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Real Estate Services Guide by Industry

Real Estate Services Guide by Industry

Whether you work in building, selling, or renovating a home, there is plenty to keep track of within the real estate industry. In order to truly succeed in any aspect of a sale or project, it is crucial to have access to various real estate services. Each of these services will help to capture, measure, enhance, and improve – making your work/life easier. It is for this reason that Urban Measure provides everything needed to get the most out of your money. Want to know what services are needed and applicable for your specialized industry? Take a look at the following real estate services guide (by industry) to see what you are missing in your housing involvements.

The real estate industry relies completely on visuals to sell and buy property. But to achieve these sales at higher payouts with less time on the market, it requires an opportunity for buyers to visualize themselves in a property and buy into every aspect of the home. Of course, every listing requires high-quality tell-all photography and videography, which allow buyers to observe the space and better understand the layout.

But interior photography and videography are not the only ways to show off a home – especially ones at higher price points. With bigger price tags it becomes necessary to realty emphasize the features of the current space through other unique services such as Matterport 3D (virtual online tours), 4K Aerial Media (showcasing the home and its grandeur surroundings), and custom/standard floor plans to help display the elaborate design of each home. Almost every service can be customized to your budget and timeline to guarantee that you have exactly what you need to achieve the sale.

Real estate services realtors can benefit from:
Realtors - Real Estate Services

Home Builders and Developers

Before beginning any home project, whether it be building from the ground up or redeveloping an existing space, certain documents will have to be in place. These documents can include blueprints, virtual imagery (pre-build images), but more importantly, accurate measurements. Urban Measure is known for extremely precise home measurements that meet RMS standards and are legalized by the province. Having these measurements will help to properly plan and prepare for every angle, corner, and customized area when building or developing, saving you huge money in costly mistakes.

When marketing and demonstrating your pre-build plans to clients, it is necessary to have visual resources that display each of your goals. Urban Measure offers a number of services with white labeled, premium level media solutions, as well as multi-unit packages to assist you in sharing your vision.

Real estate services home builders and developers can benefit from:

Private Sellers

The real estate market is a competitive one, and we understand and respect your decision to sell your home privately. Of course, you can accomplish everything you need to sell your home quickly with the right tools, advice, and real estate services. It is for this reason that Urban Measure offers complete media solutions to help you market your home in your own time. Whether you require photography, lot plans, videography, or virtual staging to help sell your home in Calgary, Edmonton, or Kelowna, Urban Measure is the one-stop-shop to ensure your home-selling experience is a positive one.

In addition to offering you essential real estate services, Urban Measure works closely with and understands the requirements for private home sales. Therefore, we realize that home measurements are one of the essential services that result in receiving true compensation for every inch of the home.

Real estate services private sellers can benefit from:

Homeowners and Renovation Contractors

For contractors or anyone who is taking the time to update, improve, or re-design their home, there are many things to be done to ensure quality, custom renovations. In order to complete these overhauls correctly, you will require access to thorough blueprints. In many instances, older homes blueprints may have become lost. It is in these situations that Urban Measure visits your home to gather precise measurements that will meet the RMS standards, and which can be then transformed into useable blueprints.

Once you have finished (or begun) your renovations, should you decide to sell the home, Urban Measure is there to complete your home photography and videography. These images and videos can be taken of both the interior and exterior of the property before, during, or after the renovations have been completed.

Real estate services homeowners and renovation contractors can benefit from:Homeowners and Renovation Contractors - Real Estate Services

Property Managers

Renting a home has become an online game – with the majority of the decisions being conducted before any rental properties are even visited in person. This means that it is important for every aspect of your home and property to be accessible online in a pleasing and attractive format. Property managers benefit through HDR photos and 4K video that capture the entire home/building and are presented in a way that will draw interest, especially in a tough rental market. Additionally, any changes to the property, building assessments, sales, etc. can be completed with confidence when each manager has access to furnished floor plans and RMS or BOMA measuring.

Real estate services property managers can benefit from:

Interior Designers

As an interior designer, creativity and planning are at the forefront of your every project. You need to offer clients the chance to share your vision, and the best way to do that is to have imagery and visual products to show them. Urban Measure can assist you in making your vision become reality with property blueprints, 3D Matterport online tours, and photo and video solutions. Once you have all of the resources at your disposal, you will be better equipped to execute each project confidently to the great pleasure of your client.

Real estate services interior designers can benefit from:Interior Designers - Real Estate Services

To succeed in the hospitality business, you need to make your location and every accommodation space look appealing, inviting, and eye-catching – think of every single room as a sale. When on vacation, visitors want to feel as though they are living in a place that is a home away from home, while it also feeling better than home. They want to know; “What do the accommodations look like?” “Will the rooms be large enough for the group?” “Does the building have extra luxury amenities?” All of these questions are easily answered with premium photography, room Matterport 3D tours, and furnished floor plans.

Almost every hospitality and accommodation booking is done online, and to truly share the charm of the rooms and space you offer, there needs to be access to proper resources that will answer all of your customer’s questions.

Real estate services hospitality can benefit from:

Regardless of the real estate industry you work in, real estate services stretch far beyond ‘room photography’ when it comes to elevating your own services. Contact Urban Measure for all of your real estate service needs and gain confidence and quality, all from the same place!

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4710 Oleander Dr Myrtle Beach SC 29577

Kidney Stone Treatment in Lexington, SC

Kidney Stone Treatment in Lexington, SC“Kidney stones” is the casual term given to the medical condition renal lithiasis. Kidney stones can range anywhere from asymptomatic to very painful. Many people struggle with the repeat formation of kidney stones, and passing them can be difficult.

Request more information about kidney stone treatment today: call (843) 492-4884 or contact Dr. Dalal Akoury online.

Kidney Stone Symptoms

No two kidney stones are exactly alike. When a kidney stone forms, it can range in size and shape. Most kidney stone symptoms occur when the stone grows large enough to obstruct the urinary system or kidney.

The most common kidney stone symptoms include:

  • Pain in the lower back or side
  • Painful urination (dysuria)
  • Discolored urine
  • Vomiting
  • Nausea
  • Frequent urination
  • Inability to urinate
  • Fever
  • Blood in urine

Many kidney stone symptoms come and go in what is known as a kidney stone attack. This is caused by the stone itself shifting or moving in the body.

Kidney Stone Causes

A kidney stone is essentially a crystal that forms in the kidney. This crystal, known as a stone, can be comprised of many different substances including calcium, uric acid, nitrates and oxalates.

There is no one reason why a kidney stone forms, but there are many different risk factors that make a person likely to get one. Some kidney stone causes include:

  • Family history
  • Dehydration
  • Excess salt consumption
  • Gout
  • Urinary infection
  • Kidney infection
  • Excess dietary calcium
  • Metabolic disorders
  • Gastric bypass surgery
  • Digestive diseases
  • Excess amino acids

Men are more likely than women to develop kidney stones with obese people from either gender facing the highest risk. Kidney stones in children are very rare, but do occur.

Kidney Stone Treatment

There are many different kidney stone treatments available. These treatments vary based on the size of the kidney stone and the individual patient. For a small kidney stone with few symptoms, treatment may include:

  • Increasing water intake in order to break up and pass the stone through urination.
  • Prescription medications such as muscle relaxers or alpha blockers to help pass the stone with less pain.
  • Over-the-counter pain medications to mitigate symptoms until the stone has passed.

More severe, larger kidney stones require more intense treatment. Options for a large or very painful stone include:

  • Sonic shock wave therapy, utilized to break up a large kidney stone in to smaller pieces.
  • Open surgery to manually remove a kidney stone too large to pass from the body.
  • Insertion of a scope through the urethra to break up the kidney stone, typically combined with a urethral stent.

Request More Information Today

Kidney stones can be painful and frightening. Request more information about kidney stone treatment today: call (843) 492-4884 or contact Dr. Dalal Akoury online.

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AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center

4710 Oleander Dr
Myrtle Beach, SC 29577
(843) 492-4884

Mon: 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Tue: 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Wed: 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Thu: 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
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Service Locations:

Shallotte, NC, Sunset Beach, NC, Supply, NC, Asheville, NC, Whiteville, NC, Fayetteville, NC, Nashville, NC, Wilmington, NC, Boone, NC, South Brunswick, NC, Mount Pleasant, SC, Florence, SC, Georgetown, SC, Greenville, SC, Conway, SC, Little River, SC, Murrells Inlet, SC, North Myrtle Beach, SC, Lexington, SC, Columbia, SC, Sumter, SC, Garden City, SC

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NIR Cutoff Filters / Blue Filter Glass

A product family with two groups that have extraordinary properties

Used in numerous applications, NIR cutoff filters can be found just about everywhere we look in our modern lives. They are equipped to image sensors so that natural colors are produced, and they make digital cameras respond to light as our eyes do. Special NIR cutoff filters are required for the displays and operation controls (NVIS compatible equipment) of night vision systems, which are becoming more commonly used by police and rescue forces.

Depending on the main application, our optical filter glass types are grouped into two groups:
  • the humidity resistant glasses and
  • the glasses with high steepness of the NIR cutoff

 1. Group - High humidity resistance

BG60 - BG64, BG67
Designed to perform in difficult environments

 2. Group - High steepness of NIR cutoff

BG18, BG38 - BG42, BG50, BG55, S8022, S8023, S8612
Designed for high-precision optical applications
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Human insights: The key to a richer customer journey map

| December 19, 2017
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When it comes to building a Customer Experience (CX) strategy, one of the most foundational elements is undoubtedly the customer journey map.

Building a customer journey map is an amazing exercise to help your team:

  1. Break down the phases of customer engagement
  2. Spot your customers’ pain points and empathize with them
  3. Determine together, as a company, what can and should be done to minimize any bumps in the customer’s journey

I recently went through an enlightening exercise at a customer journey mapping workshop hosted by Macquarium here in Atlanta. A small group of us pretended to work for Uptown Critter Wranglers, a fictitious pest control company, and we mapped out the journey of a professional mother of two who glimpsed a rat skittering under her oven.

About halfway through mapping out her journey, we had a “wrench” thrown at us: what she thought was a rat was actually an opossum, and the technician wasn’t equipped to handle the situation.

I appreciated the wrench because I definitely noticed our team veering toward the “best case scenario” as we mapped out the customer journey. It was important to bring us back to reality.

But as a longtime researcher, I also thought: why am I creating a journey based on a half-page persona and my own biases? Shouldn’t I just talk to a real customer and map that experience instead?

For example, if you work for an auto manufacturer, you can screen for folks who bought a new car in the last few months and have them just talk about the experience. What did they research online? What brands did they favor and why? What dealerships did the visit? What was the ultimate deciding factors in their purchase?

It’s very likely that even non-digital touchpoints impacted their journey, like the friendliness of the sales agent at a dealership or the way that an advertisement grated on their nerves. Your customer journey map can and should account for all of these touchpoints, and team members across the organization—in product, marketing, and sales ops—should have a hand in optimizing future customers’ experience.

This got me thinking about how gathering human insights can help inform a richer, more representative persona for journey mapping.

When to include customer insights for your journey mapping

So when, exactly, should you get input from customers to inform your journey maps? We recommend early and often, but here are a few examples to get you started:

Before journey mapping

Is your company trying this out for the first time? Or refreshing an older model? Kick things off with a tasty meal and a viewing party of a real person explaining their journey (either a recording or by observing a live customer interview). Then dive right into mapping out the story the customer just described. Empathy will be high and the impulse to create a “best case scenario” will be low.

During journey mapping

Some companies include customers in the actual process of mapping the journey—literally giving them a seat at the table. This can be risky if your team is new to the process, so tread carefully. But it’s a great benefit to turn and ask questions like, “Hey, are we on the right track here? Was this issue really so severe?”

This is when one-on-one live interviews can be especially beneficial.

After journey mapping

If it’s impractical to include customers in the actual mapping process, it still doesn’t hurt to show customers the end result and get a gut-check on it. This is easier to accomplish through remote studies with a platform like UserTesting and may reveal interesting insights into how different personas interact with your brand.

It’s also important to keep journey maps from getting stale. Every quarter or so, run your basic journey map past a few customers. Do they bring up any seasonal changes? Any current events that affect brand perception like an industry scandal or shutdown that made headlines?

Human insights = a more human journey map

No matter how you go about building your customer journey map, it’s important to include real human stories in the process. While there are customer satisfaction scores, analytics, and other quantitative data that’s handy and can help inform your process, there’s nothing like a real customer’s story to bring your customer journey to life for your team.

Learning about when a “wrench” gets thrown into the customer’s way will help the team empathize more closely with the customer and come together about how to create great experiences—not just as a team, but as a company.


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Pregnant Chrissy Teigen Reveals Due Date for Second Child, Jokes About Possible Baby Names

Just a few more months! Chrissy Teigen, who is pregnant and expecting her second child with hubby John Legend, revealed her due date during The Ellen DeGeneres Show on Monday, February 19.

“I’m having a baby boy in the spring. I’ll tell you — it’s June!” the 32-year-old Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model said.

Chrissy Teigen Reveals Due Date
Chrissy Teigen visits ‘The Ellen DeGeneres Show.’ Michael Rozman/Warner Bros.

The little one will soon join big sister Luna, 22 months. But the famous couple has yet to name him. “Boy names are really tough and I don’t think he will even have a middle name because we can’t even come up with a first name,” Teigen explained.

With that, DeGeneres, 60, decided to give them a few suggestions. “What about Lunar for him?” she asked, laughing. “What about Urban Legend?”

Teigen chimed in: “I’m toying with Dick Legend a lot. Can I say that?”

hay place. a place for hay.

A post shared by chrissy teigen (@chrissyteigen) on

DeGeneres replied: “You can say that just don’t name him that.”

One name the musician, 39, refuses to name his son, however, is John. “John and his ego was like, ‘I don’t want him to feel like he has to live up to that,'” Teigen recalled. “And I was like ‘Wow, you are a jerk.'”

As for how they chose Luna’s name? “There was a blood moon happening. It was a really beautiful night. Really big, red moon and just gorgeous,” Teigen added. “I have this love for space and I think about space camp all the time and my days at space camp when I was a youngster. And so I thought Luna was just perfect and she’s kind of the perfect Luna.”

For access to all our exclusive celebrity videos and interviews – Subscribe on Youtube!


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Benzodiazepines Plus 100 ng/mL

Product #12100

Request a Sample Personalize
Analyte Gravimetrically Weighted Value Units Reconstituted
Stability (Days)
Alprazolam 100 ng/mL 25 days
α-Hydroxyalprazolam 100 ng/mL 25 days
Chlordiazepoxide 100 ng/mL 25 days
Clobazam 100 ng/mL 25 days
Clonazepam 100 ng/mL 25 days
7-Aminoclonazepam 100 ng/mL n/a
Diazepam 100 ng/mL 25 days
Nordiazepam 100 ng/mL 25 days
Estazolam 100 ng/mL 25 days
Flunitrazepam 100 ng/mL 25 days
7-Aminoflunitrazepam 100 ng/mL n/a
Flurazepam 100 ng/mL 25 days
Desalkylflurazepam 100 ng/mL 25 days
Hydroxyethylflurazepam 100 ng/mL 25 days
Lorazepam 100 ng/mL 25 days
Midazolam 100 ng/mL 25 days
Nitrazepam 100 ng/mL 25 days
7-Aminonitrazepam 100 ng/mL n/a
Oxazepam 100 ng/mL 25 days
Temazepam 100 ng/mL 25 days
Triazolam 100 ng/mL 25 days
α-Hydroxytriazolam 100 ng/mL 25 days
Zolpidem 100 ng/mL 25 days

Product Contains: Alprazolam, α‑Hydroxyalprazolam, Chlordiazepoxide, Clobazam, Clonazepam, 7‑Aminoclonazepam, Diazepam, Nordiazepam, Estazolam, Flunitrazepam, 7‑Aminoflunitrazepam, Flurazepam, Desalkylflurazepam, Hydroxyethylflurazepam, Lorazepam, Midazolam, Nitrazepam, 7‑Aminonitrazepam, Oxazepam, Temazepam, Triazolam, α‑Hydroxytriazolam, Zolpidem

Matrix Whole Blood
Unit Size 5x5mL
Form Lyophilized
Shelf Life 30 months
Stability (see insert)
Storage Store dried control material at 2-8ºC (35-46ºF).

Personalize the "Benzodiazepines Plus 100 ng/mL" QC For Your Lab (Your Control, Your Way)

  • Personalized QC starts here. Your answers will help us deliver exactly what you need.
  • Matrix samples allow you to screen the starting material, prior to manufacturing, for interference with your test method or analytes of interest that are not tested in our in house ELISA screen. Adding a matrix sample to the order typically adds 1-2 weeks to the manufacturing lead time and can increase the per vial price of the material. Matrix samples are required when the analytes of interest are endogenous to the human body, to determine a baseline reading prior to manufacturing.
  • We manufacture and spike products gravimetrically; we do not test in-house to confirm concentration. We have been making products this way for over 40 years and are confident in our manufacturing accuracy. However, if you select this option, we will send this product to a 3rd party lab and provide a single run reference point confirming the concentration of the material. This process will extend the manufacturing lead time by 3-4 weeks. The actual cost each test will be included on your quote. We guarantee our products whether you select this service or not. If you have any issues with your material please contact us for support.
  • If you select this option we will send you 1 vial of each level of this product after manufacturing completes, to test for approval prior to shipping the full order. Once you have completed the approval process, there will be an approximate lead time of 1-3 business days to receive your full order. There is no charge for this service. We guarantee our products and we will support you with any issues regardless of whether you request a validation sample or not.
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Benzodiazepines are class of anti-anxiety agents which interfere with the inhibitory neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). Their effects include anti-anxiety, sedation, sleep, muscle relaxation and anticonvulsant activity. Long-term benzodiazepine therapy can be associated with addiction and withdrawal symptoms. In toxicology, all unknown cause deaths are screened for benzodiazepines. The specimen screened is usually whole blood.

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Alessandra Bellino (*1970)

Alessandra Bellino has studied composition with Bruno Mazzotta, Azio Corghi and Ivan Fedele. Her musical production includes solo and chamber works, orchestral and stage pieces, performed in Italy and in many foreign countries. She has won national and international awards. In 2006 she has been overall winner at the 1st International Composition Competition ‘Magistralia’ of Asturias with the Scene for great orchestra ”Le Gabbie di Danae”, world premiered at the Auditorium of Valladolid in 2007 with the Symphonic Orchestra of Castilla y Leòn directed by Alejandro Posada, and performed in 2008 at the auditorium Principe Felipe in Oviedo with the Symphonic Orchestra of the Principality of Asturias directed by Maximiano Valdés. In 2011 her orchestral work “Dhrupãd” was performed with success of audience and critics during the 2010/11 season of the Sanremo Symphonic Orchestra under the direction of Aldo Sisillo. In the same year she won the 2nd prize at the prestigious International Composition Contest ‘Italia 150’ 2011 (LAMS, Matera) with the composition “Silenzio! Chi ride?” for small orchestra and soprano, performed by the Chamber Orchestra of Matera under the direction of Marco Angius and broadcasted by RAI Radio 3 Suite.
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Marathan Logo Facebook Logo UK NERS Logo Twitter Logo Youtube Logo Live webcast of visit of hon'ble President of India to National Police Memorial(NPM) on the occastion of CRPF Valour Day, April 9,2019, at Chanakyapuri, New Delhi

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चेतावनी सामूहिक भीड़ हिंसा व Lynching पर उत्तराखण्ड पुलिस सख्त

Guidelines For Tourists

Safety Tips for Visitors

Police would like to make your visit to our exciting city as pleasant and safe as possible. You can help us further by following these simple tips while touring.

  1. Carry your wallet in an inside jacket pocket or side trouser pocket, never in the rear pocket.
  2. Carry pocketbooks in the bend of your elbow, held close to your body. If there is a long strap, wrap it around the bag. Carry credit cards and cash in your pockets.
  3. Keep pocketbooks on your lap when dining out, not dangling over the back of a chair. Avoid placing pocketbooks on hooks on the back of a fitting room or bathroom door, where someone can easily reach over and remove them.
  4. Leave valuables and important papers, such as jewelry and passports, secured in your hotel's safe deposit box. Never leave these items unattended in your room or carry large sums of cash on your person.
  5. Be wary of unexpected persons coming to your hotel room. Never open the door to unsolicited room service or maintenance people. Contact the front desk if you have any doubts.
  6. If you schedule a meeting with a potential client, research the company and the individual with whom you are meeting. Meet in a public place, such as a restaurant.
  7. Make sure that luggage is only given to a member of the hotel's bell staff and a receipt is issued for stored luggage. Never leave luggage or other expensive items unattended at airports or taxi stands.
  8. Kindly contact on counter "May I help you" available in "Arrival Hall" at airport for help and guidance.
  9. Prefer pre-paid Taxi Booth for hired transportation, since it is governed by POLICE. In this system you have to pay in advance for Taxi Fare which is already approved by Authorities.
  10. Adequate number of police officers are deputed in proper uniform outside the Arrival Hall and parking area. You can contact nearest police officer to intimate about undesirable elements and touts in your observation. Even though, police is taking utmost care, vigilance and surveillance over these elements, still it is felt that we can eliminate these elements effectively with passengers' active participation in the drive.
  11. In addition to above, police officers in plain clothes are also deputed to keep watch on suspicious movements. Therefore, you should never entertain the touts and unscrupulous persons to avoid harassment.
  12. Preplan your destination regarding your stay and tour. Never take advice of Taxi Drivers regarding your stay/tour. Please take information from Police Officers, "May I help you" counter, or any other Govt. recognised information Centres.If you face any harassment or law and order problem, you can dial 100 from nearest telephone for police assistance.


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Sicily Reading List

This summer I will visit Sicily for the first time! I am so excited; I’ve been to Italy several times, but never to this unique island. Here is what I’m watching and reading in preparation. Please comment with your recommendations!

  • Destination: Sicily [Parts Unknown]

  • The Women Who Took on the Mafia: Family loyalty made the Calabrian Mob strong, but its treatment of women was its undoing [The New Yorker]

  • How Not to Solve the Refugee Crisis: A case of mistaken identity put the wrong man in jail. Now it highlights the failure of prosecutions to tackle a humanitarian disaster [The New Yorker]

  • Books:

    • The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa

    • The Odyssey translated by Emily Wilson

    • On Persephone’s Island: A Sicilian Journal by Mary Taylor Simeti

    • The Stone Boudoir: Travels Through the Hidden Villages of Sicily by Theresa Maggio

    • Midnight in Sicily by Peter Robb*

    • Modern Italy: A Very Short Introduction by Anna Cento Bull

    • Pasta, Pane, Vino: Deep Travels Through Italy’s Food Culture by Matt Goulding

*Note: I put this on the list before reading it, and have since decided I would not recommend the book. I left a review on Goodreads.


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Wooden Shipping Crates Back From the Dead!

wooden shipping crates zombie-box

Dead and decaying boxes coming back to life sounds like something straight out of Zombie movie. Undead wooden shipping crates may not be on the hunt for brains but they will eat away at your bottom line with the space they take up.

Save your company from the Box-Apocalypse today, before its too late!

Enough scare tactics! I'm ready to...

Wood Crate

wooden shipping crates Zombieland The best way to stay ahead of being overrun by dead wooden shipping crates roaming your shipping area is to assess the possibility of turning them into reusable crates.

For manufacturing companies who operate in a closed-loop system it pays to bring old wooden shipping crates back to life with refurbishing programs, think of it as a zombie spa day. Refurbishing helps businesses recondition out-of-service crates into reusable crates for half the cost of buying a new one.

wooden shipping crates Warm-BodiesFortunately, the undead wooden shipping crates at your company aren't seeking the warm flesh of the living, but keep in mind they do have some value left in their cold dead bodies.

Often the hardware and much of the wood still holds value. This helps manufacturer's recoup their initial investment and also save the world.

wooden shipping crates the walking deadValley Box can combine a refurbishing program with a wood and steel recycling program to help companies save the world through environmental stewardship. When a company decides to refurbish their wooden shipping crates they end up playing a central role in helping decrease the amount of waste that ends up roaming our landfills.

Materials sourced to create the initial crate avoid the landfill as well as any materials that would have been required to build a new crate, which would have eventually found their way to a landfill.

After the dead crate is inspected, we begin the resurrection:

  • 1. Decaying and unusable materials are removed and disposed or recycled.
  • 2. The crate has materials added to rebuild it to specification such as new wood, hardware, paint or foam.
  • 3. Then the reusable shipping crates are reintroduced to to the shipping cycle as a like-new member of society.

Opting for a refurbishing program will positively affect a manufacturer's bottom line because it will always end up costing less than it would to replace. In fact, Valley Box practices The 50% Rule:

Decide to repair if the costs are less than
50% of a brand new crate.

wooden shipping crates zombie-box-refurb

wooden shipping crates ZNation

Topics: Reusable, Wood

Alicia Guillette

Written by Alicia Guillette

Alicia Guillette, is now the third generation of family involved at Valley Box Company. Starting in 2006, she has taken Valley Box into the digital age by developing a new web presence, implementing enterprise resource management tools and expanding the product line to include material handling equipment.


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The Geometry of Wealth – Choosing Not To Choose

Excerpted from The Geometry of Wealth by Brian Portnoy, published by Harriman House. Available wherever books are sold.

Readers  can win a copy of the book by entering the contest at this link and embedded below.

The Geometry of Wealth: How To Shape A Life Of Money And Meaning – FREE ENTRY in Contests!!! on LockerDome

An important distinction when thinking about making good decisions is whether we actually have any choice to begin with—or whether we want any. At times in life, we have a great deal of discretion. We choose to eat out instead of staying in; we then choose one of many restaurants; and we then choose whatever we’d like from an extensive menu. In an opposite scenario, we are obligated to attend someone’s dinner party and eat whatever we’re served alongside people we didn’t choose to be with.

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The Geometry of Wealth

The Geometry of Wealth: How To Shape A Life Of Money And Meaning by Brian Portnoy

This type of choice regime—discretion vs. not—is something we encounter daily, in all life’s domains—consumption, health, work, transportation, education, money. Its structure and its consequences are usually trivial. Our spouse’s friend may be a dreadful cook, but we’ll survive an overdone steak.

In some areas it’s not trivial. For example, some of us participate in our employer’s retirement plan. A small portion of our regular paycheck is automatically deposited in the plan. This is effectively putting our investment decisions on autopilot. Those who opt into retirement plans usually don’t then later opt out. In contrast, most other types of investing are discretionary, in which you can buy and sell as you see fit.

One striking example of the consequences of these two approaches will bring the point home. In this case, different investors in the exact same fund over the exact same time frame had dramatically different outcomes:

Investment A over 10 years -> Good Outcome Investment A over 10 years  -> Bad Outcome

How could this be? The difference is determined by those who have discretion over their trip versus those on autopilot.

When we compare discretionary versus autopilot versions of the same investment, we often observe wildly different investor outcomes. Take as an example the world’s largest mutual fund, the Vanguard 500 Index Fund. With about $620 billion in assets, the fund comes in two different formats. The portfolio is identical in each, but one version is held in autopilot retirement accounts, the other in discretionary accounts. The only practical difference between the two funds is an immaterial difference in cost (a small fraction of a penny on the dollar).

As would be expected, the investment performance of the two funds is nearly identical. Over a 10-year span, the auto-pilot version (VINIX) returned 6.9% per year while the discretionary version (VFINX) returned 6.8%—a tiny gap explained by that small fee differential.

When we dig into the numbers, the picture grows more interesting. The behavior gap for the discretionary fund is wide. Compared to the actual 6.8% return, the average investor in the fund earned only 4.3%. Because this time span includes 2008, much of the behavior gap is explained by impulsive selling during the crisis and then failure to resume investing after markets calmed down.

The Benefit of Constraint

Autopilot investors fared much better. While VINIX returned 6.9% per year, the average autopilot investor made 7.7% per year—a negative behavior gap! Why? Because investors in VINIX are dollar cost averaging into the market during good times and bad. They were less likely to sell in 2008. They buy more shares when the market is lower and fewer when it is higher; a slight twist on buying low and selling high. As a result, investors in VINIX outperformed their own fund.

All in, autopilot investors had a much better experience than discretionary investors. The real dollar consequence of this good versus bad decision-making is large. Here, the average $100,000 investor in VFINX ended up with $160,630 over the following decade, compared to $260,087 in VINIX—a 62% difference. This isn’t pie-in-the-sky finance. These are significant dollars that can make a difference in our lives.

In this case, one group of investors wasn’t “smarter” than the other. They weren’t more likely to have an MBA or a degree in finance. Instead, one group had a lot of flexibility—and abused it. The other forfeited that choice by going on autopilot and came out way ahead.

With investing, an itchy trigger finger invites trouble. When markets get shaky, we can’t but help feel the urge to bolt. And once we step aside, we greatly underestimate the fortitude it takes to get back in. This is only natural—our brains are wired this way.

However, impulse control is, to some extent, manageable. Through proper parenting, coaching, and socializing, individuals can buttress their willpower. Better outcomes are possible, even though much of the available data point to worse ones. As we just saw, one solution is to eliminate discretion altogether. When we sign up for automatic savings plans, we tend to achieve much better outcomes.

One of the most successful savings programs in U.S. history has done just that. By a small but important design tweak, the behaviorists behind the “Save More Tomorrow” program have driven billions   of dollars in extra savings by individual investors. That tweak was introducing “negative consent” to corporate retirement plans: Rather than asking people to opt in to a regular savings plan, they automatically enrolled them and then asked people to opt out if they so chose. The choice set and constraints were identical, but one paradigm has worked much better than the other.

Oftentimes we don’t have the luxury of such structures, nor self-control. In these cases, it’s important to partner with good counselors and associate with good role models. We take direction well from those we respect; and we mimic the behavior of those we like. Individuals who work with good financial advisors tend to have better outcomes, not because those advisors are more market savvy, but because they are skilled at providing a check on bad investment behavior, such as selling during market choppiness. Likewise, if we run with a fast money crowd, we’re more likely to try to keep up, especially in terms of conspicuous consumption: My neighbor just got that new Audi, so why shouldn’t I upgrade? Associating with those who have healthier money habits produces healthier outcomes. The classic money book, The Millionaire Next Door, told tales of frugal millionaires who lived in communities where there was less urge to keep up with the Joneses.

Even more deeply, we strive to transform decisions into habits: Rendering sound money decisions into routines that we no longer think about. We just do them (such as regular savings) or don’t do them (such as living beyond our means). Finding better habits is an important expression of adaptive simplicity, for it means that we can eliminate the psychic strain of self-control, frequent decisions, and the additional consumption of (often useless) information.

When the noise in our minds collides with time’s quiet expanse, we struggle. We hold the keys to our own long-term success, even though we sometimes forget. Regular, consistent, disciplined investing is awesome—especially when we’re not thinking about it. A much better experience with money is within anyone’s reach.

About the Author:

Brian Portnoy, PhD, CFA, is an expert at simplifying the complex world of money. In his two books, The Geometry of Wealth and The Investor's Paradox, he tackles the challenge of not only making better investment decisions but also how money figures into a joyful life. He is currently the Director of Investment Education at Virtus Investment Partners and has spent the last 25 years as educator, investor, and strategist. He holds a doctorate from the University of Chicago and currently lives on the north side of Chicago with his wife and three children. For more information, please visit and follow Brian on Twitter.

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Top 10 Worst Inventions That Were As Useless As They Could Get

Top 10 Worst Inventions of All Time
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Scientists, engineers, physicians, entrepreneurs have invented thousands of things over the centuries to make life better for us. The Internet, TV, smartphones, airplanes, antibiotics, cures to deadly diseases, and many others have served humanity in a variety of ways. But some came up with ridiculously useless – and sometimes devastating – inventions. Here we take a look at the top 10 worst inventions, in no particular order, you’ll ever come across.

Top 10 worst inventions ever

10- Agent Orange

Agent Orange was a herbicide that the US Military used in the Vietnam war between 1961 and 1971. They used it to cut through the dense forests to better see the movement of enemy troops. Agent Orange served that purpose, but the chemical caused cancer, birth defects, and other disorders to both the Vietnamese citizens as well as the US soldiers. According to an estimate, more than 20 million gallons of Agent Orange was used in Vietnam.

9- Anti-eating face mask

Are you on diet, but can’t control the urge to eat those fresh-baked cookies? The anti-eating face mask could help. It is basically a cage with a cup-shaped mesh that allows you to breathe, but prevents eating. It attaches to your face with strips going over to the back of your head. Of course, it won’t work if you pull it out and throw it away.

8- Hair in a Can

Invented by Ron Popeil, the GLH-9 ‘Hair in a Can’ is a hair-growing spray. It was launched in the 1990s, and surprisingly, it’s still on the market. You might have seen it on late-night TV commercials. It was invented to hide partial baldness by spraying powder out of a can at high speed. The powder was supposed to stick to the fine hair follicles on your head. It was only as good as any other color sprayed on your head. And the color would come off on everything.

7- DDT

DDT (dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane) was discovered in 1873. The insecticide was supposed to be the magic bullet against insect-borne diseases such as malaria. It was widely used during the Second World War and decades after the war was over. But scientists later discovered that it caused fertility and neurological problems in humans and other animals. Since 1972, its use has tumbled dramatically.

6- Smartphone fingers

Smartphone screens are fingerprint magnets. So, an Austrian company came up with latex made finger covers to protect the screen. The covers were available in a variety of sizes ranging from small to extra large. Wearing tiny covers on each finger would make your hands look ugly. Here’s what it looked like.

5- Smell-o-vision

Hans Laube of Switzerland had an innovative idea. What if you could smell whatever you see on the TV screen or theater? Well, you would want to feel it. He developed the Smell-o-vision to release the odor of what you see in the movie. It was expensive at about $8 million per theater. But it turned out to be a big flop. Indeed one of the worst inventions.

4- Privacy scarf

Whether you are sitting in a cafe or traveling in a bus or train, almost everyone around you wants to poke their nose into your smartphone or laptop screen. The privacy scarf will prevent people from looking at your screen. One end of it is wrapped around your head and the other end can be attached to your laptop, phone, tablet, or another screen.

3- Baby cage

It’s exactly what it sounds like. A woman named Emma Read patented a cage meant to hold babies – one per cage. People could place it outside windows in crammed apartment buildings. With baby cages placed at the window, mothers and nannies could easily clean the floor and walk around. It was convenient but risky.

2- Men’s bra

Really? Japanese company Wish Room came with a bra for men. If you can’t sleep well at night because your man boobs are giving each other a hard time, this one is for you. Who would want to buy that?

1- Popup ads

The most annoying thing for anyone with a computer and Internet connection. You can’t avoid ads completely in the online world. But popup ads test your patience and eat up your precious Internet bandwidth. Singing ads, video ads, banner ads, flashy ads, and other kinds of ads keep popping up on your screen. Thankfully, someone was smart enough to invent popup ad blockers.

These are some of the worst inventions of all time. What other inventions do you think are borderline useless? Let us know in the comments below.


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VANDNEBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif.--Goalkeeper Meredith Thomas daughter of Capt. Mark Thomas, a 30th Space Wing Chaplain, prepares to block the ball from going into the goal here, Tuesday, July 20, 2010. Challenge Sports host the annual soccer camp for children ages three to 16. (U.S. Air Force Photo/Senior Airman Stephanie Longoria)

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Breaking News

CKF inspires females on hard-work, tech education

By Dayo Adesulu

In its passion to ensure that science and technology are promoted among youths, especially the female folks, Christopher Kolade Foundation via the Stemma Hands-on Empowerment (SHE) fair has again inspired hundreds of secondary school girls in science, technology and hard work.

At a fair held in Lagos, successful female resource persons such as Mrs Olamide Ayeni-Babajide, a certified information system auditor and founder Pearl Recycling, Mrs Margaret Ajiboye, an intervention and strategic business developer, Mrs Oreoluwa Lesi, founder and executive director of Women Technology Empowerment Centre to mentioned a few spoke on the need for females to believe in themselves.

In his opening address, the founder of KCF, Dr. Christopher Kolade tasked the youth to reject that they are the leaders of tomorrow, arguing that youths are leaders of today, waiting for tomorrow’s opportunities.

He said: “If you are leaders today, it means you are entitled to take some decisions today, and the benefits of the decisions you take today will come tomorrow. So in order to take competent decisions today, you must have a vision of what tomorrow will look like.”

Explaining reasons for the Foundation, Kolade said the foundation   focuses on critical areas in students’ lives that could build their interest in science, technology, mathematics.

According to him, science and technology are the key to open a nation’s economy and make the inventors leaders.

On her part, the Deputy Governor of Lagos, Mrs. Oluranti Adebule lauded the foundation for sustaining the initiative that encourages more girls to showcase their technological skills.

According to her, the skills derived through the programme would assist them build the can do confidence in the field of science and technology.

While urging parents and guardians to change their mind-set that science, technology engineering and mathematics are not for girls, she appealed to all stakeholders to encourage more girls to take interest in STEM and demystify the falsehood of science and technology being exclusive of boys.

Speaking in the same vein, the Managing Director of Siemens Nigeria, Mrs. Onyeche Tifase, in her keynote address emphasized the importance of self-development and believing in oneself, adding that students should always asking questions where they are not clear.

On the limitation of women folks, she pointed out that societal perceptions of women also hold women back and prevent them from doing well in the STEM. Tivane urged women to get rid of those erroneous perception   that could limit them in STEM.

“Sometimes men seem to achieve more because they accept challenges, even the ones that seem difficult at the time, but women hardly take up such challenges, she added.

All rights reserved. This material and any other digital content on this platform may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, written or distributed in full or in part, without written permission from VANGUARD NEWS.

Comments expressed here do not reflect the opinions of vanguard newspapers or any employee thereof.


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Everyone watching Game of Thrones this season was pleased when Arya’s old friend Hot Pie showed up unexpectedly to give Brienne and Pod a dissertation on gravy. But where, in the love of R'hllor, was Gendry? We last saw him a season ago, rowing away from Dragonstone in the dead of night, leaving many to wonder if Gendry even made it as far as Claw Island alive. This exchange didn’t instill any confidence.

But fear not! Gendry is alive! Or, at least, according to Joe Dempsie he is. The actor posted this Gendry update on Twitter:

Why is Gendry’s absence so notable? For very important plot purposes, of course! And also because he was one of the few characters valiantly trying to right the gender nudity imbalance in Westeros.

At this point the show has already made so many changes to Gendry’s story that book readers are as much in the dark as the rest of you. But book continuity be damned, I choose to believe he’s rowing his blacksmithing self all the way to Braavos, and that Arya and the rest of us will see him soon.


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In 2017, the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office booked 29,203 people. Of those, federal immigration agents requested that 752 be detained, and picked up 512 of them.

Through Sept. 30 of this year, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has requested 549 of those booked to be detained, and picked up 55 of them.

Sheriff Bill Ayub expects those numbers to continue declining in 2019, after changes in state law to limit when and how local law enforcement can interact with federal immigration authorities.

Ayub detailed the figures Tuesday during a public hearing before the Ventura County Board of Supervisors. For Ayub’s office and other local agencies in the state that provide information to ICE, such a hearing is mandated under California’s Transparent Review of Unjust Transfers and Holds (TRUTH) Act, which went into effect Jan. 1, 2017.

MORE: Ventura County harbors, port receive $14.8 million in federal funding

The purpose is to let the public know what kind of access to individuals ICE is getting and for elected officials to hear community concerns or other input.

For the most part, for a local law enforcement agency to give information to ICE, a person must be convicted of a serious of violent felony — but not always. It also lets agencies share information when the person is on the state’s sex and arson registry, when a person is convicted of other felonies (if the offense is punishable with time in state prison) and when a person is arrested for a serious or violent felony and a judge deems there to be “probable cause” to hold the individual for the alleged crime.

A couple dozen people spoke at Tuesday’s hearing, with all but one urging the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office to stop interacting with ICE altogether.

Juana Mendez said immigration agents are knocking on doors and terrorizing families. Children are in school and when they come home, they learn a family member has been deported, she said. She urged the county not to play a role in that.

Willie Lubka, of the Thousand Oaks-based group Buen Vecino (good neighbor), said law enforcement personnel are there to protect immigrants, not deport them.

MORE: A solemn gathering remembers the Thomas Fire in Ventura

Oxnard City Council member Carmen Ramirez said her city had adopted a safe-city resolution. The immigrant community “shouldn’t live in fear because we have a broken immigration system,” she said.

Former Oxnard police Officer Steve Moore was the only speaker who encouraged the agency to work closely with ICE. He said ICE is interested in people who have committed serious crimes.

“I no longer want those people in my city,” he said. “Deport these serious criminals from our city.”

MORE: Ventura County turnout tops 70 percent in November election

Several people shared stories of neighbors, friends and family members booted out of the U.S. for minor infractions or for being in the country without documentation.

After the meeting, Ayub said that isn’t usually the case. In his experience, ICE typically goes after serious offenders, he said.

“ICE is interested in bad people. Nobody wants to see good families split up,” he said.

Ayub said his agency wants the immigrant community to feel safe coming to officers with safety issues and other concerns.

Ocil Herrejón, a youth organizer with Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy, said Tuesday represented a good first step.

“It was important to have the board hear our concerns and bring transparency,” Herrejón said. “That’s the first step.”

But she said there’s a lot left to do.

For starters, she and others want to see the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office stop providing the date of release for inmates. The agency didn’t do that before California’s “sanctuary state” law, Senate Bill 54, took effect, she said.

MORE: California's school funding formula working, study finds

In the long run, Herrejón wants the county to stop providing ICE any information at all. There is such a thing as rehabilitation and if a person does their time, why should they pay 10 times more in the form of deportation or the separation of a family, she asked.

Ayub felt differently about working with ICE.

“Shutting them out completely is a bad policy,” he said.

Before the meeting, roughly 25 people gathered outside the Ventura County Government Center. They shared stories of friends and family deported and why it is so important for Ventura County to stay out of the immigration situation.

Families are being devastated by policies that indiscriminately target immigrants just for being immigrants, they said.

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Here's what happened during the ceremony marking National Crime Victims' Rights Week at the Ventura County Government Center. Juan Carlo, VC Star

Ventura authorities arrested a man on suspicion of felony firearms and domestic violence violations after responding to a 911 call about an argument.

The 7:21 p.m. Friday call concerned people arguing in the vicinity of Antelope Lane and Llama Court, according to the Ventura Police Department. The intersection in east Ventura is in a townhouse development south of Telephone Road, generally east of Johnson Drive.

Officers said they found the suspect, identified as 33-year-old Kendric Johnson, sitting in a vehicle. The victim, a 34-year-old Ventura woman, had visible injuries she attributed to Johnson, authorities said.

MORE: Two arrested after theft at Ventura grocery store

A firearms magazine with live rounds of ammunition and a can of tear gas were in plain sight inside the vehicle, authorities allege. A vehicle search turned up three handguns, two of them loaded, according to police.

Johnson, a convicted felon, is barred from having guns, ammunition and tear gas, according to the department. He was arrested on suspicion of felony firearms and domestic violence offenses. As of Saturday morning, he remained in Ventura County jail with bail set at $50,000, jail records showed.

Gretchen Wenner covers breaking news for the Ventura County Star. Reach her at or 805-437-0270.

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Media coverage

PCI council introduces standard for mobile card payments

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January 26, 2018
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"Continuous monitoring could be a costly and time-consuming exercise only large vendors or the payment system supplier would be able to afford to implement correctly," says Chris Morales, head of security analytics at Vectra. "I believe these will need to be vetted out with further review by the security community."

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July 18, 2019

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news release

Vectra Networks Customer Jackson Health System Selected to Present on Cyber Attack Prevention at Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2015 Next Week

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October 1, 2015

Vectra Networks, the leader in real-time detection of in-progress cyber-attacks, today announced that its customer Jackson Health System has been selected to speak at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2015 event next week. Jackson Health System CISO Connie Barrera will present “Protecting Health Organizations from Cyber Attacks” on Oct. 6 at 3:50 p.m. EDT in the Europe 8 Conference Room of the Walt Disney World Dolphin hotel in Orlando, Fla.

During the session, Barrera will discuss how recent innovations in Automated Threat Management provide a strong complement to firewalls, IDS/IPS and other prevention-based security systems. Automated Threat Management strengthens the security posture of regulated organizations and dramatically reduces risks associated with active cyber attacks that evade prevention security. In real time, Automated Threat Management detects attacks in progress inside networks and enables security teams to quickly prevent or mitigate loss before attackers can steal and inflict damage.

Vectra will also provide a live demonstration of its differentiated solution that delivers real-time detection of cyber attacks in-progress in Booth No. 1123 at Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2015 next week. The Vectra solution uniquely extends automated real-time cybersecurity into all corners of an organization’s network – from the campus to remote sites and internal network segments.

“Gartner Symposium is an event that CIOs and CISOs use to learn about the most innovation solution providers to address strategic business initiatives and define their strategic initiatives,” said Mike Banic, vice president of marketing at Vectra. “It’s the perfect venue for Gartner clients to experience how Vectra uses data science and machine learning to automatically identify all phases of an active attack to manage risk and prevent or mitigate loss.”

Vectra delivers a new class of advanced persistent threat (APT) defense delivering real-time detection and analysis of active network breaches. Its technology picks up where perimeter security leaves off by providing deep, continuous analysis of both internal and Internet-bound network traffic to automatically detect all phases of a breach as attackers attempt to spy, spread, and steal within a network.

About Gartner Symposium/ITxpo

Gartner Symposium/ITxpo is the world’s most important gathering of CIOs and senior IT executives. This event delivers independent and objective content with the authority and weight of the world’s leading IT research and advisory organization, and provides access to the latest solutions from key technology providers. Gartner’s annual Symposium/ITxpo events are key components of attendees’ annual planning efforts. IT executives rely on Gartner Symposium/ITxpo to gain insight into how their organizations can use IT to address business challenges and improve operational efficiency. For more information, please visit

About Vectra Networks

Vectra® Networks is the leader in real-time detection of in-progress cyber attacks. The company’s automated threat-management solution continuously monitors internal network traffic to pinpoint cyber attacks as they happen. It then automatically correlates threats against hosts that are under attack and provides unique context about what attackers are doing so organizations can quickly prevent or mitigate loss. Vectra prioritizes attacks that pose the greatest business risk, enabling organizations to make rapid decisions on where to focus time and resources. In 2015, Gartner named Vectra a Cool Vendor in Security Intelligence for addressing the challenges of post-breach threat detection. The American Business Awards also selected Vectra as the Gold Award winner for Tech Startup of 2015. Vectra’s investors include Khosla Ventures, Accel Partners, IA Ventures and AME Cloud Ventures. The company’s headquarters are in San Jose, Calif., and it has European operations in Zurich. More information can be found at

Vectra and the Vectra Networks logo are registered trademarks and Security that thinks, the Vectra Threat Labs, and the Threat Certainty Index are trademarks of Vectra Networks. Other brand, product and service names are trademarks, registered trademarks or service marks of their respective holders.

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Vectria Technologies offers several types of services, from technology through component & module to
system & application levels:

  • Development and prototyping
  • Design & research
  • Turn key manufacturing leadership

Vectria Technologies has extended resources for multidisciplinary tasks which involve:
HW, SW, DSP, System eng., Mechanical eng. etc.

Technical services include:

  • System design and analysis
  • System optimal partitioning
  • Module level development
  • Components & Supercomponents design
  • Electromagnetic simulation
  • Custom CAD programing
  • ATE concept and implementation

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This is a list of nine steps in discerning a vocation provided by Father Jon Schnobrich, vocations director for the Diocese of Burlington.

Step 1: Understanding “discernment”

What is vocational discernment?

Vocation comes from the Latin word “vocare,” which means “to call.” God calls each one of us by name to become saints, thereby the first vocation in our lives is the universal call to holiness: “Be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect” (Mt 5:48).

How do perfection and holiness relate to each other? Let’s understand what our Lord means by “perfect” as that word today is so unfortunately misunderstood. Being perfect is not perfectionism.

This call to be perfect comes as the climax in our Lord’s teaching on Christian love: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for He makes His sun rise on the bad and the good and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same? So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect (Mt 5:43-48).”

Jesus points to the Father’s love, which is without calculation or condition. The Father loves in truth with mercy. He loves sinners and saints alike. To freely conform one’s life, one’s inner attitudes and one’s way of thinking so as to love unconditionally and mercifully is the holiness of life to which our Lord calls all of His disciples without distinction.

However, to love like this means to love in the way that God reveals. God is love, which means that we as creatures look to our creator to define love. To love as God loves, as St. Thomas Aquinas explains, is to will the good of the other for the other; to desire another to flourish in their being. The perfection to which Jesus calls us relates to holiness of life precisely in love. Love conforms itself to its object; thereby the more we love God who is love, the more we become like God who is love.

To put it simply: If God is love, the more we love love, the more we are able to love as love loves.

The universal call to holiness is the call from Christ through His Church to become fully who God intended us to be. In the words of St. Irenaeus of Lyon, “The glory of God is the human being fully alive.” Because Christ is holy, we, His body, are called to strive each day for the sanctification of our lives, the integration of all that we are into all that Christ is: “Each in his own state of life, tend to the perfection of love, thus helping others grow in holiness” (“Lumen Gentium,” 5, 39). Every disciple is called to perfect love, to love the way the Father loves.

Step 2: Desire

Made in God’s image and likeness, each of us has a heart filled with desires created by God and for God. We desire the fullness of life. We desire an eternal love. We desire happiness. We desire to make a gift of ourselves to others. But as much as we feel the intensity of these desires at different moments, Jesus desires them for us even more. Yet, here’s the catch — our desires have to be ordered to God’s will with trust that God always knows what is best for us (see Luke 11:11-13). The prayer of one discerning sounds like, “Lord, help me to want what you want for my life. God, what do you desire for me?” In the discerning heart, trusting in the goodness of the Father opens us to receive whatever He wants for us, through which God reveals Himself.

Step 3: Trust

Love is not discovered but received as a gift, and just as every vocation is a call to love, it always comes as a gift from Jesus. To receive this gift, one must trust God from his or her heart. The place where Jesus will ask you to trust Him is wherever you are consciously aware of a reality beyond you (see Matthew 14:22-33). You can’t figure it out; it’s beyond your ability to control. Just like St. Peter being called by Jesus to step out of the boat onto the water during the raging storm, the Lord calls us to trust Him when we are confronted with those realities that are “beyond,” like living celibately or committing to one person totally until death. This classroom of dependence is where God teaches the discerning heart to trust and allows us to experience His great providence caring for us.

Step 4: Patience

Rarely is one’s vocation realized in a single moment of inspiration. Instead, it’s revealed to us over time as we grow in our relationship with Jesus. This can feel frustrating at times; we may find ourselves anxious and looking into the future beyond what we know and understand. But God simply wants us to trust Him and to take the next step. St. Ignatius of Loyola did not set out on his life journey with the intention of founding the Society of Jesus. He did, however, nurture his relationship with Jesus, and he realized that acting on what he knew God wanted him to do at that point in time resulted in more peace than dwelling on what he thought God might want him to do in the future. God’s will becomes known to us over time, and patience is accepting this truth.

Step 5: Peace

In the presence of Christ, there is peace. Our task is to realize this peace and to desire it. This was Christ’s first wish for us after His resurrection when He said to the disciples, “Peace be with you” (Jn 20:19). If peace, stillness, clarity and gratitude are the interior experiences and feelings one can use to describe a certain situation or decision one is faced with, that person can be confident that Christ is revealing Himself through those experiences and feelings.

Step 6: Fear is not of God

Just as there are experiences of God, there are also feelings like fear, pressure and confusion that are not of God. These can arise during busy and stressful times when our wants can become confused with God’s will. During the Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus faced the decision to escape His passion or to enter into it. He prayed, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me; still, not my will but yours be done” (Lk 22:42). In the world’s most decisive moment, Jesus turned to prayer and discerned the Father’s will. Through prayer, the sacraments and attentiveness to our interior experiences, we can determine which paths in life are of God and which paths are of the spirit against Christ.

Step 7: One With God’s Will

Sometimes we find ourselves asking God for a sign to help us know what God wants for us. However, God has already given us all the “tools” necessary to discern God’s will. The thoughts, feelings and desires we have while we experience peace and stillness in the presence of Christ are God’s thoughts, feelings and desires. By the same token, feelings that flow from fear, pressure and confusion are not of God — they stem from a false belief or lie. To tell where one’s thoughts and desires come from is discernment, and when we do this, our will becomes one with God’s.

Step 8: Saying ‘Yes’

Once we realize God’s will through peace during prayer and the sacraments, it’s essential to hold onto it. Remembering His will allows us not only to say “yes” to Christ in other moments of peace but to also say “no” to beliefs and desires that arise from a place of fear and confusion, which are not of God. St. Augustine spent years saying “no” to beliefs and desires that were of God’s will and saying “yes” to his own beliefs that he formed based on the spirit against Christ. This led to years of confusion and a life without direction. He summarized life perfectly when he said, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” After encountering God, St. Augustine repeatedly said “yes” to God’s will and found his vocation.

Step 9: Hearing Christ Through The Church

Every vocation must be confirmed by the Catholic Church. Therefore, Christ not only speaks to each individual human heart but also through the heart of His bride, the Church. For those called to the priesthood, this means that Christ’s desire be made clear not only through the man discerning but through those appropriate superiors like the bishop, the seminary rector and the vocation director who can speak with the Church’s authority about one’s particular journey of discernment.

For more information, visit the Vocations webpage.

This article was originally published as a series in Vermont Catholic magazine.


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How to Find Motivation to Overcome Social Anxiety

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Although social anxiety disorder (SAD) is one of the most common mental disorders, most people live years with symptoms before seeking help and many never receive treatment at all.

There are many potential obstacles to obtaining treatment for those with SAD, including fear of being judged negatively, fear of calling to make appointments, anxiety about talking to a therapist, and not knowing where to go for help.

If you have been suffering from social anxiety but not sought treatment, you may be struggling with motivation to change. The obstacles to getting better probably seem too daunting and the safety and avoidance behaviors that you have developed might be too easy to fall back on.

Research tells us that there are five stages that people go through when contemplating a major life change. These stages are generally applied to addictions, and health and fitness problems such as losing weight or quitting smoking, but they are also relevant to social anxiety.

Developing Motivation for Change

Below is a list of the five steps of change. See if any of these stages describe you.

  1. Precontemplation: During precontemplation, you either are not aware that you have a problem with social anxiety or you have no intention of changing your behavior. You either don't want to change or believe that changing would be impossible.
  2. Contemplation: During the contemplation stage, you are thinking about working on your social anxiety sometime in the future (e.g., in a few months time). At this stage, you are aware of the benefits of overcoming social anxiety but are still overwhelmed by what is needed to make a change.
  3. Preparation: During preparation, you are actively planning to work on your social anxiety in the near future (e.g., in a month). At this point, the benefits of being less socially anxious outweigh the costs of making a change for you. During this stage, you might take actions such as finding out about potential treatments or buying self-help materials.
  4. Action: During the action stage, you are taking steps to change your socially anxious behavior. You might be attending therapy, taking medication, or practicing self-help strategies.
  1. Maintenance: Maintenance occurs after you have taken action to change. During the maintenance phase, you are taking steps to prevent your social anxiety from returning. You might be doing things such as periodically reviewing what you learned in cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) or making sure to regularly expose yourself to feared situations.

Research has also shown that brief therapy specifically designed to increase motivation may help people seek treatment for social anxiety. Motivation enhancement therapy (MET) combines education about social anxiety with interview techniques designed to increase motivation to change.

Some of the exercises involved in MET are listed below. If you are having trouble with motivation to overcome your social anxiety, try these out on your own and see how they influence your desire to change.

(Write out your answers to the following questions)

  1. What is a typical day like for you? How does social anxiety impact what you do?
  2. What are the pros and cons of seeking treatment for your social anxiety?
  3. What are your short- and long-term goals? How does your social anxiety affect these goals?
  4. What do you think your life will look like 20 years from now if you don't seek help? What will it look like if you do?

After considering your answers to these questions, create a plan for change. Your plan can be as simple as the basic steps needed to seek help, such as exploring options for medication or therapy, calling to make an appointment, and planning how to overcome barriers such as determining how to pay for treatment.

Was this page helpful?

Article Sources

  • Buckner JD, Schmidt NB. A randomized pilot study of motivation enhancement therapy to increase utilization of cognitive-behavioral therapy for social anxiety. Behaviour Research and Therapy. 2009;47:710-715.
  • Butler, G. (2008). Overcoming Social Anxiety and Shyness. New York: Basic Books.


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Manage your sometimes complex and complicated Stable Value managers requirements on a single integrated comprehensive system.

VestServe’s Investment Management System – “IMS” fully supports the active management of all stable value instruments. IMS provides real-time book value accounting on the underlying portfolios of both priced securities and non-priced instruments, such as private placements.

Book Value Accounting

  • Instrument Types
    • Traditional GIC’s, Evergreens.
    • Synthetics and separate account GICs – provides many ways to monitor underlying assets.
    • Pooled Synthetics – maintain multiple wrap contracts on a single underlying portfolio.
  • Supports all pertinent accrual methods and periodicities (calendars).
  • Gross and net accruals (with resets) with the various resetting fee spreads
  • Customizes deposit, payment and reset schedules.
  • Calculate the crediting rate using underlying valuations and analytics (book-to-market analysis).
  • Offers various crediting rate methods from underlying portfolios to set the contract rate. Synthetic crediting methods include IRR, Geometric and Amortization.

Other Stable Value Capabilities:

  • Warehouse to maintain your underlying (market value) assets, in a variety of ownership structures, without burdensome accounting.
  • Aggregate the book value to market value components.
  • Report book and market values along with various analytics.
  • Maintain ratings for issues and or issuers over time, even with custom, blended ratings.
  • Analyze crediting rate projection, default projection, and yield curve effect, projected withdrawal effects.
  • Fund Accounting: dollar per share and NAV funds.

Flexible Synthetic Contract Specifications Provided:

  • Any choice of a complete list of interest accruals and day count methods.
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  • Flexible and sophisticated tiered family asset-based fees and net-gross spread support.


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Recent Searches
Questions? (888) 651-9785(888) 651-9785

Montenegro Day Trips from Dubrovnik

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Montenegro Day Trips from Dubrovnik
Just an hour from Croatia’s border, Dubrovnik is a perfect base for exploring Montenegro. The small country boasts tremendous natural beauty, from the winding Adriatic Coast to the UNESCO-listed Tara River Gorge. Here’s how to visit on a day trip.

Montenegro Highlights
  • Climb up to the Castle of San Giovanni for incredible views of Kotor and its Old Town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
  • Relax on the pebble beaches of Budva or get lost exploring its narrow cobblestone streets.
  • Take a boat ride from Perast to see Our Lady of the Rocks Church.
  • Check out the medieval island of Sveti Stefan, now a luxury resort.
  • Visit the fortresses and churches around Herceg Novi, at the entrance to the Bay of Kotor.
  • Go white-water rafting in the stunning Tara River Gorge, the longest canyon in Europe.

Group Tours
From Dubrovnik, numerous group tours to Montenegro are available. Most include Kotor and Budva as highlights and may add in other stops as well, such as Sveti Stefan, Perast, or Herceg Novi. Another great option is a trip to the Tara River Gorge for white-water rafting. Foodies may enjoy a group tour that includes a stop for food and wine tasting in the village of Njegusi.

Private Tours
Private tours to Montenegro include many of the same options as group tours, but you can customize the itinerary based on your interests and schedule. A typical tour will include visits to Perast, Kotor, Sveti Stefan, and Budva before embarking on a ferry ride across the Bay of Kotor, all with the help of your private guide.

Things to Know
  • Be sure to bring your passport, as you will be crossing an international border.
  • Montenegro is set 114 miles (183 kilometers) from Dubrovnik, just over three hours away by road.
  • The currency of Montenegro is the euro.
  • Most tours charge extra for a boat ride to Our Lady of the Rocks Church.
  • Many tours include a ferry ride across the Bay of Kotor.
  • Tours may last up to 12 hours.
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Doobie at House of Blues Houston

16. Apr 2019
Hip HopContemporary Hip Hop
Past event

Doobie at House of Blues Houston

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United States
LocationHouston1204 Caroline Street
Hip Hop
Contemporary Hip Hop

  • Club
  • 1200 - 2500

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@JosephKahn RT : The Deadwood project is now 87% funded with less than 4 days to go till deadline. Reminder that if you pledge for a… https://t.co/0mO0JPjsFi 12 hours 13 min ago
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@katyperry He may be a liar but those hips don’t lie bb 💅🏻 https://t.co/equ7jFrkv3 1 day 2 hours ago
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Disclosure "White Noise" (Luke Monaghan, Dir.)

Disclosure – White Noise

A man secretly finds his groove amidst the ruins of Detroit, sneaking into once majestic buildings to burst into tricky pop/lock dance moves.

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Editing Company
Paradoxal, Production Company
Rushes, Post-production

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Within 48 hours we will submit your legal issue to licensed, pre-screened Vietnamese labor and employment lawyers in New Hampshire who match your search criteria. We check the licenses of attorneys whom we connect clients with once a year and require them to maintain a zero misconduct record with the state agency issuing their license.

Please note that this submission doesn't create an attorney-client communication. Attorney client relationship is formed only when attorney formally agrees to represent you. By submitting the form below you are giving permission to the attorneys we match you with to contact you.

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Thank you for your interest in WWU Cycling team! We host a home race March 23rd-24th for 8+ schools from four different states and is opened to amateur women who are not a part of the collegiate conference. Our home race costs approximately $5,000 to host. Some money comes from our sponsors, but the majority comes from our community from people like you!

WWU Cycling Team

Raised toward our $3,000 Goal
19 Donors
Project has ended
Project ended on March 08, at 04:00 PM PST
Project Owners

30% there

February 27, 2019

Thank you all so much for donating! We have so far raised over $1000 which is enough to cover all of the race entry fees of our racers! Thank you for your continued support, and wish us luck on our first race this weekend on March 2nd!

Pictured are our two race directors sporting the new team kits this year! They are designed with the topographic lines of Bellingham's own road race course!

18% Done!

February 20, 2019

Thank you to all who have donated! So far we have raised enough money to transport all of our teammates to Oregon for our first upcoming race in two weeks!

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Cat D.

For racers new to the sport!

Cat C.

Fast racers still gaining experience.

Cat B.

Almost top dogs!

Cat A.

FAST veteran racers. Maximum mileage and maximum speed.

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