The road to language learning is iconic

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Languages are highly complex systems and yet most children seem to acquire language easily, even in the absence of formal instruction. New research on young children's use of British Sign Language (BSL) sheds light on one of the mechanisms - iconicity - that may endow children with this amazing ability.

For spoken and written language, the arbitrary relationship between a word's form ? how it sounds or how it looks on paper ? and its meaning is a particularly challenging feature of language acquisition. But one of the first things people notice about sign languages is that signs often represent aspects of meaning in their form. For example, in BSL the sign EAT involves bringing the hand to the mouth just as you would if you were bringing food to the mouth to eat it.

In fact, a high proportion of signs across the world's sign languages are similarly iconic, connecting human experience to linguistic form.

Robin Thompson and colleagues David Vison, Bencie Woll, and Gabriella Vigliocco at the Deafness, Cognition and Language Research Centre (DCAL) at University College London in the United Kingdom wanted to examine whether this kind of iconicity might provide a key to understanding how children come to link words to their meaning.

Their findings are published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

The researchers looked at data from 31 deaf children who were being raised in deaf BSL signing families in the United Kingdom. Parents indicated the number of words understood and produced by their children between the ages of 8 and 30 months. The researchers decided to focus on 89 specific signs, examining children's familiarity with the signs as well as the iconicity and complexity of the signs.

The findings reveal that younger (11-20 months) and older (21-30 months) children comprehended and produced more BSL signs that were iconic than those that were less iconic. And the benefit of iconicity seemed to be greater for the older children. Importantly, this relationship did not seem to depend on how familiar, complex or concrete the words were.

Together, these findings suggest that iconicity could play an important role in language acquisition.

Thompson and colleagues hypothesize that iconic links between our perceptual-motor experience of the world and the form of a sign may provide an imitation-based mechanism that supports early sign acquisition. These iconic links highlight motor and perceptual similarity between actions and signs such as DRINK, which is produced by tipping a curved hand to the mouth and represents the action of holding a cup and drinking from it.

The researchers emphasize that these results can also be applied to spoken languages, in which gestures, tone of voice, inflection, and face-to-face communication can help make the link between words and their meanings less arbitrary.

"We suggest that iconicity provides scaffolding ? a middle-ground ? to bridge the "great divide" between linguistic form and bodily experience for both sign language and spoken language learners," says Thompson.

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Association for Psychological Science: http://www.psychologicalscience.org

Thanks to Association for Psychological Science for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/125260/The_road_to_language_learning_is_iconic

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The Business Rusch: Agents and Money ? Kristine Kathryn Rusch

?I have spent weeks Googling this topic, talking with other writers, looking up case law (ouch!), and trying to jog my memory, and have come up with nothing. So I?ll ask you all:

Do you know anyone who has audited their literary agent?

When I put ?literary agent? and ?audit? into search engines from Google to Duckduckgo.com, I get thousands?and I do mean thousands?of hits. These hits always involve literary agents auditing publishers (or threatening to) on behalf of writers.

When I put ?literary agent? and ?lawsuit? into search engines, I mostly get links to the Martha Grimes case of a few years ago, although I also found some very scary things, most of them already adjudicated cases on FindLaw.

I have yet to see anything about an author auditing her agent.

And why not? After all, literary agents handle writers? money. In fact, the agent gets the money first and funnels it to the writer, even though it?s the writer?s money. You?d think that someone would have audited an agent, just to make sure the books are being well-kept.

Well?there are so many problems here that I can barely begin to examine them.

First of all, no one has the right to go into another business and demand to see their books, even if that business owes that person money. There are only two ways you can audit the books of a business that owes you money.? The first way is contractual. The second is for cause.

Let?s deal with the contracts first. Agents proudly mention on their websites that they routinely force publishers to include audit clauses, and that the agents themselves will then ?audit? the royalty statements to make sure they?re accurate.

However, I have never ever ever ever seen an agency agreement that allows the writer the same rights that the agent negotiated on the writer?s behalf with the publisher. The writer does not have the right to audit a literary agent, even though most agents get all of the writer?s money from the publishing house. Those agents then cut a check?15% for the agent, and 85% for the writer.

Theoretically.

Think about this for a moment. The agent gets all the money and all the paperwork associated with that money. This almost always is part of the contractual agreement the writer has with the agent. Inside a publishing contract, the agent has the publisher slip in an ?agency clause? which essentially says that the agent will receive the money and that receipt will mark the end of the publisher?s obligation under that agreement.

Now remember this: literary agents aren?t bonded or licensed or certified. They do not have an organization with teeth that can fine them or sue them or disbar them if they behave improperly. Nor are they publically traded corporations, like some parent companies of publishing houses, so there?s no way to audit on behalf of the shareholders or any other reason.

In other words, the only one watching the store?the only one with the right to watch the store?is the agent herself. Writer J. Steven York has made his cat into a literary agent to show how ridiculously easy it is to become a literary agent. The cat has her own website, and even though she calls herself ?Bad Agent Sydney,? satire-challenged writers have?quite seriously?written to her and asked for representation.

Most writers never vet their agent. They don?t check with the local Better Business Bureau or the state attorney general to see if someone has filed complaints against the agent. They don?t run a credit check to see if the agent can handle her own money, let alone theirs.

I know of so many agent stories about financial mismanagement, most of them because the agent was a sole proprietor and used client funds to pay personal rent or, in the case of one very famous agent, to buy cocaine.

Most agency agreements between the writer and the agent are so one-sided in the agent?s favor that they terrify me. I?ve written blog posts listing the many reasons why you should not sign one of these documents. Of course, you can write your own agreement with an agent, and if you do, make sure it has an audit clause. You might even want to base that audit clause on the one for publishers that agents so happily tout on their blogs.

So, without a contractual agreement allowing it, how can you audit your agent? You can only audit if a court determines that you have cause.

Cause is a dicey thing. You need to have enough evidence that financial mismanagement is going on that you can get a court order to hire a forensic accountant to go in and examine another business?s books. In other words, you need proof.

If someone is deliberately stealing from you and is good at it, you won?t have proof. You might have suspicions, but you?ll never have proof.

I had suspicions for years that one of the agencies I used to work with had a problem with its foreign rights department. Years before I hired this agency, which I will call Boutique Agency, I had hired a sole proprietor agent, whom I will call Solo Agent.

Solo Agent embezzled from his clients routinely. When a client caught him and sued, that client had to sign a confidentiality agreement to get a settlement. This is one of the many reasons that I never found any reference to audits of Solo Agent in my Google searches, even though those audits happened and the court cases got settled. (Makes me wonder how many other agents insisted on?and got?confidentiality agreements in exchange for a settlement instead of a lawsuit.)

Solo Agent embezzled with foreign contracts. He never let his clients see the contracts, claiming they weren?t in English (not true: the contracts are always translated into the language of the writer). I?m convinced he underpaid the foreign advances, and he claimed those books never ever earned out. I?m sure he pocketed the extra advance and the royalties, but I can?t prove it in my case, since I didn?t sue him.

How do I know this then? Well, people close to me sued Solo Agent and got the settlement. And others have?well, not exactly broken their confidentiality agreements, but have let me know that going with Solo Agent as an agent isn?t a good idea because of something to do with foreign rights. Oh, and when I switched agents years later, all of my foreign editions with the same companies that had published previous editions paid me higher advances, and royalties after those advances earned out. One foreign publisher told me that I had always earned out for his company. Always. Even with Solo Agent was my agent.

Anyway, long story short, I?m very sensitive about my foreign payments because of Solo Agent. So when I became a client of Boutique Agency, I watched my payments like a hawk. Fast forward several years. I fired Boutique Agency (for reasons unrelated to money) and moved to another agency. And suddenly, my foreign royalties from the Boutique Agency started to look weird.

They got paid late, or not at all. In my series novels, the foreign publishers would pay royalties on Books 2 and 4 but not on Books 1 and 3. Sometimes those royalties would show up years later.

I complained, but no longer had clout. The money still funneled through that agency because I hadn?t gone through the nightmare of segregating funds. I had dozens of books which would have had to go through that process.

Instead, I simply made sure my rights reverted on those books as soon as possible, something that benefitted me years later when indie publishing started. Only I got my rights reverted to easily (and cheaply) get Boutique Agency off my back.

Foreign money still trickled in weirdly and inexplicably. But it wasn?t foreign money that gave me the obvious cause. It was tie-in novels.

A lot of writers wrote tie-ins in those years, and often for the same editor at the same franchise in the same publishing company. The royalties statements would come bundled and packaged from that publishing company. ?You?d have to read those statements closely to realize that TV Franchise Novel: The Awakening was a different novel from Movie Franchise Novel: The Awakening.

The Boutique Agency started to send me royalty statements for other writers who had written similarly titled books. I complained and mentioned it to Boutique Agency. Nothing happened.

And then I got the super large payment that made my eyebrows go up.

I always read my royalty statements. Always.

And as I examined that royalty statement for that really big check, I saw another royalty statement attached. A royalty statement for a completely separate writer, whose novel had a similar title. A royalty statement for said writer, who deserved all but about $5 of the money that had been sent to me.

Fortunately, I had not deposited that check because, among other things, Boutique Agency had stopped getting my company name right, so the check needed to go into an account I kept open only because of Boutique Agency?s incompetence.

I photocopied everything, then sent Boutique Agency a scathing letter, reminding them that they had fiduciary responsibility to me, and they had violated it.

Said fiduciary responsibility, by the way, comes from agency law.? Please remember that I am not an attorney and I don?t play one on TV. But a literary agent fits into the broad category of agents?like real estate agents?who exist under the law, and they are subject to a general thing called agency law.

The obligations that an agent?any agent, from a real estate agent to a literary agent?has to the principal (that?s you) under agency law include:

  1. To act within the confines of the law
  2. To act with reasonable care
  3. To maintain loyalty to the principal
  4. To disclose any material information to the principal

Some of these terms, such as acting with ?reasonable care? are legal terms in and of themselves and have specific meanings. There are a lot of other things that are involved in this side of the relationship, some of which you can find in the definition of fiduciary duties in the Free Online Law Dictionary.

One of the many responsibilities is privacy between the agent and the client. Just by sending me the other client?s royalty statements, the Boutique Agency was in breach of general agency law. But sending me another client?s money, well, that was an obvious breach and one that would have easily given me enough cause to get a judge to grant me the right to audit the Boutique Agency?s books.

It?s expensive to hire forensic accountants, even with the court?s permission. I was ready, though. Before I went to court, however, I decided to give Boutique Agency one last chance. I wrote a letter, citing all of the breaches, demanding a full accounting of my books, and reminding them of their fiduciary responsibilities to me.

The Boutique Agency not only terminated the remaining parts of our relationship the next day, they willingly wrote to all of my publishers that week, informing them to send me 85% of what was owed, and to cut a separate check for 15% for the agency. (This is called splitting checks).

Except the Boutique Agency?s foreign agent balked at doing her part. She refused to contact the foreign publishers. She thought my request ?insulting.? I had to write a series of letters to get action there. Finally, when I told Boutique Agency to stop worrying about writing those letters to my foreign publishers; I would do it myself. And guess what? Two days later, I got copies of letters sent to all of my foreign publishers.

Occasionally, I muse as to why Boutique Agency?s foreign rights person didn?t want to write those letters and wonder if I should have simply gone to court. I probably wouldn?t have made much money on this (if any), but I could? have blogged about the whole experience, and it might have caused a major upheaval.

You see, some really well known New York Times bestsellers?with series and movie franchises and all kinds of foreign rights?funnel all their money through Boutique Agency. Hundreds of millions of dollars flow through that place. At best, Boutique Agency?s accounting department sucks. At worse, someone(s) at Boutique Agency has very sticky fingers.

By the way, because I?m completest, let me add this: in a fiduciary relationship, you (the principal) have obligations as well. They are, generally speaking:

  1. pay the agent
  2. reimburse the agent for reasonable expenses

Nowhere does it say that you must let the agent get the money and disburse it to you. In fact, it?s really, really, really rare outside of publishing for someone who is called an agent to get the money in his own account, and then disburse it to the client.

For example, when you sell your house, your real estate agent does not get the check for the house, put it in his account, take his commission, and give the rest to you.? If you have an insurance claim that pays out, the money does not go to your individual agent first for her to remove her commission and then give the remainder to you. You get your check separately, usually in the mail, from your insurance company. If the check has to be hand-delivered, it is not a check from your insurance agent minus his fees, but a check from the insurance company itself, drawn from the corporate account that it has for this very kind of pay out.

Writers are so used to the literary agent system that we don?t question it at all. And yet, when Dean and I showed an attorney friend who specializes in corporate law (not intellectual property) a book contract, he freaked out. Not just at the jargon?he admitted he didn?t understand that?but at the agent clause. He thought it was a joke. He couldn?t believe how agents got paid. Or rather that writers, who had not checked an agent?s financial credentials, let that agent handle their funds.

In hindsight, I don?t understand it either. Yet I did it several times with different agents and different agencies.? I could claim youthful ignorance?I got my first agent at the age of 28?but I had already been a business reporter for years, and I knew about all kinds of scams. I just didn?t even consider how rife the agent/author relationship was for mismanagement until?well, until I encountered Solo Agent. Even then, Solo Agent didn?t stop me from hiring the Boutique Agency without vetting them. I vetted later agents, but didn?t ask for split payments, even though I should have.

And so should you.

If you have an agent, you should make sure that your payments get split. If the publishing company refuses to do that, then have the money come to you directly and you live up to your side of the fiduciary relationship: pay your agent the moment the big check arrives.

If your agent balks at that?if he doesn?t trust you to pay him his 15%?then why should you trust him to pay you 85%?

If you don?t have an agent and believe you need one, then make sure you have an agent agreement that you draw up, not the agent. And in that agreement (which you need to draw up with the help of an IP attorney), add an audit clause so that you can audit the agent.

A lot of you indie writers believe you need an agent to sell foreign rights (you don?t) or movie rights (you don?t) or other subsidiary rights (you don?t), so you hire someone to handle your books when you and an intellectual property attorney could do so much better on your own.

Think long and hard before you hire an agent to handle your work for you. The business model no longer works in today?s new publishing environment so most agents are moving to dicey practices that, in fact, violate the fiduciary duties listed above.

Investigate anyone you hire, but before you do, question the assumption that you need to use a 20th century model (the agent) for a 21st century business.

If you think you need an agent, then research the hell out of the person you hire. Ask to check the firm?s credit, get recommendations, and write your own agent agreement with an audit clause. Split payments or have payments come directly to you.

Just because a firm is ?reputable? doesn?t mean it can handle its books. That Boutique Agency has one of the best reputations in the business?and no, I won?t tell you who it is. I?m telling you to be cautious no matter who you hire to handle your business affairs.

This is a writer beware situation, and a very serious one.

You don?t want to be in the position where you believe you know that someone is mismanaging your funds, but you can?t prove it. You don?t want to get to the stage where you actually have cause, because that means something horrible has broken down somewhere.

You want the money you?re owed?all of it?to come to you. You want your business relationships to remain aboveboard and honest.

Are there good agents in the world? Yes. I partner with one on occasion when I need to, which is rarely these days.

But are there bad agents? Infinitely more bad agents than good. And honestly, I know of a few good agents who work in that Boutique Agency. Because they partner with that business, I?d never hire them, because that agency has some serious flaws in its accounting department.

Do your homework, take care of yourself, and make sure you?re never in a position where you need to audit anyone because you suspect something is wrong.

This blog comes from the school of hard knocks or, as I sometimes say to my students, the do-what-I-say-not-what-I-did school of publishing. I am older and wiser now, but I?m still learning and, I?m sure, still making mistakes. I just try not to make the same mistake twice.

I also want you to learn from my mistakes so you don?t have to take those hard knocks like I did. Believe me, they?re painful. And that?s where this week?s blog came from.

However, this blog does need to be self-sustaining because I could always use the extra 3,000 words for whatever fiction project I?m working on. So, if you get anything of value from my work on The Business Rusch, please leave a tip on the way out.

Thanks!

Click here to go to Paypal.

?The Business Rusch: ?Agents and Money,? copyright ? 2012 by Kristine Kathryn Rusch.

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Source: http://kriswrites.com/2012/11/14/the-business-rusch-agents-and-money/

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Bloggers' ConClay at Club Mahindra Kanatal - Saffron Trail- a ...

Many of you might have spotted my tweets on #ConClay and #kanatal last month, and I was asked by quite a few as to what that was about. Here's the story-

Early in October, when Club Mahindra approached me if I would like to be a part of the Bloggers' 'Unconference' at Kanatal, I had two simultaneous reactions instantly-?
  1. How wonderful!
  2. Need to Google Kanatal NOW

It was supposed to be a meet-up of travel bloggers mainly.?I was wondering what would be my role as a food blogger in the whole scheme of things. But then what is travel without food. Some places like Italy are utterly inseparable from their glorious cuisine and some places like Japan become a point of survival for vegetarians. Food is indeed integral to travel.?

Do read my post "Top ten reasons why I love Kanatal" on the Club Mahindra blog - Clay, among other superb travel pieces.
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I met Lakshmi at the chaotic Bangalore airport in the wee hours of Sunday morning. We were to meet the other bloggers at Delhi airport by mid morning and board a flight to Dehradun from there.? It was a fun flight, catching up with Lakshmi, whom I knew from earlier. We had an interesting co-passenger, Chris, originally from Australia but on his way to Kabul where he was working. We met with Deepak, Manish, Nisha, the other participants &?Akshat and Arun Nair from Club Mahindra. The flight to Dehradun was much delayed but the upside was that we all got talking and observing random interesting people (and their tattoos) at the airport, like this holy man with ruby studded gold wedges. What better way to get to know each other!
It was my first trip to the North of India, beyond Delhi and I was much excited thinking about what lay in store. After a short flight from Delhi to Dehradun, we had a 80 km drive to Kanatal via winding mountainous roads fabulously maintained by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO). We stopped midway to sip some strong sweet ginger tea at a little tea shop overlooking a beautiful valley and two beautiful Garhwali women knitting woollens for the oncoming winter. We reached the resort at Kanatal around 4.30 pm, having travelled 2000 km in exactly 12 hours from my home in Bangalore that morning and it felt like a whole new universe. I could sense that the skies were preparing for a spectacular sunset, which I later realised is a common occurrence in this part of the world.

At the resort, we met Mariellen, a travel blogger from Canada, totally in love with India, dividing her time between Toronto and Delhi, she had taken the road from Rishikesh to Kanatal and reached the resort well ahead of us.

We briefly checked into our cozy rooms that gave the feel of being in a log cabin in the hills, each one with a glorious view of the Garhwali mountains. Our agenda to visit the Surkunda Devi temple that evening was thwarted because of our late arrival into the resort and the fact that there was a 1.5 km climb to and from the temple in the darkness.?

The manager at the resort showed us around the beautiful property, including the spa. The hydrotherapy session was specially tempting but the spa was closed for the day. After refuelling on the delicious dinner spread that included a mixed-pulses dal called Dal Kabili, we decided to exercise our vocal cords at the Karaoke session. I realised while I may be a decent singer, I was quite hopeless in following the karaoke lyrics. Eating together and singing together is a great way of getting closer to people you have just met and we felt like a close knit group ready for the Conclay presentations which were to begin the following morning. I love to start my Monday mornings with a good cardio workout and this cold Kanatal morning was trying hard to keep me under the thick quilt in the comfortable bed. Nevertheless, I stuck to my resolve and got the staff to open the gym room early for me. This was the best view I have ever seen from a gym, which had glass walls all around to allow us to feast our eyes on the magnificence of the mountains while on the treadmill.

Even at breakfast time, I made sure I didn?t let go of the mountains.?I took the sunny spot overlooking the tall deodars that covered the mountain ranges. The rest of the day was dedicated to the presentations by each of us participants.?

Do read Mariellen Ward's write up summarising the essence of each of our talks on her blog?

Day 3

The presentations done, our final day in Kanatal was all about sightseeing and some touristy fun. After yet another delicious breakfast, we headed out to Tehri Dam, which is the highest earth and rockfill dam in the Asian region. It is an architectural marvel and one couldn't help but gape in awe at its beauty from the point where we stopped to take many a shot.

That afternoon, post lunch, I was introduced to Chef Gurbir who is responsible for setting up many of the Club Mahindra resort kitchens, staff and menus. We chatted about local Garhwali cuisine and he even taught me to make a local specialty called Aloo ki Techwani, made using fresh mountain potatoes. The making of this dish should be out soon and I'll be happy to share it with you.?

Later, our gang left for Dhanaulti, as the eco park was listed as a tourist spot. Sadly, apart from the towering Deodars, there was nothing much of note here. We quickly made tracks to Mussoorie. After 2 days of utter peace and quiet at Kanatal, the hustle bustle of Mussoorie was quite welcome. Just as soon as we got out at the car park, the chilly breeze made me buy a monkey-cap for myself, at a bargain price of a 100 bucks :)

The mall road was dotted with shops selling woolens, trinkets, little eateries, sweetmeat shops and a country liquor shop.?

We rounded up our Mussoorie trip in a quirky cafe called Chick Chocolate, which is known for their coffee, hot chocolate, handmade chocolates and potato wedges, among other things.?

Day 4

After drinking in the last beautiful sunrise of the mountains, we had to pack up and leave early morning, to get the flight out from Dehradun airport to Delhi and there onwards to our respective cities.

In all, it was a beautiful time spent in pristine surroundings, enjoying the warm hospitality of Club Mahindra, the company of some of the most wonderful people.?

A brief introduction to all the participants:

Deepak Amembal?has been blogging since 2007, and you can visit his blog about the magic of travel in India at?Magic Travels. Lakshmi Sharath?quit her corporate job in the media?to travel around the world and to write stories. Her?travel?blog of an Indian Backpacker??on the web since 2005, covers her journeys around India, and the world.? Manish Kumar is one of the earliest Hindi bloggers.?He describes himself as a technocrat by profession and travel and music enthusiast by heart, has been blogging since 2006. His Hindi travel blog is called?Musafir Hoon Yaaron. Mariellen Ward is author of?Breathedreamgo, the India-inspired, meaningful adventure travel blog.?She came to India for 6 months in 2005 for the first time, and since then she's been back here many times.? Nisha Jha?has been?blogging since 2009. Her blog?Le Monde - A Poetic Travail, is about?sweet & sour?memories of?journeys around the globe. She is one of the few Indian women who travels solo around the world.? Arun Nair joined our group as the social media representative of Club Mahindra. His blog?Indianeye.org?is on social media, digital and travel (occasionally). He has been writing since 2007 and he is considered an authority in the digital, social media domain.

Source: http://saffrontrail.blogspot.com/2012/11/bloggers-conclay-at-club-mahindra.html

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How to be Friends With an Ex | California Psychics Blog

Do You Have to Let Them Go?

Perception can change how you view anything, and it plays a major part in every relationship. Some relationships are meant to end, and we have to realize that if that person was toxic or abusive, you are better off simply letting go and moving on. However if you have good interactions with that person and it just didn?t work out for you romantically, the following tools can help you remain friends!

1. First of all, you must give time to the process of healing. No matter what they say, or what you say, rarely is a ?break up? an equally mutual pursuit! So there is a process to go through and your emotions will vary. You might, at times, focus blame on the other person, and/or feel guilt for your own actions. Until there?s a bit of balance to your lives you cannot build the foundation for your friendship. My advice is to allow a minimum of two weeks for a short dating stint, and at least six months of healing time for longer dating relationships. You need time to really allow whatever ill will ?residue? that?s built up in your relationship to subside.

2. Can you be friends? Aside from any behavior that the other deemed toxic or abusive, it may be that one or the other is simply not willing to put aside any residual anger or resentment. You must both be able to let it go at some point, and that?s when you get to build the foundation that could create a deep and long-term friendship. Really think about what attracted you to that person in the first place? If you began as friends, what aspects of their personality did you enjoy the most when you first got together? Now think about what you learned to like about them and what you came to respect.

3. Create ground rules for when, where, or how you think it wisest to hang out. My suggestion is to be very clear about the first few get-togethers. For instance if you do NOT want to be intimate with them, do not set up night time ?dates? with just the two of you. If friendship is really what you want, keep to group outings or very public events?preferably not alone. You can graduate the friendship to longer, more intense gatherings once you have proven you both can handle the connection without drama. Be sure to talk about when you start dating others?that?s a danger zone!

4. Once you have made the decision that the relationship is over, and you have taken the time to heal, and are now settling into the idea of being friends, you must stick to the new friendship and not go back to the romantic relationship you used to have. The issues that lead up to the break up?off limits! The intimacies of being sexual partners?off limits! The old resentments and taunts and teases based on the closeness you had as a romantic couple?negotiable, but still off limits without ground rules. You have to retrain yourselves to not be a couple anymore, but to be individuals, with the respectful distance around emotional or intimate issues.

Source: http://blog.californiapsychics.com/blog/2012/11/how-to-be-friends-with-an-ex.html

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The Strategy Imperative ? The Strategy Room

By Peter V. Stanton, on November 15th, 2012

Let me begin with the obvious:? The election is over.? We know who won.

The reason I bring this up is that until November 6, America?s business leaders and the economy as a whole seemed stalled in neutral.? It?wasn?t?as if we collectively were doing nothing at all, but uncertainty about the outcome, or at least uncertainty about what would come after the outcome, gave corporations in nearly all sectors a general sense of pause. The challenge now is to break out of that inertia and use what remains of 2012 to make decisions about 2013 and beyond.

The best communicators already have some sort of skeleton plan in place likely dotted with various contingency scenarios.? The very best are activating a strategic planning discipline to seize maximum advantage from post-election clarity and build initiatives that take the new reality into full consideration.

The key word is discipline.? Strategic planning too often is a back-of-the-envelope exercise.? Research may be done and focus groups may be convened, but making the information gained from those efforts fully actionable requires a structured approach rigorously applied.

In communication strategy, we learned long ago that the optimal point of departure is a clear articulation of business goals.? As communicators, we bear a responsibility to align internal and external outreach with?measurable?outcomes that advance the enterprise.? Communicators are essential to the dynamic process of finding out what the target audiences or customers want and how they wish to interact with the organization. To foster and activate that interaction, we strive to learn their immediate needs and preferences and what they value.? When we do this successfully, we help our organizations enhance customer loyalty and encourage loyal and satisfied customers to advocate for the brand.

Beyond the statement of business objectives, sound strategic planning transitions to Stakeholder Enrollment. This is a face-to-face protocol for building core audiences into the plan by gathering their insights and perspectives, seeking their reactions to preliminary assumptions and engaging their participation in further plan and program refinements.? We can no longer presume that our audiences will follow our lead if we are boldly creative.? Creative is catchy.? Strategy is breakthrough.

Consumers are smarter and, frankly, under greater pressure than ever before.? They no longer can afford to act solely to their desires.? They require substance, content and a reason to act.? Since audience segments have different motivations and needs, the strategic plan must reflect these differences.? When we compile this information from interviews, polls and focus groups,? we literally create a communication chart in map-like format, so the path of communications, its intersections and road blocks all can be identified at a glance. We call this Architecture and find for our clients it is a far more useful depiction of communication strategy than another mind-numbing PowerPoint or narrative of the past.

From there, we use the graphic to build consensus and establish the metrics by which the program will be held accountable.? It?s a clear and unambiguous process and it works for organizations in diverse industries and sectors.? Far more important, it?doesn?t?require months to complete.? Following this structure, a solid strategic plan can be in place before 2013 arrives.

The election is over.? It?s imperative to get serious strategic planning moving again.? And it is past time we all did so.

Source: http://thestrategyroomblog.com/the-strategy-imperative

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McDonald's posts first sales drop in nine years

5 hrs.

McDonald's Corp on Thursday reported a 1.8 percent drop in October sales at established restaurants around the world, its first monthly sales fall since March 2003, hurt by stiff competition in a weak economy.

Analysts, on average, expected a 1.07 percent decline in sales at restaurants open at least 13 months, according to Consensus Metrix.

The results came just weeks after the world's biggest hamburger chain posted its worst quarterly restaurant sales growth performance in nine years.

October sales at restaurants open at least 13 months fell 2.2 percent in both the United States and Europe and fell 2.4 percent in the Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa (APMEA) region.

Analysts, on average, had expected a 1.05 percent decline in the United States, a 0.69 percent fall in Europe and a 3.01 percent drop for the APMEA region, according to Consensus Metrix. The United States just edges out Europe as McDonald's largest market for sales.?

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/mcdonalds-posts-first-sales-drop-nine-years-1C6891692

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Britney Spears On 'The X Factor' Season 3? 'Definitely'

Britney Spears made waves when she joined Fox's "The X Factor" for its revamped second season. From her ongoing contract talks and hefty paycheck to her trademark judging faces, Spears' involvement has been the "X Factor" gift that keeps on giving. Can they expect the Spears touch in Season 3?

"Yes, I definitely will," Spears told reporters about participating in another season of the reality series.

Fox recently renewed "The X Factor" for a third season, but at the time, no judges had been announced. Currently Spears sits alongside Simon Cowell, L.A. Reid and Demi Lovato. Spears and Lovato joined the panel for Season 2 after Fox parted ways with Nicole Scherzinger and Paula Abdul. Host Steve Jones was also replaced with Mario Lopez and Khloe Kardashian.


Spears reportedly got paid $15 million for this season of "The X Factor." Watch the video below to hear Spears tackle the Season 3 question.

  • L.A. Reid

    "The X Factor" Season 2

  • Simon Cowell

    "The X Factor" Season 2

  • Britney Spears

    "The X Factor" Season 2

  • Demi Lovato

    "The X Factor" Season 2

  • "The X Factor" Season 2 Judges

    L.A. Reid, Demi Lovato, Britney Spears, Simon Cowell

  • "The X Factor" Season 2

    "The X Factor" judges arrive in Austin

  • "The X Factor" Season 2

    "The X Factor" judges arrive in Austin

  • "The X Factor" Season 2

    "The X Factor" judges arrive in Austin

  • "The X Factor" Season 2

    "The X Factor" judges arrive in Austin

  • "The X Factor" Season 2

    "The X Factor" judges arrive in Austin

  • "The X Factor" Season 2

    "The X Factor" judges arrive in Austin

  • "The X Factor" Season 2

    "The X Factor" judges arrive in Austin

  • "The X Factor" Season 2

    "The X Factor" judges arrive in Austin

  • "The X Factor" Season 2

    "The X Factor" judges arrive in Austin

  • "The X Factor" Season 2

    "The X Factor" judges arrive in Austin

  • "The X Factor" Season 2

    "The X Factor" judges arrive in Austin

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/06/britney-spears-the-x-factor-season-3_n_2083882.html

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Conference offers undergraduates look at 'Business School and

Students who are considering a career in business ? and even those who haven?t yet decided what they?ll do after college ? are invited to attend a conference on ?Business School and Beyond,? to be held Saturday, Nov. 10.

Participants will learn about the value of an M.B.A. from admissions deans and directors from the Columbia, Harvard, Stanford, and New York University business schools, the Yale School of Management (SOM), and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, as well as a host of other speakers and programs.

There will be keynote addresses by SOM student Nathaniel Hundt and Barry Nalebuff, the Milton Steinbach Professor of Management at SOM, and co-founder of Honest Tea, Inc.

The free conference, which is sponsored by the Yale Undergraduate Business Society and SOM, will take place 10 a.m.-2:30 p.m. in Rm. 250 of the Loria Center, 180 York St.

Space is limited, so those interested in attending should register at?https://admissions.som.yale.edu/register/?id=e00fa7ba-0c84-4b6a-9b26-f726a50561b7.

?

Image via Shutterstock.

Source: http://news.yale.edu/2012/11/06/conference-offers-undergraduates-look-business-school-and-beyond

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Online Video Marketing ? One of the Dominating Online Marketing ...

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Today, your scenario is that, people are more interested in looking at graphics rather than reading these. Online video marketing has become one of the ruling marketing strategies in the world of Internet. It has excellent impact and provides just about any online marketing with productive benefits.

Today, Online Video Marketing is becoming an increasing necessity of any company associated with online business. Whether you think it or not, this particular marketing has got lot of possible which can draw about 85% of the web traffic to your website. It is quite easy to believe why this kind of marketing is really a soaring success. As the Internet continues to grow, becoming more available the growing rise in popularity of online video marketing is no more an unexpected.

Good Quality Video: To have far better response, it is important to develop a quality video. Nobody will enjoy to see some baseless video. This will impact send out image. Produce a HD video. If you are not known with all the technicalities hire a specialist. Producing quality video does not always mean to giving the audience full video. People are interested in short and sweet issues so offer all of them what they want to see.

Online video marketing could be the great way to expose your brand/products/services to millions of buyers and customers around the world. Whether you are running a small scale company or you are just a marketing professional in a huge firm it doesn?t matter with these great tips you will be embark your success in the Internet world.

Market you?re Video on Social networks: With the help of various social networks you can upload the videos/presentations to reach millions of people around the globe. It is the most cost-effective way to get your product/brand acknowledgement and is therefore thought to be one of the best lead get building service. Most thanks to their included sharing tools, you will be able to talk about your work with your close friends to reach out to your prospective clients.

Take Aid of YouTube: Many marketers forget to upload their video on YouTube, which is the easiest and quickest way to gain popularity. It?s great that you have uploaded the video on your blog or website, nevertheless let me ask you the way many people will go to your page and see that will video. This answers most your queries of utilizing YouTube.

Associate Your current Video With Another One: It?s best trick if you can post or hyperlink your video in response to a different video. It is an easiest way to gain the exposure that you would like for your company.

A large part regarding online marketers are adjusting to these successful alterations. It might be difficult in the beginning, but it will eventually have the ability to pull out the prosperity for your business.

For more information about Internet Video Marketing please visit the website.

Short URL: http://aayahanolosha.net/?p=7297

Source: http://aayahanolosha.net/archives/7297

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Intel Announces Intel SSD DC S3700 Series - Next-Generation Data ...

Intel Announces Intel SSD DC S3700 Series ? Next-Generation Data Center Solid-State Drive (SSD)
Author: Shane Fuga
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As big data, high-performance computing (HPC) and cloud-computing applications push the demand for real-time access of data into the zettabytes, Intel Corporation announced today its next-generation data center solid-state drive (SSD), the?Intel? Solid-State Drive DC S3700 Series, designed to remove storage bottlenecks and maximize multi-core CPU performance. The Intel SSD DC S3700 Series delivers fast, consistent performance and low latencies along with strong data protection and high endurance to help IT personnel support today?s most demanding data center applications.

?Today?s data explosion creates unique storage challenges for data center professionals,? said Rob Crooke, Intel vice president and general manager for the Intel Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) Solutions Group. ?High latencies and slow storage I/O can cripple data centers? ability to deliver exciting big data or cloud-computing applications with fast, low latency data access. Intel?s next-generation Intel SSD DC S3700 Series breaks through SSD limitations for the data center on all fronts ? fast, consistent performance, strong data protection and high endurance ? so IT professionals can deliver on their most demanding technology initiatives.?

The key to the Intel SSD DC S3700 Series superior and consistent fast performance is a tight distribution of Input/Outputs Per Second (IOPS) with low maximum latencies. The Intel SSD DC S3700 feeds I/O-starved applications with 4KB random read performance of up to 75,000 IOPS and 4KB write performance of up to 36,000 IOPS. With typical sequential write latency of 65 microseconds and high Quality of Service (QOS) of less than 500 microseconds 99.9 percent of the time, the Intel SSD DC S3700 ensures quick and consistent application response times.

This accelerated storage performance gives parallel multithreaded computing increased storage throughput to keep multicore CPUs more active. This reduces lapses in response time for end users for a smoother computing experience. For IT/data center professionals who must also worry about data protection and maximum security, the Intel SSD DC S3700 Series offers full end-to-end data protection and 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) capability. To further improve reliability, the Intel SSD DC S3700 incorporates an array of surplus flash memory used for data redundancy to minimize potential data loss.

The drive incorporates Intel High Endurance Technology (HET) to deliver single-level cell SSD-like endurance in more cost-effective multi-level cell (MLC) technology. By combining SSD NAND management techniques with NAND silicon enhancements, HET enables the Intel SSD DC S37000 Series to achieve 10 full drive writes per day over the 5-year life of the drive. This is the equivalent of recording more than 186 years of HD video over the life of the highest capacity 800GB drive.

In addition, SSDs also improve overall power consumption. The Intel? SSD DC 3700 Series reduces typical active power consumption to 6 watts and idle 650 milliwatts, which reduces heat and therefore lowers both energy and cooling costs.

The Intel SSD DC S3700 Series is a 6 gigabit-per-second (Gbps) SATA drive with performance transfer rates of 500 megabyte per second (MB/s) reads and 460 MB/s writes. It delivers up to 2x read and 15x write performance over its previous generation Intel? SSD 710 Series. Samples of the product are now available for data center customers to begin quality and validation cycles. General production availability is expected to begin by the end of the year, with volume production in the first quarter of 2013.

The product comes in a 2.5-inch form factor for all capacities, 100, 200, 400 and 800 gigabytes (GB), and in a 1.8-inch form factor in 200GB and 400GB capacities. The recommended channel pricing (MSRP) for the 2.5-inch Intel SSD DC S3700 Series is as follows: $235 for 100 (GB) capacity; $470 for 200GB; $940 for 400GB and $1,880 for 800GB based on 1,000-unit quantities. The 1.8-inch drive MSRP pricing is $495 for the 200GB capacity and $965 for 400GB. Prices include a 5-year limited warranty.

Source: Intel?| News Archive


Tags: DC S3700 Intel SSD

Source: http://www.thinkcomputers.org/intel-announces-intel-ssd-dc-s3700-series-next-generation-data-center-solid-state-drive-ssd/

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