Many of us may find that we spend much of our time in social situations. We do so in order to work together with colleagues, and to spend our leisure time together with friends and family as well. This can be a great pleasure, but it can also sometimes leave us feeling fatigued and drained. In order to reconnect with ourselves, we need to get away from it all so that we can gain some perspective and push the reset button on our own lives.
With that in mind, here are 5 hidden tropical islands with only one resort you must experience. Each one really is the only resort based on the island, and as such is private, secluded, and quiet – the perfect place to give you the time and space you need. Some of the islands take some time to get to, but this only adds to the experience of seclusion when you arrive. It's also well worth the effort when you get to spend your days scuba diving, snorkeling, lying in the sun, or simply reading a book next to the sparkling sea.
Misool Eco Resort is the place to come if you love diving and are passionate about conservation at the same time, as the resort operates as both a diving center and a center for conservation. Raja Ampat is known in Indonesian for its amazing marine biodiversity, and if you stay at Misool Eco Resort then you will get to witness this firsthand as you will be in the middle of an area of protected Marine Park that spans 1,220 square kilometers (471 square miles). The resort sits beneath the equator and you will get to enjoy wide sandy beaches as well as gorgeous and thriving coral reefs. There is a capacity of 40 guests, so there will be no large party crowds when you come here, just lots of opportunities to dive with amazing marine life and enjoy the beach on your doorstep. You can choose from one of the eight Water Cottages that sit on stilts and mean that you get great views of Raja Ampat both day and night, and are also located close to the North Lagoon and house reef. If you want even more space however, then you can choose a North Lagoon Villa or South Beach Villa, where you will get to enjoy your own private villa built in the Balinese style that is the perfect place to come back to after a hard day diving, swimming, or snorkeling.
Location: Batbitim Island is located south of Misool Island and is within the Raja Ampat Marine Protected Area in West Papua province, Indonesia.
Best time to be there: October to April.
Close to the islands of Sipadan and Mabul lies Sipadan-Kapalai Dive Resort. The resort is built to mimic the style of the traditional Malay 'kampung air' or 'water villages', and with that in mind all the buildings here are on stilts and stand just slightly away from the spectacular Ligitan Reefs. From the resort, guests can look out from their own deck and notice that there is no land in any direction, just the vast expanse of the sea in front of you. The waterfront is also known for a sandbank that stretches for a mile in length and you can enjoy the azure waters and pristine sands here as well as the unspoiled views. Some of the dive spots are within swimming distance or a short boat ride away and you can expect to find a plethora of marine life including turtles and large fish. If you prefer, there are also an array of muck diving opportunities if you want to see even more marine flora and fauna up close.
Location: Kapalai Island is located in the Celebes Sea near to the better known Sipadan Island, and is part of the Ligitan Reef, Malaysia.
Best time to be there: March to October.
Lankayan Island Dive Resort is only an hour and a half boat ride away from Sandakan, but you will feel as if you are in another world when you reach this tropical paradise. The resort is part of a wider marine protected area and much of the island that it sits on has been completely untouched. As such, if you want to stay in an area that is made up of tropical forests and untamed lands, then this is the place for you. There are only 23 wooden rooms at the Lankayan Island Dive Resort, which lends itself to an intimate and private stay, and all chalets look out over beautiful beachfront. You can enjoy turquoise waters and white sands here, and the marine life is beyond compare, and you may even get to see some huge, yet harmless whale sharks swim by as you dive among stunning wrecks and colorful coral.
Location: Lankayan Island is located in the Sulu Sea within the Sugud Islands Marine Conservation Area, Sandakan, Malaysia.
For something truly special, consider heading to the Raja4Divers resort which was opened in 2011 and is built to mimic the local Papuan style architecture. The resort is located on a beach lined with palm trees and there are only 10 bungalows with a maximum of 18 guests, so you will be able to take in the tranquility undisturbed. Each wooden bungalow is built over the water and has its own deck facing West, which means that you get a front row seat to the most spectacular sunsets every night. During the day time, you can of course go diving in small groups of maximum 4 divers per guide, but there are also opportunities for snorkeling, climbing, kayaking, swimming, trekking, or simply relaxing and catching some sun as you read a good book.
Location: Pef Island is located South-west of Waigeo Island, Raja Ampat, in West Papua province, Indonesia.
Best time to be there: All year round.
The Wai Eco Resort is nestled along a stunning white sand beach and is located next to gorgeous coral reefs and mesmerizing sunsets. The resort sits on the dinky private island of Pulau Wai which is itself a coral atoll and you will be completely surrounded here on all sides by the gorgeous white sands. There are only six cottages in total, so know that you will be able to relax in an intimate and quiet setting without large tour groups. The cottages are designed to reflect the traditional Papuan style as well as make use of materials found in the local surroundings such as shells and wood. All have their own private beach and features such as canopy beds and hammocks. Cottages are 75 square meters in size, and all of them have terraces which are perfect if you want to take in the stunning ocean views that abound here.
Location: Wai Island, Raja Ampat, Indonesia.


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#Middle East#hospitals#hospital operations#Hospitals#Hospital Operations#Middle East
Arabian Gulf University (AGU) invites construction companies to support a developing Medical City
Located in Bahrain, Arabian Gulf University (AGU) has called for construction companies to place bids for the construction of the planned King Abdullah ...
|Sep 25| 9 min read
Located in Bahrain, Arabian Gulf University (AGU) has called for construction companies to place bids for the construction of the planned King Abdullah Medical City.
With a growing ageing population in the region, increased demands are set to be placed on the present healthcare system. To counteract the rise of private hospitals, the US$267mn project will aim to cater to the needs of its citizens and will cater to ongoing demands for high quality care across the Middle East.
Set to be funded by a grant provided by late King of Saudi Arabia, Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the successful bidder will construct the project which is set to span one million square metres in Durrat Al Bahrain, an area of land donated by His Majesty King Hamad.
"The first stage of the construction of the medical city will include the hospital, the administration building, the staff accommodation and the parking," stated Dr Khaled Al Ohali, President of the Arabian Gulf University.
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"The King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Medical City will be a medical destination for the people of the Kingdom of Bahrain and the other GCC countries and will be an education lighthouse and an advanced medical centre to provide diagnostic and therapeutic services to citizens of the GCC countries."
Set to take two years to complete, the project will be undertaken in two phases. The mixed-use development will see the construction of a hospital, accommodating 264-beds, bolstered by staff who will live in staff housing, which has been factored into the build. Once complete, the city will house over 500 beds with exceptional, high-tech amenities on offer.
Secondly, new academic and medical facilities, pharmaceutical and 15 operating rooms have been planned in the further phase to support the growing need for research and development, as well as demands for complex surgical capabilities which have grown in demand.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


March 21: What do we show our cameras? Is it real?
An exhibition launch takes place in Italy tonight at 7 pm; Petros Efstathiadis opens his show Gold Rush at Foto-Forum, Weggensteinstraße 3F, Bozen.
Efstathiadis is a scenographer as much as he is a photographer. He had wanted to be the latter from the age of fifteen when he bought a second-hand camera, but it wasn't until in 2008 he escaped what he regarded as the shallow capitalism of Greece to study the medium in England at the University for the Creative Arts in Farnham, Surrey, that he found "pure joy" in photography.
Only at first glimpse does this look real, and yet it might prompt you to move away and call the police, just in case. A harmless enough construction (unless you were to throw it on the fire), it is an imitation of a bomb fantasising about growing up to be an explosive device. Cobbled from taped-together aerosols, with a sponge for shrapnel, and a 3½" floppy disc and a defunct digital watch to trigger it, it is set against a blackened surface that looks as if it has already endured some severe blasts.
The project was his response to the 2012 protests in Greece against the government austerity measures, when people were angry enough to arm themselves with molotov cocktails, and his idea developed amidst a growing public panic about terrorism and fear of the Middle East.
Like all of his works it is photographed with dead-pan simplicity in monotone light.
Petros Efstathiadis (2016) Preacher's house, from his series Gold Rush.
Old movies, like Chaplin's 1925 silent Gold Rush, inspired his early yearnings to be a photographer (who now also makes films), and perhaps that particular movie title has been borrowed ironically for this show. Both use low-tech makeshift constructions in which the role of photography is to hold them together long enough to be seen, like Chaplin's Klondike cabin perched on a cliff in a snowstorm.
…is a small village in northern Greece, not the kind of place you'd put on a postcard to attract tourists. The mentality of a village – a very small society – can be exciting when you are very young but after that nothing changes, so the excitement deflates rather quickly, as nothing new happens. People's lives are repetitive year after year, doing the same small things day after day like a clock. An almost absurd discipline: small things are important and fulfilling. My relationship to the village has not changed apart from the fact that not living there any more makes me more objective and more grateful for the surreal uniqueness of this place.
He tells the tale of a man who came to everyone's door waving a contract that would solve everyone's economic woes. The village, its peach trees, the bucolic existence he remembers from childhood, were to become a construction site for a gas pipeline all the way to Azerbaijan. He watched as his own father signed away his house and land in his own backyard.
His fears can be read in this image; on one side, sky-blue cutouts of the kind one finds on junk mail – "SALE", "REDUCED", 50% OFF, "BUY NOW" – on the other, cages empty but for feathers that become the quills used to sign the contract below, and in between are symbols in the universal language of warning…the bird has already 'flown the coop! Everything is off-kilter and the slightest breath will blow all away to reveal the ring-barked peach trees.
Petros Efstathiadis (2016) Feathers and Contracts, from Gold Rush.
I'm trying to recreate the feeling of a colony and the process of a small village becoming a boom town, the desire of making money fast and the big issues that upset the village's normality. In the short-term there'll be economic growth, but in the long run there will be a disaster zone…or maybe I'm just imagining some fantasies.
Margaret Bourke-White (1929) Boston bank vault.
Walker Evans' work from the time of the Great Depression now looks strikingly contemporary. I've been to places suffering serious economic depression and I was not there as a tourist. I can feel what's there in Walker Evans' pictures, there are many corners and walls in Greece and elsewhere in Europe that remind me of those miserable shelters he once photographed.
Petros Efstathiadis (2016) Town Council, from Gold Rush.
My very first mises-en-scène, the portraits..arose from my obsession with the stereotype of the photographer at the beginning of the age of photography. I found one image of my grandmother taken 80 years ago which was made in front of a dirty backdrop by a travelling photographer. Almost a century later it felt familiar and related to my ideas. I know that my backyard portraits are very much influenced by the simplicity, honesty and originality of that portrait. It was as if it had the power to create a continuous line through history.
Like his sets and sculptural assemblages, Efstathiadis' photographs let you see their seams, and by inference and in microcosm, they let us see that our social and economic 'realities' are mere constructs too.
Petros Efstathiadis is a Greek bearing gifts.


Opening a brick and mortar store for your furniture business and launching an e-commerce website is actually almost the same. The only difference is that nowadays customers tend to visit the e-commerce site first before they actually come and visit physical shops. If you built a website to advertise school chairs for sale, do not expect that customers will come automatically. It is the same when opening a physical store; customers won't come in just because you are open.
This is why it is important to have digital marketing. What is it, you ask?It is the answer to the problem of every business looking to improve awareness with their brand and to target the customers that will be interested to buy what they are offering.
The most essential step is to identify the shoppers and to create the perfect message that will lead them to your business. In short, you will make a path to help consumers located your brand, help them narrow the options they have and eventually to help them decide which product to purchase. Remember that there are three levels of target shoppers – the home enthusiasts who are browsing and might not buy soon, the active shoppers that have already decided to buy one but still choosing from a number of options and the ready to buy shopper who knows what they want exactly.If you know which level each shopper is, you will be able to customize and convey the appropriate digital marketing message.
If you have the money to pay for advertisements, it will be a big advantage. Even if your website does not appear on the first page of the search engine result, paying for brand advertisement will put your company at the top of the list. This is what happens when you use search engines such as Google Chrome. The user types a certain keyword and if your company signed up for that specific keyword then your brand will appear on the very top portion.
There are a number of mediums that can be used to target consumers. In order to let them know about your brand which offer school chairs for sale, you can also make use of one of the most popular platforms nowadays and that is social media. You will be able to reach more audience and interact with them. Communication is also faster with this method.


1. Master Program in Aquaculture: The 2-year master program in aquaculture has been offered at CAF since 1999. It includes 55 credits covering three blocks of knowledge. The program provide students with advanced and updated knowledge in aquaculture principles and practices worldwide; capability of doing independent research.
2. Master Program in Aquatic Resources Management: This 2-year program has been offered since 2000. It includes 54 credits covering advanced and updated courses on principles and practice of aquatic resources ecosystems, assessment and management.