operating Officer at Parsley Health, product managers rely on working well through others to help their teams succeed. One advantage remote brainstorming offers, states an article by Harvard Business Review, iis that it's now easier to get a large group of people into the same room to creatively collaborate together.
To make the most of creative planning:
Break into small or individual groups — or breakout rooms — before problem-solving.
Give every member of the group a chance to offer a possible solution.
Compile all ideas before discussing with the larger group.
Share small group ideas with everyone in the larger group.
Create a shared document with everyone in the group.
Utilizing the Proper Tools
Establishing a collaborative remote work environment requires tools to stay organized, creative, and communicative. Tools that help document, update, and archive ideas in real time are great ways to keep teams engaged while commemorating input and ideas.
Logistically, there are many ways to implement remote collaboration. So, which tools are right for you? To boost office morale and keep spirits high, chat platforms like Slack and Microsoft Teams provide fun, instant ways to send messages. For live documents and project management, Google Suite makes it easy to share and collaborate within teams.
For product managers who rely on virtual brainstorming sessions, GroupMap offers a one-stop shop where you can design an activity, invite participants, capture responses, and view results — all in real-time. GroupMap provides the structure and framework for teams to ideate, innovate, and decide on what will work best, and is designed to help teams easily share ideas and prioritize them by using visual templates which help guide and organize thinking. It removes some of the ego, reticent, and band-wagoning that can occur in the brainstorming process and helps to give everyone a voice and an opportunity to have their ideas put forward. Ideas can be prioritized independently, and the facilitated process helps teams move forward with ideas.
Creating a creative, collaborative, and efficient remote work environment isn't impossible — it's just different. Online tools like those offered through GroupMap are great for management and mood-boosting, ultimately helping everyone make the most of their workday.
How GroupMap Facilitates Collaboration and Creativity Within Remote Teams
Creative planning often involves brainstorming independently, providing suggestions, and collaborating between team members. For product managers using GroupMap, the use of visual templates, independent prioritization techniques, and facilitated stages help to move teams from divergent to convergent thinking. Ideas can be assessed and judged on their own merit and everyone has the opportunity to contribute.
While users can create their own templates and maps for decision making, creative planning, and collaboration in GroupMap, some of the most popular existing templates and tools include:
Customer empathy maps to help identify the key customers and what their pain points, experience, and interactions are with a product or service.
Value proposition canvas that can be used to help identify areas of a product or service that can add the most value to the customer and to help solve the problem at hand.
A lean business model canvas to help create a one-page business model to test the validity of the idea and to look for assumptions in the model that require greater feedback or research.
A simple pros and cons template that can help with decision-making, or a more complex DAKI (Drop, Add, Keep, Improve) activity can help the team work with stakeholders to look at their product backlog and groom it more effectively.
A range of agile retrospective activities that can help the team reflect on their experience to date and what went well, what could go better, and what they need to do to improve for the future.
With GroupMap, users have the ability to design templates that suit their teaching and learning, as well as their project needs, like creating a poll or survey, a simple kanban board, or a case study analysis. Additional examples can be found at www.groupmap.com/blog.
GroupMap and Boot Camp Learners
GroupMap was born out of the desire to improve student engagement, teacher feedback, and facilitated discussions within university environments. "As a product based company that has helped organizations build awesome products," writes GroupMap CEO Jeremy Lu, "we are excited to be able to help students develop the skills and capabilities to create their own products while learning how to work together, collaborate and think better together as a team."
Students in The Product Management Boot Camp at Texas McCombs receive access to GroupMap during their boot camp experience so that they learn how to work collaboratively with peers on product initiatives, just as they would on-the-job. They'll get hands-on practice with tools like Value Proposition Canvases that are critical to building great products, all while working together as a team.
Ready to learn more about product management and the tools that can help your remote team work together effectively? Explore our product management boot camp to get started.
Choose Program
Online or In-Person?
Choose Program Type
Choose Start Date
Coding (55)
Data Analytics (27)
Instructors (2)
Product Management (6)
Student Success (23)
UX/UI (18)
Attribution Modeling: An Ultimate Guide
Water Conservation and STEM
How to Become a Business Analyst in 2023
What Is a Full Stack Developer?
Tinder for Pets: A Peek Inside Chuck Stephens's Favorite Coding Project