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Hôtel André Latin: An Elegant Boutique Hotel in Paris
The Hotel Andre Latin in Paris is a charming boutique hotel, which provides an accommodations option in the City of Lights situated in a 19th-century building just a short walking distance from the Pantheon and Jardin du Luxembourg. This lovely boutique hotel is located in the Latin Quarter, and ready to make your memories unforgettable with a charming experience that will instantly transport you back to an earlier time in Paris with its 68 luxurious rooms.
This impressive hotel was founded by two brothers, Fabien and Guillaume Sodano, and it is inspired by the belle époque era, yet still, maintains a contemporary edge with details such as a red cabinet of spider keys behind reception.
See also: HERMES-SOJITZ LAUNCHES BOUTIQUE HOTEL CHAIN IN ITALY
The new cocktail bar André Latin welcomes visitors into an immersive world, including a terrace directly accessible from the street. The renovation was carried out by the interior designer Michael Malapert. The luxury design of the bar has been enriched by the unique lamps from luxury brand Delightfull.
The elegant bar perfectly reflects the spirit of the Latin Quarter and welcomes all generationsvin this unusual place.
Each room is tastefully decorated and has a private bathroom with bathtub or shower. Special care has been taken in the concealment of light, the quality of the bedding, the soft soothing colors and the selection of fabrics to provide guests with a private and cozy setting for a peaceful night's sleep.
See also: LE VILLE DI TREVINANO: A LUXURY BOUTIQUE HOTEL IN ITALY
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First, kudos on adding the ability to create properties for a topic and then to use those properties in formulas. Unfortunately, the cake is only half baked - making this feature all but worthless for anything but the simplest maps.
What is required before this is TRULY useful is some type of inheritance of properties (similar to the "topic style"). For example, if I have 50 identical topics (WBS tasks, for instance) - and then realize that I need to add a new property (.ie, "budget") to each topic, I currently need to manually edit all 50 topics. I should be able to set up a "master" topic style including properties - adding the master to my map to create dependent topics. If I change the "master" topic then all topics based on the master will change automatically (.ie, automatically inherit the master's properties).
With this feature, MM goes to a new level of modeling and manipulation of nodes. One can start work defining topics (objects) without worrying about the details of each topics. This fits more into the standard MM theme of brainstorm first, refine and organize later. Think of the possibilities!?
Come on Mindjet, please finish the cake.
I think this would be a great idea, especially as I have always felt topic properties are underutilised. The introduction of formulas is only just scratching the surface of their potential.
However a few issues would need to be thought through in implementing your proposal. For example, would the properties of all topics based on the master topic be "locked" to that topic, much as the properties of topics linked to Outlook items are? If not and you then edited the properties of a specific topic, for example removing the budget property from those topics that didn't need this field, would the link to the master topic set of properties be removed?
If so, how would you know which topics had been adjusted and which hadn't? Perhaps as with Outlook-linked properties there could be a specific icon to show that the topic properties are linked to the master topic and an explicit (probably one-way) command to unlink them which would also replace the linked icon with a standard property icon. .
Hi, thanks for the feedback and I'm glad that you understand the idea. I think the best way for this to work is to replicate object-oriented programming (oop) concepts (which are probably already being used in MM) in which the properties are inherited from the master object for each instance topic created from the master. However additional properties can also be added to each individual instance also (and if MM really want to be fancy, can then allow that topic to be used as a master topic for other copies ("instances"), etc.). If the master "class" object is modified, the modifications are propagated to all instances that are based on that master object.
Your idea of providing an icon or something to provide visual reference that the topic is based on a master copy is a good one. Of course it could be complicated if a topic is both based on another topic - but is also a master to others.... but some great mind at MM (and there are many) can surely find a good solution!
According to their material, Topic Tracker lets users store individual main topics, with/without sub-topics. These can then accessed and used by the initial user and other Topic Tracker users in MM maps. You can track topic text and font attributes, hyperlinks, attachments and a whole range of other attributes - including custom properties.
The significant feature is that as "Topic Owner" you can update these attributes and determine which you want to track. You can use it a team environment but as a single user you can create libraries of topics which can be reused on multiple maps while being kept up to date from one source topic.
I've only briefly dabbled with the trial version - it looked good but was overkill for me, and I wasn't that interested in exploring its abilities to manage custom properties. However for your purposes it might be worth getting a trial version to explore.
why does basic functionality always involve buying a add-in. I think this is a great idea which should be a basic feature of MM, its not industry or application specific, having ability to customize topics based on TAGS, or labels should be standard..
I am having the same issue and it is a big issue. I have 116 topics that I need to add 3 properties to. I was really hoping I would find an easy solution to this instead of needing to edit 116 topics individually! I can easilly select all 116 topics but when I paste the properties it only goes to one at a time. Can this be done somehow with a macro?


Resolved Is All the Hype About AI's Impact on BPM Overblown?
As Connie Moore writes in this blog, "The hype surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) in today's marketplace cannot be overstated. Most of the excitement is just that—hype and hot air, plus a whole lot of confusion about what AI actually encompasses." So in terms of Artificial Intelligence's impact on BPM, what do you think?
I think BPM may be one of the areas where the hype about AI might actually be understated.
It seems perfectly rational that the Process Manager could "learn" from processes as they execute - the initial process definition might come from Process Mining, or might be built by Humans using BPMN - but from that point on machine learning would tweak the process to improve performance.
Process Mining does not produce working processes unless you already have a procces in place. The machine learning has to happen from user action in the process environment. Hence your orthodox BPM system is suddenly obsolete ... and so is BPMN. They guiding and constraining of work for compliance has to happen in business language rules and not flow diagrams.
a). Move to ACM/BPM where run time experiences are made up of a series of process fragments plus ad hoc interventions, threaded together by users, software, machines such that you really do NOT have a "process" until you close a Case (all, in theory, will be different).
b) Put in place the ability to take all of the fragments plus the ad hoc interventions at a Case and map these out on a graphic canvas (with time as your horizontal dimension).
c) Use data mining to overlay "similar cases" and apply high-level filtering so you can identify such activity as ". . . .most of the time, they went that way"
d) Get your environment to auto-add branching decision boxes where there were none based on the data mining statistics (no rules needed for these new branching decision boxes).
d) Now background new Cases with probabilities at decision branching boxes that post to increase user decision-support (sub-path #1: 40%; sub-path #2: 20%; sub-path #3: 10%; sub-path #4 30%).
Sit back and track how your now "auto-process-improvement" environment augments your Case experiences, then, perhaps (2-3 years to get the above working and settled in), blend in some AI.
Would work but is very complex, but our User-Trained Agent learns from the users in real-time.
"Among other blinding insights: you need to think properly about how you're going to manage the change to business activities, the bots themselves and any changes that might occur over time in back-end systems.
It's a bit like advising an organisation buying a vehicle fleet to remember to hire qualified drivers, and make sure they get the fleet serviced at regular intervals.
The same is, would be true of intelligence. Machine learning and AI aren't just going to automagically enhance BPM to some utopian state without some up-front input and guidance. The up-front homework is the part that always gets left out on technical panaceas.
Nice to see there's at least one person who reads our newsletters Mr L! Thanks!
AI will have no impact on BPM! There is no such thing. But MACHINE LEARNING will make all flowchart design obsolete. Our User Trained Agent makes task recommendations to users since 2009. It builds a complete goal-oriented use-case in a value stream through user interaction.
Up till now most CIOs were really worried about it and did not dare to use it. Suddenly they can be all cool and do 'AI' with what they have installed.
BPM flowcharting was a waste of time before and now it is simply obsolete, GREAT!!!
Great comments and original item on AI hype. As we learned in the 80's and with expert systems, which was the AI of the time, it's very difficult to do, including especially modeling any given domain. Fast forward 30 years and we have only now built a machine that can win at the game of Go -- and real life is how many orders of magnitude more complex? AI is useful -- if you can actually codify some model (possibly ignoring the tacit). But note that such models are only useful for narrow distributions of outcomes -- but will be useless for the outliers or "black swans" (see Nassim Taleb) found in the larger fat-tailed worlds where most business lives. Today's AI is still difficult (i.e. expensive) to do for non-trivial things.
However, given that BPM is very much about microeconomics-driven process repetition patterns, i.e. characterized by narrow distributions, AI is especially suitable as a complement to BPM technology. The narrow scope of business automation where BPM thrives also defines a narrow scope of data and behaviour where AI is more technically feasible.
Yikes: good thing I already got my degree.
ML and AI have implications anywhere there are decisions to be made. But is AI intrinsic to BPM? Or is it a service, like any other, that informs BPM behaviors? Does it make sense for BPM vendors to reinvent AI/ML code for their platforms, or would it be more reasonable to be able to plug into technology from different vendors depending on the nature of the problem being addressed?
As E Scott points out, it seems of utter importance to define artificial intelligence in the context of BPM first. AI seems to have the potential to apply to different aspects in BPM, in different ways. The impact of AI on "process flow charting" that Max stresses, seems very interesting. Within the process innards, predictive analytics, driven by lineal or multiple regressions of statistical relevant process data sets (5+ years of complete, monthly observations for instance) can lead to pattern recognition, which then can support an AI as part of a BRE, being part of a iBPMS.
In general, I do think AI will impact BPM greatly, starting with business rules. It's just very depended on the user BPM maturity level with current technologies (ref. Karl's post, outlining a possible road map).
To me AI/ML is about turning data into insights which hopefully leads to action.
I look the same at the application of AI/ML in processes (or better "managing cases" ).
During the execution of work for a case, a lot of data can be collected. In itself this data doesn't mean anything, but with some algorithms this could become insight in "how work is done here" or some indicators of, what we think shows, the performance of a process. Process Mining is an example of that. But I agree with Max that is still "insight staring". It should be about turning that insight into action.
That could be immediate action (do this for this case!) or data for more traditional process improvement. Which might be done by a "machine" that changes some process parameters.
So AI/ML will definitely have it's impact on processes. Not the same for any type of process, but where data must be turned into action (actually, isn't that in any process?), it hopefully helps to create better insights and faster action.
But to me it's all about the action. Because a self driving car can be a masterpiece of sensors and algorithms, but is useless without a throttle or a brake.
And wheels that can turn.
Yes as ever over hyped on impact. It will be an evolutionary experience aiding business efficiency but remember people are at all angles of this move from "build" of AI to the managing and using outcomes. Economies need to see efficiency improvements to prosper and AI will have a role in this. BPM has a role to ensure compliance and accountability. As previously discussed in this forum if such discipline is not there more VW scandals will happen.
In terms of the intelligence gained from data creation in processes that journey started where decisions can be automated to enrich the user experiences and become more productive. AI needs the outside in approach as it becomes incorporated into operational business processes as such the BPM discipline will expand as such capabilities evolve and grow.
By the way, AI/ML should likely be paired with decision making, rules repositories, DMN etc. etc. And the reason is that the only use for AI is ultimately "better decisions".
So, in that corner of decisioning which is amendable to rules, AI/ML will likely work better when integrated into such a comprehensive rules-based decision management environment. And of course, good DMN decision technology-based solutions are already available for integration with BPM deployments.
One can make an argument that the rules-oriented corner of AI/ML is the most important application of AI/ML. The alternative idea that big data, AI and ML can be at the heart of discovering something new, i.e. to drive a new strategy or breakthrough product development for example, cannot reliably be the basis for many sound departmental business plans.
@John.. agree that AI/ML is not likely to see its best use "discovering something new". We have crystal balls for this.
As for the use of AI/ML, I see it's main value as providing "better suggestions", not "better decision-making".
The whole idea of ACM/BPM is we have best practices, here they are, we know that consistent use of best practices gives better outcomes but, go ahead, based on experience, situation/context, judgment, logic, intuition, . . . and deviate from the best practices.
BPM will provide orchestration, Case-level rules will provide governance (e.g. remember the model of the centerline on the highway, guardrails on both sides).
Summary - we already have decisions that can be automated, we already have ways to constrain "arbitrary" choices via governance rule sets, and what AI/M adds is not decisions but "decision support" i.e. suggestions.
In the world of inputs/outputs, you cannot rely on logic connections to guarantee that it is OK to perform the next-in-line task (i.e. there may not have been a context/situation relevant predecessor).
Nor can we rely on the processing itself between Input and Output (i.e. the designer may have failed to take into consideration some aspect essential to a solution, so, this is why I keep pushing for pre-processors and post-processors. (are you sure its ok to engage? are you sure it's ok to go away with this result?).
I think we are in agreement @Karl. "Suggestions" are a way of loosening up BPM guardrails to account for more of the richness or variability (or chaos and complexity) of real business processes. I see suggestions therefore as just part of a sensible 'decision process' -- not that AI/ML will necessarily dictate a given branch or case sub-process.
LOL, I suspect that before we hand over decision making to robots/AI, we have to get to where scenarios like the following can be dealt with.
I remember a boss who gave me some instructions and then came back the next day with opposite instructions.
I reminded him that yesterday he wanted that and that today, it seems, he wants this.
The response was " . . . .yesterday was yesterday, today is today"
Most rule sets are likely to have trouble with this.
2nd example . . .
At uni, we had a professor who did not have much patience for idiotic dialogue.
One student asked whether the questions on the final exam would be the same as last year.
Response: Yes, same questions, different answers.
It seems that AI/ML is just yet another coordination technique - flow-chart, business rules, event-based, queue-based and, finally, intelligence-based. Sure, this is a very important coordination technique, because there are models and associated data, and, we want AI/ML to tell us how to change our models to get desired outcomes from them.
And I would love to see an actual audit of an AI-driven-decision-gone-wrong Who's guilty: the developer, the integrator, the trainer, the operator, the data feeder?
The most hypocritical discourse however is the one where AI is replacing tedious human jobs so people can focus on more fulfilling, higher-IQ jobs. Since the transition from man to machine will happen in months, I wonder if those people "relieved" from the "basic, undignified" jobs will also get quickly equipped with the incremental IQ required not to do the task, but to operate the task-doer.
So, a business case can be made for AI/ML in the context of some workflows.
At the same time, you are completely correct about the social implications and the fantasy of retraining -- and the condescension too -- concerning so-called "basic, undignified jobs" as you say. I keep harping on "the tacit": the tacit is a proxy for all the things that staff (how about we say "workers") know in order to do any kind of task -- and tacit is present even in things that seem highly structured and ideal for automation and AI, such as RPA.
There's probably some sort of "U-shaped" curve that maps semantic content of work over time, against automation. In the beginning, humans do everything and the semantic content is high. Then with automation, humans are removed from the process, that tacit is forgotten, and semantic content falls (along with costs). The futurist hope is that after a while with ever-more powerful AI, that the semantic content will begin to rise again.
Big topic. Lots of implications.
The level of trust for using artificial intelligence for customer services has increased among British people, although they may have little choice as businesses flock towards the technology.


1. Keep your hands clean, with good old fashioned soap and hot water. Anti-bacterial products contain toxic ingredients like triclosan, and studies show that this chemical penetrates the skin and causes hormone disruption. Most health care professionals argue that for the general population there aren't any benefits. Due to public response, many manufacturers are quietly removing this ingredient from their products, so check the label and see what you're using!
2. Make water your main drink. Dehydration is the start of many illnesses and diseases. Nothing is water, except water! And drinking ½ your body weight in ounces is a good goal to have. It also fills you up, gives you energy (especially with fresh squeezed lemon juice), helps with digestion and metabolism, strengthens your immune system and keeps your skin looking good!
3. Avoid eating processed foods and refined sugars. At the very least, cut way back. It's no wonder that most people get sick around Valentines, Halloween and Christmas. People tend to eat more sugary and processed foods due to holiday activities. Sugar lowers our immunity, and we know conclusively that it is largely to blame for the epidemic of chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease, as well as obesity. Focus on naturally sweet veggies and fruits instead. A good rule of thumb to follow when choosing foods: if it isn't a whole food, avoid eating it regularly. Load up on real, whole foods (and plenty raw) for snacks and meals alike.
4. Consume plenty of healthy oils and fats. Real, organic butter (grass-fed and raw is a recommended), ghee, extra-virgin cold-pressed olive oils, coconut oils, flax seed oil. As well as healthy animal fats from organic, grass-fed sources and pasture-raised eggs. Supplement with fish oil daily and cod liver oil for Vitamin D.
5. Avoid vegetable oils and trans fats. These are in all processed foods, and include vegetable shortening, margarine and fake butter spreads, soybean, cottonseed, canola, corn, sunflower, safflower, and peanut oil - which are rancid, contain too many Omega 6s, and have inflammatory and hormonal disrupting properties. Read labels before you buy!
6. The healthiest food is going to be what you prepare on your own at home, so increase these opportunities. Eat when hungry, stop when full. Become intuitive about what foods make you feel and operate at your best. Eat plenty of veggies and low-sugar fruits, like lemons, limes, grapefruit, and organic (frozen this time of year) berries. See the Clean 15/Dirty Dozen list for how to spend food dollars wisely, and what is most important to purchase organic. Especially eat those in season in your local area. Vegetables and fruits are high in nutrients and antioxidants, which help thwart the development of disease and illness.
7. Drink bone broths. A lack of minerals is a big reason for illness and disease. Bone broths made from the bones of healthy animals and birds on pasture are full of easily-digested and essential nutrients which can help you stay healthy, such as magnesium, calcium, phosphorus, zinc, amino acids, and glucosamine (for bone health), and gelatin (muscles, metabolism, weight, skin, digestion, hair, fingernails, joint health). Experiment with different types of sea salts in cooking! Here's my favorite and easiest Bone Broth recipe, and I would definitely recommend grass-fed beef.
8. Eat real, fermented foods like home-made yogurt, kefir, and sauerkraut. Be certain to take a good probiotic each day, especially if you are lacking fermented foods.
9. Watch your intake of alcoholic beverages, which tend to increase during holiday months. Excessive alcohol has a negative effect on your appetite, blood sugar, blood pressure and cardiovascular function, metabolic processes, and weight.
10. Make sure you are getting adequate rest and not over-extending yourself. Learn to say "no." Stay home on a night where you might normally go out and rest, relax, and catch up. Have a family night. Go to bed by 10 p.m and get up early! You will be in tune with your circadian rhythms and be much healthier for it.
11. Set aside time for some regular exercise, and getting outdoors. In the colder months people tend to go to health clubs more, but indoor environments aren't necessarily healthy, so bundle up and go for a walk, hike, or bike ride. At work, avoid sitting for long periods of time. Get up every 30 minutes and move around, or set up a standing desk!
12. Set aside time for contemplation, prayer, stress reduction, and relaxation. Whether that is a hot bath, a massage, tai chi, yoga, stretching or meditation, make sure you give yourself this time to recharge. Even 2-3 minutes of deep breathing everyday can reduce stress levels, improve focus, energy and metabolism.
13. If you do experience cold or flu symptoms, load up on probiotics, foods with healthy fats, and everything else mentioned above. Take time to pamper yourself, rest, and put off things that aren't necessary so you can get back to a state of health quicker and easier.
14. Avoid taking pharmaceutical drugs and antibiotics unless absolutely necessary. These rarely help your body to heal sooner, are over-prescribed, and actually cause nutrient depletion and lowered immune system function by wiping out friendly bacteria that are vital to health.
Heres the deal! If you maintain a schedule of eating real food, most that you prepare yourself, avoid processed foods and beverages, take proper supplementation when needed, obtain moderate activity, exercise, rest, and relaxation, you will notice an improvement in your health. My hope is that you will have more energy, feel more productive, and fortify your immune system.


This was a particularly awesome harvest. And now it's gone.
I can't find the post where I showed my vast plethora of jars of applesauce from a few years ago, but one year, I canned like 50 jars and had so much, I was even using it in bread in the spring.
That was a great applesauce year.
This past fall, I never had a weekend when I could go apple picking, so my sister got me about 30 pounds one weekend. She would have gotten me more, but I felt bad asking her to haul 100 pounds of apples home for me.
I wanted to go another weekend and get 50 more pounds but I never did, so we ended up with about 20 jars.
And I used them VEERRRRRY sparingly.
They were sooooooo good this year.
And then, just like that, they were gone!
I could go to the grocery and buy apples and can them, but it's just not the same. And they aren't local, which is kind of the whole point.
Canned applesauce from the store is not the same, no matter what brand I buy.
Must do a better job picking and canning apples this fall!
Gosh, I had more apples than I knew what to do with! I canned and canned and canned. It was the first year in many years that we didn't have a frost or freeze when our apples trees were in bloom. It was wonderful harvesting bushel after bushel full of apples and they tasted so so good. Hopefully you'll be able to get more apples this year.
The local apples ARE so much better than what you get at the stores. I have a farmers market near me (in Raynham) and that is where I get most of my produce.


House Republican leaders plan to vote this week on a measure to raise the threshold for the Affordable Care Act's (ACA's) employer mandate from 30 to 40 hours. The ACA requires employers with at least 50 full-time-equivalent workers to offer health coverage to employees who work 30 or more hours a week or pay a penalty. Critics charge that the 30-hour threshold has caused employers to shave workers' hours, but raising it to 40 hours would lead to fewer hours of work for employees and more part-time work — the exact opposite of what the rhetoric about "restoring" the 40-hour work week implies.
There's no indication that the ACA has caused a significant shift toward part-time work, contrary to the claims of critics. The number of part-time workers who would rather be working full time has returned to pre-recession levels. And a review of the published literature finds that the ACA has had virtually no effect on hours of work.
More important, raising the law's threshold from 30 hours a week to 40 hours would make a shift toward part-time employment much more likely — not less so. That's because only a small share of workers today (7 percent) work 30 to 34 hours a week and thus are most at risk of having their hours cut below health reform's threshold. In comparison, 45 percent of employees work 40 hours a week, and another several percent work 41 to 44 hours a week. Thus, raising the threshold to 40 hours would place many more workers at risk of having their hours reduced. In short, it's the proposed legislation, not the ACA, that threatens the traditional 40-hour work week the legislation's sponsors say they want to protect.
Contrary to early speculation, the ACA has not caused a significant shift to part-time work. The share of part-time jobs rose sharply during the Great Recession, as it does in every recession; employers cut workers' hours when demand for the firm's products or services weakens. But that share has dropped again during the ensuing recovery, with the ACA having no discernable impact.
Since the ACA became law in March 2010, all of the overall increase in civilian employment has been among people who usually work full time. Part-time workers now represent 17 percent of total employment — the same as before the recession and well below the post-recession peak of 20 percent.
The share of involuntary part-timers — workers who'd rather have full-time jobs but can't find them — tells a similar story. If health reform's employer mandate had distorted hiring practices in the way critics claim, we'd expect the share of involuntary part-timers to increase, or decline less than expected. Instead, as Figure 1 shows, it is down about four percentage points from its peak and has returned to its pre-recession level.
Finally, an analysis of data from the Current Population Survey, published in Health Affairs, finds little evidence that the ACA has caused increases in part-time employment.
Raising the cutoff for the employer mandate from 30 hours a week to 40 hours would make a shift toward part-time employment more likely — not less so. Since 40 hours is the typical work week, employers could easily cut back many employees from 40 to 39 hours so they wouldn't have to offer them health coverage.
The result would be less employer-sponsored health coverage — and thus higher federal spending for Medicaid and premium tax credits. In addition, the penalties collected from employers that fail to meet the requirement to offer coverage would fall. Raising the threshold to 40 hours would increase budget deficits by $18.6 billion over 2019-2028, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
As Figure 2 shows, only about 7 percent of employees work 30 to 34 hours a week (that is, at or modestly above the health reform's 30-hour threshold), but 45 percent of employees work 40 hours a week and would be vulnerable to cuts in their hours if the threshold rose to 40 hours. The result would be fewer people with employer-sponsored insurance, more people seeking subsidized coverage, and more people uninsured.
Rules Committee Print 115-84, Text of H.R. 3798, Save American Workers Act of 2018, https://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20180910/BILLS-115HR3798HR1150HR6718HR4616-RCP115-84.pdf.
 Kaiser Family Foundation, "Employer Responsibility Under the Affordable Care Act," updated March 5, 2018, http://kff.org/infographic/employer-responsibility-under-the-affordable-care-act/.
 Jean Abraham and Anne Beeson Royalty, How Has the Affordable Care Act Affected Work and Wages?, Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, University of Pennsylvania, January 19, 2017, https://ldi.upenn.edu/brief/how-has-affordable-care-act-affected-work-and-wages.
 Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey; employment level (series LNS12000000); employment level – part-time for economic reasons, all industries (series LNS12032194); part-time for noneconomic reasons (series LNS12005977). From March 2010 through August 2018, total part-time employment has decreased. BLS defines part-time work as less than 35 hours a week.
 Asako S. Moriya, Thomas M. Selden, and Kosali I. Simon, "Little Change Seen In Part-Time Employment As A Result Of The Affordable Care Act," Health Affairs, January 2016, https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/hlthaff.2015.0949.
 Congressional Budget Office, Direct Spending and Revenue Effects of Rules Committee Print 115-84, the Save American Workers Act of 2018, https://www.cbo.gov/system/files?file=2018-09/SaveAmericanWorkersAct.pdf.
 Bureau of Labor Statistics, Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey, persons at work in agriculture and nonagricultural industries by hours of work, http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat19.htm.


Property Location A stay at Centra by Centara Avenue Hotel Pattaya places you in the heart of Pattaya, within a 15-minute walk of Pattaya Avenue and Pattaya Beach Road. This 4-star hotel is 8.7 mi (14 km) from Three Kingdoms Park and 13.3 mi (21.5 km) from Wat Yan Temple.Rooms Make yourself at home in one of the 51 air-conditioned rooms featuring minibars and DVD players. LCD televisions with satellite programming provide entertainment, while complimentary wireless Internet access keeps you connected. Private bathrooms with showers feature rainfall showerheads and complimentary toiletries. Conveniences include phones, as well as safes and desks.Amenities Enjoy a range of recreational amenities, including an outdoor pool, a sauna, and a fitness center.Dining Satisfy your appetite for lunch or dinner at Kosher Restaurant, a restaurant which specializes in kosher dishes, or stay in and take advantage of the room service (during limited hours). Wrap up your day with a drink at the poolside bar. Breakfast is available daily from 6:30 AM to 10:30 AM for a fee.Business, Other Amenities Featured amenities include dry cleaning/laundry services, a 24-hour front desk, and multilingual staff. A roundtrip airport shuttle is provided for a surcharge (available 24 hours), and free self parking is available onsite.
Hotel Centra by Centara Avenue Hotel Pattaya cost depends on the season and prices can be much different basing on selected dates. The diagram below illustrates price changing dynamic for Centra by Centara Avenue Hotel Pattaya hotel by months. For example, the lowest prices - on the average $38 - are in October, and by July hotel Centra by Centara Avenue Hotel Pattaya cost grows on the average up to $74.


The project "Framing Climate Change" (FCC) aims to analyze the role of journalists in the process of setting frames for climate change. In the context of a "post-doctoral research credit" awarded by the University of Zurich, we analysed journalists and their reports in five countries (CH, FRG, IN, UK, USA). The study combined the interviews with a content analysis of journalists' articles.
This research was conducted in collaboration with Dr. Sven Engesser, University of Zurich.


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The Grand Cinema™ LUMIS 3D projectors are totally unique to SIM2 and represent the culmination of over 10 years of innovation and research in the field of video projector design and technology. SIM2's flagship Grand Cinema™ line features a choice of 4 models that offer unprecedented picture quality for the discerning customer who wants a true cinema experience. The Grand Cinema™ LUMIS line features 3-chip 0,95" 1080p DC4 DLP® chipset, SIM2's ALPHAPATH™ light engine, and Triple Flash technology for extreme 3D smoothness and visual pleasure. Grand Cinema™ LUMIS offers Triple Flash technology (144 Hz), the delivery system that is currently unique to professional installations to provide the best motion rendition possible. No other projector line can match the superb color depth, excellent contrast ratio and exceptional brightness that the Grand Cinema™ line is able to deliver. Indeed, welcome home Hollywood!
Choosing a SIM2 product means experiencing a wealth of positive emotions, whilst enjoying your favorite visual entertainment, it also means enjoying superior functionality, versatility and reliability. SIM2's in-depth research into video processing software has enabled them to develop some unique solutions that allow image quality to be fine tuned with supreme precision to suit the characteristics of the video source, environmental lighting levels, or simply to suit your own personal preferences. The intuitive and simple navigation menu allows you to easily control all of the projector's refined features. The feeling of total satisfaction you get doesn't stop at the technology, it extends into the services and warranties that customers the world over enjoy in both the short and long term: whether offered by SIM2 dealers or directly through SIM2 Multimedia, customer support is just one more expression of excellence in professionalism.
AHT Global is the parent company to three distinct divisions.
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Other Reds – Page 2 – Would Bukowski Drink It?
I recently attended a tasting at The Barrel Thief in Seattle WA for Smasne Cellars with some friends. I'd been introduced to the Farm Boy before and revisting it, I wasn't disappointed. Smasne Cellars are really turning out some great examples of reds and red blends and are making their name as an exceptional WA State producer. Their wines are hard to find but worth searching out, special ordering or visiting their Woodenville WA tasting room.
So out of the bottle and into the glass…. The color of the wine is Ruby red with purple and garnett tones. Clean and bright with very long legs. The nose is full of berries and cherries: strawberries, dark bing cherries with some floral and herbacious notes: lavender and marigold in paticular for me. There was also a slight muskiness with earthy notes and touch of oak. A nice amount of spice, most notably cinamon and cardamon.
The taste was likewise full of berries, tart pie cherries, starwberries with blackberry. The Farm Boy is very jammy with a very slight pickle juice note and minerals (wet stone, flint). The finish is long with a smooth medium body that slow and lingers. Great mouthfeel.
Overall easily recommended and exceptionally well balanced. The Farm Boy "Bunk House Red" will easily compliment grilled meats, savory dishes, dry cured meats, cheeses like Asiago, Manchego, Blue and sharp aged Cheddar.
More info on Smasne Cellars.
Would Bukowski drink it? I spent many a night (and day sleeping it off) in the Bunk House so sign me up.
This wine is another market find. I haven't been branching out much beyond my safety zone of wines from the Northwest and CA lately so I decided to pick up the red blend from Spain recently. The 2012 Laya is a very big and bold wine and if you are a fan of bold "old world" wines, I recommend it.
Out of the bottle and into the glass. This is a big wine and a letting it breath (or aerating) opened it up more. A very deep garnet to purple color with very long legs in the glass. My first impressions were deep and rich tones – earthy (flint), licorice, coffee / espresso, leather and tobacco. Oddly the fruit, mainly cherry, hit me afterwards on the finish rather than up front. Slight touch of oak and smoke also noted. Medium body but a little heavy on the tannins. For it's price, it does have characteristics of older and more expensive wines. Proving that price isn't the only indicator for a good wine. Overall I liked it. My only reservation, a little too bold on some notes for me, particularly the licorice and espresso, for my taste, but easily recommended.
Would Bukowski drink it? I ever tell you about this Spanish broad I met at the track? Gimme that wine.


text:
Q: How to 'forward' all-but-the-first-argument arguments of a function to another function? How do I forward the arguments from within a function to another function?
I have this:
function SomeThing(options) {
  function callback(callback_name) {
    if(options[callback_name]) {
      // Desiring to call the callback with all arguments that this function
      // received, except for the first argument.
      options[callback_name].apply(this, arguments);
    }
  }
  callback('cb_one', 99, 100);
}

What I get in the a argument is 'cb_one', but I want that it should be '99'.
var a = new SomeThing({
  cb_one: function(a,b,c) {
    console.log(arguments); // => ["cb_one", 99, 100]
    console.log(a);         // => cb_one
    console.log(b);         // => 99
    console.log(c);         // => 100
  }
});

How do I do this?

A: Use options[callback_name].apply(this, [].slice.call(arguments,1));
[].slice.call(arguments,1) converts the arguments ('array-like') Object into a real Array containing all arguments but the first.
[].slice.call may also be written as Array.prototype.slice.call.

A: You could do what Kooilnc does. Personally however I don't like writing [].slice.call or Arrray.prototype.slice.call. Instead I do this:
var bind = Function.bind;
var call = Function.call;

var bindable = bind.bind(bind);
var callable = bindable(call);

// this is the same as Array.prototype.slice.call
var arrayFrom = callable(Array.prototype.slice);

Now you can simple do:
options[callback_name].apply(this, arrayFrom(arguments, 1));

For more information about bindable and callable talk to the people in the JavaScript chat room: https://chat.stackoverflow.com/rooms/17/javascript

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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What happens if the private contract of purchase or property does not properly describe the property we are buying?
Q. I am thinking of buying a apartment in Mallorca. I have the name of a Spanish solicitor who is based in England. The seller has also been in contact with the same Spanish solicitor. The solicitor says that it is O.K to act for us both. Is this correct, and would you advise it? Would it be better to have a english speaking solicitor based in Mallorca?
She says we would have go to Spain to sign documents, or she could arrange for someone in Spain to have power of attorney, which would be an extra expense to ourself. Is this correct, and could you give me some information regarding this problem.
I also have to obtain a NIE number, can I apply for this at the Spanish embassy in London?
A. Acting for both a buyer and a seller is possible, under Spanish law, if the Spanish solicitor acts as a mediator. This would require that the lawyer provides both parties identical information, not giving any party any particular piece of advice which does not have corresponding advice for the other party.
Having said this, what I perhaps find slightly more inconvenient is that the Spanish solicitor is based in the UK, as this would no doubt increase the overall cost as it would require another lawyer to intervene.
Any Spanish solicitor (preferably fluent in English) in Spain will be able to attend you requirements and assist you in the process of conveyance.
With regards to the NIE number (Numero de Identificacion de Extranjeros), I am not aware of the Spanish Consulate being able to provide you one, but what you will be able to obtain is a legalised copy of your passport, which in addition to a power of attorney will be used to apply and receive a POA in the closest Police Station. In our experience the Spanish Consulate is rather slow and inefficient, and consequently we regularly use UK Notary Publics, which are quick and inexpensive (except for a few in London!), in order to process the paperwork.
Our firm deals with property all around Spain, at no added cost (as we regularly travel). If you wish we can assist you in the process and provide you our property conveyance legal service, a description of which I have taken the liberty to attach.


Adams heavy duty 85mm giant suction cups are very versatile with their mushroom head and 2 side pilot holes. The dual side pilot holes can be used for multiple twine, cable, cord or hook hangers.
These suction cups have a multitude of hanging applications and with a space-saving "double-duty" configuration that is well-suited to window displays and point of sale installations.
Adams giant suction cup fixes very securely to any clean dry, slick, shiny, smooth, non textured, non-porous surfaces like glass, mirrors, plastic, glazed ceramic tiles, car body work etc. and has a weight loading of 5.5kgs (12lbs).
The Adams suction cup has a patented quick release tab on it's edge for quick re-positioning or removal which eliminates damage to the cup edge by finger nail picking.
See technical drawing image for more details.


text:
    var
        gameport        = process.env.PORT || 4004,

        io              = require('socket.io'),
        express         = require('express'),
        UUID            = require('node-uuid'),

        verbose         = false,
        http            = require('http'),
        app             = express(),
        server          = http.createServer(app);

/* Express server set up. */

//The express server handles passing our content to the browser,
//As well as routing users where they need to go. This example is bare bones
//and will serve any file the user requests from the root of your web server (where you launch the script from)
//so keep this in mind - this is not a production script but a development teaching tool.

        //Tell the server to listen for incoming connections
    server.listen(gameport)

        //Log something so we know that it succeeded.
    console.log('\t :: Express :: Listening on port ' + gameport );

        //By default, we forward the / path to index.html automatically.
    app.get( '/', function( req, res ){
        console.log('trying to load %s', __dirname + '/index.html');
        res.sendfile( '/index.html' , { root:__dirname });
    });

        //This handler will listen for requests on /*, any file from the root of our server.
        //See expressjs documentation for more info on routing.

    app.get( '/*' , function( req, res, next ) {

            //This is the current file they have requested
        var file = req.params[0];

            //For debugging, we can track what files are requested.
        if(verbose) console.log('\t :: Express :: file requested : ' + file);

            //Send the requesting client the file.
        res.sendfile( __dirname + '/' + file );

    }); //app.get *

/* Socket.IO server set up. */

//Express and socket.io can work together to serve the socket.io client files for you.
//This way, when the client requests '/socket.io/' files, socket.io determines what the client needs.

        //Create a socket.io instance using our express server
    var sio = io.listen(server);

        //Configure the socket.io connection settings.
        //See http://socket.io/
    sio.configure(function (){

        sio.set('log level', 0);

        sio.set('authorization', function (handshakeData, callback) {
          callback(null, true); // error first callback style
        });

    });

        //Enter the game server code. The game server handles
        //client connections looking for a game, creating games,
        //leaving games, joining games and ending games when they leave.
    game_server = require('./game.server.js');

    //neww
    i=0;
    //end new

        //Socket.io will call this function when a client connects,
        //So we can send that client looking for a game to play,
        //as well as give that client a unique ID to use so we can
        //maintain the list if players.
    sio.sockets.on('connection', function (client) {

    //neww
    i++;
    //end new

            //Generate a new UUID, looks something like
            //5b2ca132-64bd-4513-99da-90e838ca47d1
            //and store this on their socket/connection
        client.userid = i; //UUID();

            //tell the player they connected, giving them their id
        client.emit('onconnected', { id: client.userid } );

            //Useful to know when someone connects
        console.log('\t socket.io:: player ' + client.userid + ' connected');

            //now we can find them a game to play with someone.
            //if no game exists with someone waiting, they create one and wait.
    //new    game_server.findGame(client);

            //Now we want to handle some of the messages that clients will send.
            //They send messages here, and we send them to the game_server to handle.
        client.on('message', function(m) {

            game_server.onMessage(client, m);

        }); //client.on message

            //When this client disconnects, we want to tell the game server
            //about that as well, so it can remove them from the game they are
            //in, and make sure the other player knows that they left and so on.
        client.on('disconnect', function () {

                //Useful to know when soomeone disconnects
            console.log('\t socket.io:: client disconnected ' + client.userid + ' ' + client.game_id);

                //If the client was in a game, set by game_server.findGame,
                //we can tell the game server to update that game state.
            if( client.gameid) {

                //player leaving a game should destroy that game
                game_server.endGame(client.gameid, client.userid);

            } //client.game_id

        }); //client.on disconnect

    }); //sio.sockets.on connection

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
The Artful Craft of Public Speaking
Can anyone learn the skill of effective public speaking? Yes. But leadership cannot be learned in a day. It takes practice.
By Margaret Lindsay Holton
I recently attended James Burchill's Business-in-Burlington's much hyped March 21st event at the Burlington Performing Arts Centre. Over 500 small and mid-business types milled about, chatting up old and new contacts.
Truth be told though, regardless of the very pleasant surroundings, free hors d'oeuvres and engaging exhibitor displays, it was hard work if one was coming in cold.
I noticed a few shy wall-flowers clinging to the perimeters not quite sure when or where to 'dive in'. Those familiar with other BiB events had a decided advantage, and most of those merrily schmoozed with other familiar faces. All in all, the place was rocking.
Even so, one moment stood out. The entire event came to a stand still when Burlington's Mayor, Rick Goldring, took to the podium. He spoke for a few minutes to welcome the guests and congratulate them on their assorted start-ups and on-going ventures. When he stepped down, there was a decided lull in the conversation as his 'tone' set in,' and then, participants intensified their busy chatter.
Burlington's Mayor, Rick Goldring (Image Credit: City of Burlington)
What struck me most about the Mayor's short presentation was his 'delivery'. He spoke confidently, combining a deft interweaving of chummy casualness with polite formality respectful of his civic station. His voice was clear, warm and, to all listening, encouraging. He spoke very well. It was a crystalline rosy moment that made all listeners feel a part of one big happy family. And, as such, he did a very good job of it, as our civic Leader.
I started to wonder what specific attribute made this happen. Looks? Can't hurt. Personal attire? Made an impression for sure. Nice tie? Sure. A title? It definitely helps, especially when infused with passion and vision. So, Passion and Vision? Yes, both. But personal passion or an invigorating vision won't get a Leader anywhere without one underlying capability.
Earlier, I had seen the Mayor stand alone in the wings quietly glancing at some notes. He was preparing before he spoke, and on cue, he delivered. His brief speech was, in sum, an insightful lesson about the ongoing art and craft of public speaking.
Paletta Mansion (Image Credit: Mansions Toastmasters of Burlington)
Art and Craft of Public Speaking
Can anyone learn this skill? Yes. But leadership cannot be learned in a day. It takes practice.
In Burlington, one of our best unsung resources for honing this necessary leadership skill is Mansion Toastmasters.
This eclectic group is a local club of Toastmasters International, founded in Santa Ana, California in 1924 by Dr. Ralph C. Smedley. It was Dr. Smedley who conceived and developed a simple framework to help others speak more effectively.
Mansion Toastmasters of Burlington's mission is "to provide a mutually supportive and positive learning environment, in which every member has the opportunity to develop communication and leadership skills, which, in turn, foster self-confidence and personal growth."
From their website, "A company's success depends on communication. How well they communicate can determine whether a company quickly grows into an industry leader or joins thousands of other businesses mired in mediocrity." True enough.
So, what actually happens at one of these meetings? "A typical toastmaster evening provides a variety of presentation and speaking challenges. These are varied in length and complexity and are assigned in direct relation to the Toastmasters' expertise. Toastmasters learn by a) seeing good work presented and evaluated, and b) imitating successful techniques. Toastmasters meetings are spiced with laughter, creativity and camaraderie. We have fun!"
Toastmasters have fun on Hallowe'en! (Image Credit: Mansions Toastmasters of Burlington)
Mansion Toastmasters
I went to my first Toastmasters meeting on Wednesday night and had a blast. It really was fun, as well as emotionally engaging and intellectually challenging. I watched and listened as everyone struggled with various levels of fear, shyness and "nerves" to be both 'present' and 'public'.
It was an inspiring introduction to the artful craft of being a 'public persona'. Everyone, myself included, had to 'stand and deliver'. The pace was very fast, with a short five-minute break halfway through the proceedings.
Some spoke better than others, but at the end of the day, it wasn't so much a 'competition' as an opportunity for everyone to better their presentation skills.
At all times, members and newcomers were encouraged with ongoing positive reinforcement through hand-clapping by the entire group. Sounds silly, but it works.
A Timekeeper made sure everyone stayed on track. Sort of. At times it did appear a bit chaotic and seemed to fall into an impromptu 'free-for-all'. But the mentors, or more seasoned members of the group, were quick to re-focus the ebullient chatter.
Evaluators judged the Speakers, and they, in turn, were judged by the General Evaluator. Time just flew past.
Also from their website: "Using the speaking and leadership skills developed at Toastmasters, people become more active in business, churches, service and charity organizations. Toastmaster members are able to organize activities, conduct meetings, and speak in public as their organization's representative. Some even become active in local, state or national government."
Most would agree that Burlington's Mayor, Rick Goldring, has become a much better public speaker after a few short years of practice. Know this: you can do it too.
Toastmasters meet every Wednesday night at Paletta Mansion (Image Credit: Margaret Lindsay Holton)
Every Wednesday night throughout the year, from 7:30 to 9:30 pm, guests can join this small engaging group of 20 to 30 people (over the age of 18) when they get together at the Paletta Mansion on Lakeshore Road in the Cumis Room.
Learn to refine your listening and speaking skills. Guests can attend for three 'free' visits. After that, membership, at $250 US per year, is required. Based on what I experienced in those two very short hours, the price is well worth the price of admission.
Paletta Lakefront Park, 4250 Lakeshore Road East, Burlington
A mid-career Golden Horseshoe artist and author, Lindsay is available for commissions and assignments via 'mlhpro' at 'hotmail' dot 'com'. See samples at http://canadadaPHOTOGRAPHY.blogspot.com.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Call of Duty: Black Ops III game required to use this content, sold separately.
Call of Duty: Black Ops III Zombies Chronicles is rated 4.3 out of 5 by 25.
Call of Duty®: Black Ops III Zombies Chronicles includes eight fully-remastered Zombies maps, allowing fans to experience the beginning of the classic Zombies storyline with stunning HD visuals, enhanced lighting, revamped character models and environments, and GobbleGum functionality for the very first time! Chew on 10 all-new GobbleGums, including 2 new Whimsical GobbleGums to mow your way through the endless zombie hordes.
Nacht Der Untoten - Where it all began: an abandoned airfield suspended in space and plagued by infinite hordes of the undead.
Verruckt - Welcome to Wittenau Sanitorium, a German asylum with dark corridors, terrifying undead enemies, and even darker secrets.
Shi No Numa - A "swamp of death" located in Japanese territory, surrounded by a sweltering jungle, hellhounds, and endless armies of the undead.
Kino Der Toten - An abandoned cinema packed with swarms of Crawler Zombies and fiery traps.
Ascension - An abandoned Soviet Cosmodrome where unholy creations lurk in the shadows, and dark undead experiments run loose.
Shangri-la - A legendary shrine lost in an exotic jungle where the undead emerge from within a treacherous labyrinth of underground caverns, deadly traps, and dark secrets.
Origins - An excavation site left behind after the Germans unearthed the mysterious new "Element 115," and unleashed the greatest evil the world has ever seen.
Call of Duty®: Black Ops III Zombies Chronicles buyers will also receive 2 all-new Whimsical GobbleGums, and an exclusive Zombies Pack-A-Punch Weapon Camo with purchase.


text:
Business Fast
Home Media Supernormal brings AI-powered asynchronous video messaging to remote teams
Supernormal brings AI-powered asynchronous video messaging to remote teams
Zoom became one of this year's big success stories for real-time video communications, as the rapid shift to remote work forced businesses to rethink their operations. Now a new startup is setting out to become the go-to platform for asynchronous video communications.
There is no shortage of non-real-time communication tools that allow globally distributed teams to check in with each other — email and Slack, for starters. But Supernormal is meshing video messaging with some nifty AI smarts to bring more engagement and utility to "async" interactions, where nuance and meaning isn't lost amid a barrage of emojis. At a time when companies are increasingly committing to a distributed workforce spread across multiple time zones, Supernormal could carve itself a niche in a space awash with real-time video and voice tools.
"Supernormal is focused on helping teams communicate async and enabling key personas — engineers, designers, managers — to have creative time and choose when they want to consume or create team communication," cofounder and CEO Colin Treseler told VentureBeat.
To aid its mission, the company today announced it has raised $2 million in a seed round of funding led by EQT Ventures, with support from several angel investors.
Supernormal (in the new normal)
Available via the web or through a desktop Mac app, Supernormal allows users to record company (or personal) announcements, presentations, greetings, or just about anything else. A separate function lets users record their screen in order to give presentations or product walkthroughs, with a little video avatar of the speaker embedded inside the screencast.
The app uses natural language processing (NLP) to instantly transcribe content and provide it as text beside the video while also extracting what it thinks are the three most interesting sentences from a transcript to suggest as caption summaries.
READ Facebook Acquires Messaging Automation Platform Kustomer to Streamline Customer Service Queries
According to Treseler, the company develops its AI system "mostly" in-house. "We've built our own machine learning for detecting the most interesting sentences and have trained it on a massive corpus," Treseler said.
Above: Supernormal: Screen recording with video message overlay
For businesses that sign up using their Slack or Google account credentials, Supernormal also automatically tags specific users in a company if their name is mentioned in the video, alerting the individual via Slack or Gmail. Presenters are notified whenever their team or intended audience has viewed the video, enabling them to follow up with any relevant communications.
Above: Supernormal: Text extraction and automatic alerts
Videos can also be embedded into digital properties such as websites, and dedicated links can be manually shared through any app. If they're shared on Twitter, Slack, Facebook, or Microsoft Teams, they can be viewed inline directly on those platforms. Anywhere else, the user will have to click to view the video on the Supernormal platform itself.
The state of play
There are other notable players in the space. San Francisco-based Loom is perhaps the most obvious example, having raised nearly $75 million in funding — including a $29 million tranche in the midst of the pandemic — from notable investors that include Sequoia Capital, Coatue, Kleiner Perkins, and Instagram's founders. Founded in 2016, Loom has a bit of a head start and an impressive roster of clients, including Atlassian, Intercom, and HubSpot. It also offers additional smarts, such as a drawing tool, allowing presenters to illustrate or highlight specific items on their screen.
READ Twitter profit soars as user base shrinks
Prezi is doing some interesting things in the video presentation realm, though it's aimed at a different market. Elsewhere, Slack is gearing up to launch a new Stories feature, which are essentially video-based status updates along the lines of Snapchat and Instagram's consumer versions. Don't be surprised if Microsoft follows suit with something similar for Teams.
Although it's still early days for Supernormal, the startup's use of AI to generate transcriptions, summaries, and smart alerts makes it worth keeping tabs on.
There are also potential use cases far beyond the enterprise, as Loom has demonstrated. For example, teachers struggling to get their entire class online for a live demo could simply record a short video-based presentation and send it by email for the students to view on their own time.
"Right now, we are seeing a lot of use by 'prosumers,' and we are open to education/nonprofits," Treseler said. "Our core focus, however, will be on teams at the enterprise level."
As is increasingly the case with companies these days, Supernormal can't be pinned to one location, with a workforce spanning the Americas and Europe. Treseler is currently based in Stockholm, Sweden, though he has served in various technical roles on both sides of the Atlantic over the past decade, including a two-year stint as a Facebook product manager in Menlo Park, California.
Treseler and his team started work on Supernormal in January, fortuitous timing given how global events would unfold in the months that followed. "When we started to create our solution, we didn't expect every business to be relying on virtual communication this heavily," Treseler said.
READ Spotify wins Sales Team of the Year at Media Week Awards finale
Supernormal was initially trying to be more of a catch-all video communication tool, but the company ultimately decided to go all-in on recorded video.
"We had live video in the initial product but felt that it wasn't additive to the team experience and was not helping our core focus — shifting teams to becoming more asynchronous," Treseler said.
Since its official launch in August, Supernormal claims it has been picked up by more than 400 teams, with workers at companies like Spotify and GitHub, and has seen "heavy engagement" across the spectrum, from SMBs to Fortune 500 companies.
The company is now working on native apps for Windows desktop and smartphones, along with one-click editing tools that enable users to remove pauses or specific words or sentences from transcripts. Treseler said the team is also exploring additional data reporting and analytics tools for customer-facing roles, such as sales and customer support.
In terms of pricing, it is entirely free for now, as the product is developed and iterated. But Supernormal will eventually adopt a SaaS model, with pricing to be determined. "We'll eventually get to pricing that is considerably cheaper than the competitors in the space," Treseler said.
With an extra $2 million in the bank, Treseler said the company will now double down on product development and expand its "fully remote team" around the world.
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Nasdaq hits record high at the open as Biden takes office;...


text:
.. tutorial

Tutorials
=========

Subset Processes of Flyingpigeon
--------------------------------

Subset process as ipython notebook:

https://github.com/bird-house/notebooks/blob/master/flyingpigeon_birdy_subset.ipynb

The WPS flyingpigeon provides several processes to perform spatial
subsetts of netCDF files. This are:

-  **bounding box:** reduces the input netCDF files to a given latitude
   longitude bounding box.

-  **country or continent subset:** to reduce netCDF files to only the
   intersection of selected polygons. Countries and Continents are
   predifined.

-  **WFS subset:** reduce netCDF files to only the intersection of given
   polygons available on a given WFS server.

.. code:: ipython3

    # import the WPS client and connet to the server
    from birdy import WPSClient
    import birdy

    fp_server = 'http://localhost:8093/wps'   # finch

    # simple connection (not recommended for larger processing)
    fp = WPSClient(fp_server)

    # asyncron connection with progess status requests
    fp_i = WPSClient(url=fp_server, progress=True)

Explore the available processes:

.. code:: ipython3

    # fp? for general exploration on processes provided by flyingpigeon
    fp?

    # of check out a process in detail:
    help(fp.subset_continents) # or type: fp.subset_countries?

.. parsed-literal::

    Help on method subset_continents in module birdy.client.base:

    subset_continents(resource=None, region='Africa', mosaic=False) method of birdy.client.base.WPSClient instance
        Return the data whose grid cells intersect the selected continents for each input dataset.

        Parameters
        ----------
        region : {'Africa', 'Asia', 'Australia', 'North America', 'Oceania', 'South America', 'Antarctica', 'Europe'}string
            Continent name.
        mosaic : boolean
            If True, selected regions will be merged into a single geometry.
        resource : ComplexData:mimetype:`application/x-netcdf`, :mimetype:`application/x-tar`, :mimetype:`application/zip`
            NetCDF Files or archive (tar/zip) containing netCDF files.

        Returns
        -------
        output : ComplexData:mimetype:`application/x-netcdf`
            NetCDF output for first resource file.
        metalink : ComplexData:mimetype:`application/metalink+xml; version=4.0`
            Metalink file with links to all NetCDF outputs.

.. code:: ipython3

    # point out some input files:

    url1 = 'https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/thredds/fileServer/Datasets/ncep.reanalysis.dailyavgs/surface/slp.2000.nc'
    url2 = 'https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/thredds/fileServer/Datasets/ncep.reanalysis.dailyavgs/surface/slp.2001.nc'
    url3 = 'https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/thredds/fileServer/Datasets/ncep.reanalysis.dailyavgs/surface/slp.2002.nc'
    url4 = 'https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/thredds/fileServer/Datasets/ncep.reanalysis.dailyavgs/surface/slp.2003.nc'

Call a continent subset process
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

All netCDF input files will be subsetted seperatly and depending on
mosic=True or Fales the selected polygons are given as seperated files
or one output file per input file including one intersection of all
selected polygons.

**subset_countries** is working in the same principe

.. code:: ipython3

    # run the process
    out = fp_i.subset_continents(resource=[url1, url2, url3, url4], region=['Europe', 'Africa'], mosaic=True)

    # You need to wait until the processing is done!

.. parsed-literal::

    HBox(children=(IntProgress(value=0, bar_style='info', description='Processing:'), Button(button_style='danger'…

There are two outputs: \* a netCDF file to have a quick test to check if
the process went according to the users needs \* a metalink file with
the list of all output files

.. code:: ipython3

    # check the output files:
    out.get()

.. parsed-literal::

    subset_continentsResponse(
        output='http://127.0.0.1:8093/outputs/f232a4ba-67a0-11ea-a160-9cb6d08a53e7/slp.2000_EuropeAfrica.nc',
        metalink='http://127.0.0.1:8093/outputs/f232a4ba-67a0-11ea-a160-9cb6d08a53e7/input.meta4'
    )

.. code:: ipython3

    # plot the test file with the flyingpigeon plot function
    out = fp_i.plot_map_timemean(resource=out.get()[0])

.. parsed-literal::

    HBox(children=(IntProgress(value=0, bar_style='info', description='Processing:'), Button(button_style='danger'…

.. code:: ipython3

    # the plot process returnes one graphic file
    out.get()

.. parsed-literal::

    plot_map_timemeanResponse(
        plotout_map='http://127.0.0.1:8093/outputs/bdbf0876-67a1-11ea-9e91-9cb6d08a53e7/tmp_5ahujnj.png'
    )

.. code:: ipython3

    from IPython.display import Image
    from IPython.core.display import HTML
    Image(url= out.get()[0], width=400)

.. raw:: html

    <img src="http://127.0.0.1:8093/outputs/bdbf0876-67a1-11ea-9e91-9cb6d08a53e7/tmp_5ahujnj.png" width="400"/>