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Bloffin Technologies > News > Blog > 8 strategic imperatives for SAP transformation success
8 strategic imperatives for SAP transformation success
Organizations undertaking business transformations centered on SAP would be wise to take an integrated approach to their sourcing strategy and partnerships. Here's how to get it right.
The rise of business transformation initiatives has IT leaders rethinking the way they evaluate, select, and negotiate technology and IT services deals today. Pivoting away from a serial approach to evaluation and selection, forward-thinking IT leaders are instead employing an integrated sourcing strategy tailored to facilitate business and IT transformations.
Several dynamics are fueling this trend. On the buy side, business executives are looking to transform their ERP, SCM, CRM, HR, and ecommerce platforms to address inadequacies exposed by the COVID pandemic, global supply chain issues, changes in workforce dynamics, and industry-specific opportunities and challenges. At the same time, CIOs are working to reshape the business of IT, driving their organizations to the cloud and to new delivery and operating models.
On the sell side, vendors have revamped their go-to-market strategies, service offerings, and partnerships. SAP, for example, has launched its RISE offering, including reimagined partnerships with AWS, Google, and Microsoft as well as its consulting partners such as Accenture and IBM to bring a vertically integrated solution to market. Meanwhile, AWS, GCP, and Microsoft are partnering with consultants to present holistic cloud migration and application modernization strategies beyond SAP.
Organizations undertaking business transformations involving SAP in particular are faced with a range of intertwined issues around vendor engagement, evaluation, selection, and negotiation, the interdependencies of which must be understood in order to drive sound decision-making and beneficial outcomes.
Following are eight strategic concerns and imperatives for establishing and executing an SAP transformation primed for success.
1. Choosing SAP S/4HANA RISE vs. perpetual license model
As organizations map their journey from SAP ECC to S/4HANA, they must determine whether SAP RISE or an SAP S/4HANA perpetual license model is the best fit. Key to this decision is understanding the implications of moving from a capital-intensive purchase model to an operating expense model.
Organizations must also assess whether SAP RISE will deliver on their operational requirements. Many organizations may be reluctant to turn control over to SAP due to prior experiences with SAP HEC, or they may struggle to understand the true scope and services included as part of RISE. Organizations considering SAP RISE must also come to terms with putting a significant amount of their AWS, GCP, or Microsoft Azure spend behind their SAP relationship, versus maintaining a direct relationship with their hyperscaler of choice. Lastly, organizations must also carefully assess the SAP RISE cost and commercial model against the SAP S/4HANA perpetual license model and commercial terms.
2. Establishing an SAP partner strategy
In addition to selecting the SAP platform, organizations must also determine their consulting and implementation partner strategy. Here, several decisions are key, including whether to undertake a Phase 0 initiative to determine objectives and scope, as well as whether this phase should be awarded as a sole source event or as part of a competitive bid process.
Subsequent to Phase 0, organizations must determine early whether they will seek partners for the design, build, and deploy phases of the program. Organizations will be challenged with building a plan that drives the timeline necessary to achieve business objectives while employing a sourcing strategy that maximizes insights that can be obtained from the market via a competitive bid process. This is critical in today's market given current levels of attrition, inflation, and demand for high-end consulting resources. A final consideration is devising a strategy with respect to the evaluation, selection, and award of any non-SAP cloud migration and application modernization support.
3. Re-examining hyperscaler partnerships
Organizations must also re-evaluate their cloud strategy. In addition to determining their long-term infrastructure support strategy for SAP, organizations are also likely to be moving SAP workloads to the cloud, retiring certain applications, or determining which applications should remain on premises or in a hosted environment. This would entail an evaluation of AWS, GCP, and Microsoft, as well as the possible undertaking of a multicloud strategy, a preferred/challenger vendor model, and an approach to addressing the short- and long-term requirements of these relationships.
For example, many organizations that are in the process of making commitments to Microsoft Azure, or exceeding the commitments previously made, need to determine whether they're going to open up the entire Microsoft relationship to renegotiation. In addition, organizations need to evaluate the role of the hyperscaler in supporting the migration effort as well as the associated investments they are willing to make to support not only the SAP migration but the non-SAP migration. Millions of dollars are on the table to be captured or potentially wasted if orchestration of the hyperscaler evaluation, selection, and negotiation is not well coordinated with the corresponding workstreams.
4. Defining a future managed service strategy
Organizations must also determine not only their managed services strategy but also whether the vendors that are part of this strategy will participate in supporting their future-state SAP environment. Typically, this would include deciding whether the SAP systems implementation provider will provide application maintenance and support (AMS) for the future-state environment versus using an incumbent AMS provider to provide support for the existing environment and future-state environment.
Organizations will also need to understand what complementary infrastructure management services are required to support an SAP RISE environment or an SAP on-premises environment, as they certainly differ. It is essential that an organization's future managed service partner strategy be considered in concert with determining whether to commit to SAP RISE or a perpetual license.
5. Reassessing existing managed service relationships
In many cases, an organization's future managed service strategy will require revisiting relationships with existing managed service providers. Such a realignment could necessitate the removal or addition of service towers, removal or addition of workloads, modification of governance and operating models, or renegotiation of service levels, pricing, commercial terms, and conditions. As organizations look to the future, it's critical that they understand the impact the future strategy will have on existing relationships while maintaining operational continuity during the transformation.
6. Aligning vision and strategy
A key dependency to developing an integrated sourcing strategy is to have a foundational view of the vision and overall strategy of the business and IT transformation initiatives. Unfortunately, in many cases, one aspect of the transformation vision and strategy maybe more advanced than another. For example, organizations highly focused on a business transformation may have engaged a consulting provider to conduct a phase 0 that would enable an S/4HANA implementation. The natural focus of this initiative would include development of the scope in the business case associated with the implementation, but often this means the run side of the vision is given short shrift, placing the organization in catchup mode trying to close the space between the vision for the business transformation and the vision for the IT transformation during the sourcing process, which is certainly not ideal.
Organizations that establish a view of their business and IT transformation in a holistic fashion are best positioned to develop a sourcing strategy to support that vision. In addition, organizations that establish their governing principles and objectives are best positioned to empower their team with a framework for decision making.
7. Building an effective team
Execution of an integrated sourcing strategy is highly dependent on the development of an effective team to support the transformation. The team must comprise a highly capable, collaborative set of individuals representing executive leadership, lines of business, IT, procurement, finance, and legal. This may seem facile advice, but the reality is there are material organizational challenges associated with aligning capable individuals across these different domains.
For example, most procurement organizations are aligned by category of spend such as software and services and they do not have an individual capable of executing across all workstreams except at the highest levels of the organization. In addition, major disconnects can exist between line of business executives, a designated transformation executive, and their IT counterparts with respect to strategy and approach. Even within IT, disconnects between the application team and the infrastructure team can derail a process. These realities must be recognized at the outset of the program as leadership strives to develop a team with large-scale transformational experience that will have the complete support of executive leadership from day one.
Moreover, this team must be empowered to drive the project and the associated vendor evaluation selection and negotiation processes. Their level of credibility must be impervious to the top-down divide-and-conquer tactics and strategies that will be employed by consulting and technology providers and the scrutiny of executive leadership.
8. Establishing an integrated plan
Too often, there is a disconnect between the expectations of executive leadership, the project team, and the procurement team relative to the overarching timeline and approach to the program. It is essential that the sourcing strategy include a plan that integrates the vendor evaluation, selection, and negotiation process into the project plan. This plan must consider the key milestones and decision points for the entire program, including timing for business case finalization and presentation, timeframes for selection, and program commencement. This plan must also include a well-thought-out approach not only to the timing but the sequencing of the above workstreams in a manner that will enable good decision-making.
For example, presentation and analysis of SAP's RISE proposal and perpetual license proposal must be coordinated in a manner that coincides with the presentation and evaluation of the hyperscaler proposals and total cost of ownership comparisons. Another example is determining whether the implementation provider is going to have an opportunity to provide associate application means and support. If so, your organization should be leveraging the full opportunity associated with both bodies of work to maximize results. Without this plan, internal misalignment can occur and your organization will be subject to vendors presenting their capabilities and commercial proposals at a time and place of their choosing.
The bottom line is that many organizations are caught flat-footed by implementing a serial approach to selecting technology platforms, consulting and implementation providers, and managed service providers. The reality is the service offerings of technology providers and service providers alike address all three aspects of the technology lifecycle and they must be evaluated in a well-orchestrated and parallel path manner. Organizations that create and execute on an integrated sourcing strategy will be well positioned to make good decisions that set their program up for success, while maximizing their leverage to drive the best-in-class commercial agreements with all providers.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Every ending signals a new beginning. To make sure we build effectively on our experiences and avoid repeating our missteps, I asked Selling Power editors to compile this list of five important sales-management questions we addressed this year. Here are some of our most popular articles on topics that resonated with readers, including developing talent in your reps, adding value for customers, staying positive, and fostering loyal relationships.
Are You Selling Problems or Solutions?
Think about the news stories you heard or read today. Did you find information that you could use to improve your life? Did you read something that gave you a positive feeling?
When Should Sales Managers Step in to Close the Deal?
The hardest part of sales management may be knowing when to step in and when to take a back seat as your reps learn the ropes, particularly in front of the customer. As tough as it is, it's often critical for the development of individual reps – and your team as a whole – to let them pave their own way.
Are Your Sales Contacts Quality or Quantity?
With LinkedIn and Facebook making a public display of the numbers of "connections" or "friends" we have, it's tempting to equate numbers with success. But long-term sales success isn't about the quantity of your connections; it's about quality.
How Can Comparison Questions Help the Sale?
Sure, asking questions can lead to a sale. Asking the right questions, however, can win loyal business for years to come.
What pushes business forward and paves the way for bigger sales? More value. One classic way to find opportunities to create value is to take a product or service and add something to it.
This guest post was written by Duane Sparks, creator of Action Selling and chairman of The Sales Board. Duane also wrote a best-selling book entitled Action Selling.
A small-but-mighty company shows how to achieve quantum growth by installing the right selling system in the right way.
managers were surprised. A year ago, they thought they were being plenty ambitious when they set a growth goal of 20 percent.
What happened? First, SCS acquired a new owner and CEO, Chip Emery. Second, Emery introduced a new sales system: Action Selling. Third, SCS made sure that every employee, not just the salespeople, received training in the Action Selling system.
That unusual third step – the idea of spreading training throughout the company – was crucial to achieving the eye-popping 60 percent growth rate. It allowed SCS to weave the new system into the organization so thoroughly that everyone – managers, technicians, and salespeople – could speak the same language and pull in the same direction.
As SCS's chief operating officer, Dave Green, puts it, "Action Selling provided the system, the language, and the sales culture that we needed to execute our ambitious growth strategy. What are we doing better today? We use Action Selling to differentiate ourselves in a commodity marketplace. We have dramatically improved our ability to assess the customer's needs and fit our solutions to those needs. And we confidently ask for commitment. We didn't do that before we were trained in Action Selling."
SCS's feat – 60 percent growth in a down economy – was enabled by integrating Action Selling into the company's day-to-day life. Every week, SCS's four top executives conduct sales call planning sessions with their sales force. They use the language and process of Action Selling to drill down to specific, concrete situations that the salespeople face on the job. What gets practiced and managed gets done. "Our team functions differently today," says Emery. "I can't think of a single job that we didn't win since [using] Action Selling."
The fact that Action Selling is an effective system, one that can demonstrably improve sales performance, makes it a great tool. But the results you get from any tool depend on how you use it. "The difference between good and great lies in how thoroughly you absorb what the system gives you," Green says. "When salespeople start to believe in and live the Action Selling process, that's how you get the extra lift. Everything you need to accomplish this is built into the Action Selling training and coaching system."
But it's more than just salesperson buy-in. "Everyone in our company sees and understands the benefits of Action Selling," Green says. "Our technical staff has a better idea of what we can do to satisfy a customer's needs. Our salespeople sell with far more confidence. Management understands what's going on in the field. We're very close to the customer because of how well we communicate with our sales force on every deal."
Action Selling was the perfect choice for SCS, Green says. "We waded in, studied and practiced hard, saw immediate results, and then practiced harder. Now we're exceeding our ambitious sales goals. I recommend Action Selling to anyone who is serious about growing their business."
Killing Email in the Name of Sales Performance? It's Possible.
Is Email Dead, As Some Pundits Have Predicted?
This remarkable departure from email reflects a radical shift in the corporate culture and illustrates how social technology transforms workplace communication. Point-to-point email communication seems to get displaced by social information streams that everybody in the company can join to collaborate, comment, challenge, and vote on. I am reminded of the free flow of information in an ancient Greek forum, where every citizen contributed to the ongoing dialogue aimed at improving the state.
Today, autocratic leadership is taking a backseat to community ownership. Our Chatter and Jive culture allows employees to contribute to the corporate information streams in real time. These live conversations instantly reflect and shape what's taking place in a company. They empower every employee to feel he or she has a meaningful stake in the company. Everyone contributes to the welfare of customers and the company.
Technology motivates people to truly participate in the progression of their culture and company. It's also important to note that the boundaries of the workplace have shifted. Work is no longer a place we go to. Work is what happens in the Cloud. We need only a browser to connect to people around the globe 24/7.
The new workplace offers employees a huge opportunity to contribute their ideas and talents, and as a result, companies need to rethink their compensation strategies. Visionary sales leaders transform their operations, not to serve and support those who are reluctant to change, but to empower a future generation of technology-enabled high performers who are motivated to leap tall buildings. As sales leaders, we need to constantly align our processes, including our modes of communication, to reflect these shifting priorities.
When you provide the right motivation, you can influence how employees act and salespeople sell. As our adage at Xactly goes, "incent right, sell more."
Are your salespeople, processes, and technology aligned to inspire your sales force? What are you doing to cultivate a future-oriented corporate culture that attracts and retains top talent and promotes excellent performance?
It all starts with the sales process. When the sales process is weighed down by outmoded methodologies, leadership, and people, your sales reps are more vulnerable to failure.
If you haven't already started, now is a perfect time to shake off the dust and get in gear for 2012. Here are my four New Year's resolutions for sales managers -- each one is based on changes I've seen in sales management in the past year. Use them to get your team on the path to sales success today.
I will create content that attracts customers.
Many sales teams are struggling because they work for companies that are failing to respond to the new ways that customers are buying. I routinely talk to sales leaders who do not see the need to optimize their B2B websites to capture and follow up on inbound leads. They don't take advantage of marketing automation software. They have no online sales channel. They think social media is a waste of time and have little or no presence on Twitter. They'd rather have their reps out selling than blogging or connecting with new prospects on LinkedIn. Yet these are all steps that leading companies are taking to engage with an audience and turn prospects into loyal customers.
Keep this in mind: Good content stimulates curiosity, sparks online conversations, and encourages "likes" and online engagement. Seize the opportunity in 2012 to become the conversation leader and content leader in your field. In 2012, good content will pave the road to more closed sales.
I will create messaging that gets our customers to open their minds.
Right before a meeting, your reps should be able to pull up vital information about the prospect's company and industry in order to set the stage for a relevant dialogue. Access to the right information is the first step. Translating this information into messages that engage and persuade customers is the second step -- that's an area where many salespeople come up short.
Last month at the Sales Strategies in a Social & Mobile World Conference, I invited sales executives from sponsor companies to deliver a one-minute elevator pitch to the entire audience onstage. While we heard a number of creative and compelling messages, some of these pitches didn't have traction.
In 2012 you want to make sure that your salespeople are able to deliver a message that opens their customers' minds. You also want to make sure they will follow up with a clear value proposition. If they don't, their clients won't open their wallets.
I will create top performing sales reps.
A recent report on how successful companies are creating opportunities for new and better sales shows that leading organizations are opting for short and timely training programs that can be disseminated virtually and accessed at any time. If you create a winning sales culture – one that empowers reps to learn new skills through training, share collective knowledge, and tap internal resources that can help them sell more effectively – the top performers will come knocking.
I will hold everyone responsible for the sale companywide.
Another mental shift that many sales managers need to make is that sales is not an island. Because today's customer has often completed up to 80% of the buying cycle before even coming into contact with a sales rep, it's important that all departments be empowered to act as sales support.
If finance and legal work in silos it will be impossible to create an effective sales negotiation strategy. If sales and marketing are not aligned, it will be hard to optimize your company's sales potential.
Today, sales management success is about being social and mobile. You can't always control when and where customers find you, but you can control your social presence and your level of engagement. This is great news for sales managers who want to succeed in 2012. Sales success has always been an art, but it is now equally about science. As a sales manager, your job is not to get there before the competition or win the war on price. Your job is to equip your team to find and follow the right opportunities, engage with prospects early and with intelligence, and create an overall culture of success.
Geoffrey James is an award-winning journalist and author who writes a daily column on selling for Inc.com. He previously wrote Sales Machine, the world's most-visited sales-oriented blog, and has written hundreds of articles for such publications as Technology Marketing and Selling Power. He can be reached at GeoffreyJames.com.
I'm not a sales guru, and I don't do sales training. I'm a reporter who writes about sales techniques and technology. You've probably seen my feature article in SellingPower magazine, my erstwhile Sales Machine blog on CBS, or my daily column on Inc.com.
I've interviewed dozens of sales experts and trainers and discussed sales technique and sales management with hundreds of sales managers and professionals. The most important thing I've learned is that business-to-business (B2B) selling is fundamentally different from business-to-consumer (B2C) selling, and attempts to bundle the two into a single set of winning behaviors are doomed to failure.
The B2B buyer is vastly more sophisticated. Because the Internet makes comparative pricing information publicly available, it is not at all unusual for a buyer in a B2B transaction to know more about the product category and competition than the sales professionals who are trying to sell that type of product.
The stakes are much higher. B2B buyers and decision makers are being paid high salaries to understand what they're buying and how it will be used. They can lose career points and get fired if they make a wrong decision, something that never happens when a consumer purchases a lousy consumer product.
B2B selling requires more knowledge. When you're selling to businesses, it's not enough to understand a product and be able to present it coherently. B2B selling generally involves diagnosing a customer's challenges and then coming up with a customized solution that may very well involve a long-term business partnership.
B2B selling demands better people skills. When consumers buy a product, typically there is only one decision maker involved (or possibly two, like a husband and wife). Corporate buying decisions can involve dozens of decision makers, influences, stakeholders, and naysayers. It takes extraordinary abilities to work with many different types of people, all of whom have different agendas.
B2B selling involves more patience. Even big-ticket consumer sales (such as homes and cars) can be completed in a day or week at most. By contrast, B2B deals can involve weeks and months of intermittent activity, meetings, phone calls, and back-and-forth documents as the deal moves through the customer bureaucracy.
B2B selling is more sensitive to economic disruption. One of the first things to take place in an economic crisis is that firms lock down purchasing, add more layers of decision making, and demand concessions from their vendors. This happens even for deals that have already been signed, and such tactics derail even the best-designed sales campaign.
B2B selling involves large sums of money. In consumer sales, million-dollar deals are unusual and limited primarily to luxury homes. In B2B selling, by contrast, deals that involve millions of dollars are so commonplace as to be unremarkable. Even billion-dollar deals are struck from time to time.
Why do so many people continue to treat B2B sales like B2C sales? I think it's a legacy from the days when B2B selling consisted mostly of providing information and taking orders. It was simpler back then, and so the simple techniques that worked in B2C environments still worked in B2B.
P.S.: My new book is dedicated to Gerhard Gschwandtner, who has taken the time, on several occasions, to coach me personally, advise my career, and encourage my writing. I can't thank him enough.
This guest blog post is by Donal Daly, CEO of the TAS Group. He shares sales insights, hindsight and a little foresight on his sales and technology blog, Dealmaker365 (previously Sales20Network).
In many quarters, the (mis)alignment between the sales and marketing departments is a cause of some debate and the source of many opinions and much frustration. Apathy and anxiety are mixed in equal part, some saying that's how it always is, and others – searching for a higher return on that "50 percent of marketing that works" – are anxious to discover the real cost. Well, the results are in, and alignment really matters.
In fact, there can be a difference in quota attainment of up to 25 percent between those organizations where sales and marketing are singing in harmony versus those where these two interdependent functions are just singing their individual tunes, more counterpoint than on point.
The source of this data is the Dealmaker Index Global Benchmark Study, a free global sales service where you can score your sales effectiveness relative to your peers and get advice on how to improve. One of the areas addressed in the Dealmaker Index study is the alignment between sales and marketing.
From the chart here, you can see that quota attainment is much greater at those companies where these two departments are working well together. If you've been agitating in your company to increase cooperation between these two functions (as I know many of you have), well, here is some independent data that you may choose to use.
Of course, alignment between sales and marketing is also a predictor of win rate, but far less so (about 15 percent delta) than overall quota achievement. In many ways, this is not too surprising, but it is a little disappointing. Here, the inference is that the salesperson can win the deal anyway, whether supported by marketing or not, but it also suggests that marketing's input frequently stops at the top of the funnel. Marketing should be equally engaged in moving deals through the funnel, thereby impacting win rate and overall pipeline velocity, as it is at filling the top of the funnel.
I'd love to hear whether you think the relationship between sales and marketing in your organization is truly synergistic or if there is room for improvement. If you've not done so already, you can also participate in the Dealmaker Index benchmark study and see how you score and rank against your peers and what advice you get to improve.


apparently liam cried during the video shoot for little things cos it reminded him of danielle.
and danielle told eleanor that she refused to listen to little things cos it would make her fall for liam again.
Is It Me of Does Union J & District 3 Remind u Of One Direction?
Hope I'm Not The Only One..
"they don't know about the up all nights..."
me: look children it's your father...!
Harry once zei he likes the way woman think of him in a sexual way.
Man,I freaking hate when I'm reading a fan fic and the writer doesn't even finsh the story, like for real?
Me-I Want Zayn To Rock Me,Rock Me,Rock Me.
Mum-What?! Zoey,do u need the talk?!
Me-EWW NO! I'm just married to Zayn Malik,mum!
OMG the boys are nominated for 4 awards in the PCA!
let us make them win at the PCA.
Her charm and smile,abousolutely drowns Louie in love.
Her name is Amber,A beautiful teenager with the body of a goddess,so Louie thinks.
Amber wasn't your typical Mary sue,With perfect hair and the best brains.All together,She was shy and mysteriously insecure from her unforgotten past.
Will Louie open his eyes,and make him truly see her pain?Will he still want be with her?
I'm debating currently,on weather writing Louie's Love,a fan fiction of not.
I'm thinking about it and it's popularity.So maybe some one of you'll toon some love and I'll maybe continue.
Please leave a comment,if u want me to go on with the series.
Dad: what did tell u about talking to strangers online?!
directioner's little brother: when u go to meet one direction, can i go too?
directioner: i thought u didn't like one direction.
little brother: i just want to thank them.
now everyone hates of love them .
I was there , and I will be till the end.


Design thinking unlocked a new world of product intentionality and customization on the back of socially driven concepts, such as user-centricity and empathy. These concepts were backed up by classical science to provide a methodology for reliably creating products that people want to use in a more efficient fashion.
The paradigm of customization and user driven creation has been strengthened by the wellness and mindfulness movements that have driven people to further explore what makes them tick. Social movements are pushing individuals, communities and governments to consider the identities that make up societies fabric. Far-right, socialist, trans, Muslim, entrepreneur, physically handicapped plus many more identities and their intersections make up who we are; we are seeing more and more that these identities define the solutions we desire.
What's truly fascinating is that research and technology present us with a future in which this level of customization is inevitable. The democratization of access to tools for creating-at-scale means that anyone will be able to design solutions that fit the needs of themselves or the groups they represent. Why wait for a renowned company to come out with the headphones I want when I can design my own, or search for one on a marketplace, and 3D print them at home? Why pay for school when I can access lectures or projects from all over world and collaborate within a distributed community of like-minded peers?
What people, society even, are ostensibly searching for is to spend their time in an optimally fulfilling way. Self-expression in the form of creativity, sharing, learning, exploring and enjoying the wonders of life. To provide these experiences requires something beyond what Design Thinking and previous creative methodologies have to offer because we need to see humans less as users or actors and more as ecosystems. Experience design seeks to understand and leverage the impact that sensory stimuli and culture have on the internal ecosystem that lives within human beings and, thus, drives behavior and interactions.
How many times have you been to a venue, used a product or been given information but felt like something didn't quite fit? Maybe it was the lighting, that feeling of settling for good enough or the lecture wasn't engaging in a way that really made the content stick. We all can remember times when an experience really clicked. That little bite of something providing a brief escape from a long day, that workshop where time just flew or the place that transported you to a world where your imagination and creativity ran wild. Experiences like these don't have to be random or deeply buried gems waiting to be found. They can be intentionally designed.
So what does all of this mean more in detail?
Experience design is built upon a combination of human, structural and environmental fields and disciplines, a sample of which are various psychological studies, linguistics, architecture, interior design, user interaction, sociology, history, biology, neuroscience, urban planning, marketing, data science and design thinking.
The five senses, to varying degrees, are the primary tools we have to understand the world we live in. So it makes sense that sight, taste, touch, smell and sound would be fundamental to designing an experience. The restaurant with terrible acoustics, the office that's never the right temperature and the catering of beef and pasta for lunch that's guaranteed to put you in a food coma are all examples of poor or non existent experience design. The chair you don't remember that you're sitting in, the room that inexplicably feels warm and inviting and the catering that hit the spot and made you feel great about the next few hours are all examples of good experience design.
So here are a few things to keep in mind when designing an experience.
Cultural and social currents: culture is the fabric of our many social communities and define the way we interact with one another. Current events and trends overlay this fabric and create another layer that influences our perceptions and behaviors.
Internal human ecosystem: our past, our beliefs all the way down to our biology make up our internal ecosystem. This ecosystem is what interprets the information we receive and helps us make a decision about how we want to respond to a question, how we feel about the temperature in a room or what makes us passionate.
Experience Design exists to leverage this wealth of knowledge pertaining to humans, the systems we work in, and our built environments to create optimal spaces for any desired outcome.
Venture Playground is made up of entrepreneurs and designers who have spent a decade or more crafting such experiences for customers and users from all walks of life. From a young age, each of us "saw" or "felt" that the fabric of our daily lives could be more, whether it was in our schools, work places or communities. Through our collective journey's, we have built frameworks and tools to better describe and utilize these dynamics to create impactful products.
Today, we are a collective with the goal of designing better ecosystems for learning, creating and building solutions. We invite you to discover the many ways we are engaging corporations, startups and the greater creative community to both share and show what Experience Design can do to bring us closer to a more fulfilling and productive world.


text:
Ефективність розділення мінеральних сумішей (рос.эффективность разделения минеральных смесей, англ. separation efficiency of mineral mixtures, нім. Effektivität f der Scheidung f von Mineralgemischen) — у найзагальнішому плані — міра досягнення ідеального розділення, яка визначається відношенням фактичного значення показника збагачення до теоретично можливого. Виражається в частках одиниці, або %.

Література

 Білецький В. С., Олійник Т. А., Смирнов В. О., Скляр Л. В. Основи техніки та технології збагачення корисних копалин: навчальний посібник. — К.: Ліра-К 2020. — 634 с.
Збагачення корисних копалин

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


The first poster for the upcoming adaptation of Ian McEwan's book of the same name has arrived. It doesn't tell us much but the synopsis makes it sound interesting before the first trailer hits.
It is summer 1962, and England is still a year away from huge social changes: Beatlemania, the sexual revolution and the Swinging Sixties. We first encounter Florence and Edward, a young couple in their early twenties, on their wedding day. Now on their honeymoon, they are dining in their room at a stuffy, sedate hotel near Chesil Beach in Dorset.
Their conversation becomes more tense and awkward, as the prospect of consummating their marriage approaches. Finally, an argument breaks out between them. Florence storms from the room and out of the hotel, Edward pursues her, and their row continues on Chesil Beach.
From a series of flashbacks, we learn about the differences between them – their attitudes, temperaments and their drastically different backgrounds.
Out on the beach on their fateful wedding day, one of them makes a major decision that will utterly change both of their lives forever.
ON CHESIL BEACH is a powerful, insightful drama about two people, both defined by their upbringing, bound by the social mores of another era.


This is an extraordinary video showing hummingbirds, butterflies, bees, bats and flowers so close up and so vivid it takes your breath away. It shows the critters as they pollinate various flowers and some fantastic time-lapse film photography of flowers as they open. It was so beautiful it brought tears to my eyes. This is a presentation by the TED nonprofit that "devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading." They do some fantastic work including linking nature and solutions to human problems.
In this video the "Filmmaker Louie Schwartzberg shows us the intricate world of pollen and pollinators with gorgeous high-speed images from his film "Wings of Life," inspired by the vanishing of one of nature's primary pollinators, the honeybee". At the beginning of the video, the filmmaker describes his work including his emotional link to the flowers and pollinators he has filmed for many years. Be patient as soon you will see the most stunning video begins–you will want to share this with everyone you know who enjoys hummingbirds, butterflies and other pollinators.
Please share below what you thought of this video, I would really like to hear your reactions.
WOW!!! This is the most FANTASTIC video I've seen a very, VERY long time!!!
Thanks Cilla. I just watched again-for about 5th time tonight–it's the scenes with hundreds then thousands of Monarch's that makes me cry, it is just so beautiful. This last time I put it on full screen (click on the four arrows in the bottom right of the video screen)–I lost a little of the sharpness of the video that way but gained such close-up views it was worth it.
A very enjoyable video indeed, with incredible images of wonder. Thank-you for sharing!!
AMAZING! I'm going to do search to find the film! I want to show this to SO MANY – it's SO IMPORTANT that we realize our link to Nature and how we MUST take protective action!
Yes I saw this video and I found it really astonishing, it's magic and makes us have respect for these little creatures, thanks to them we can have many of our food. I love the little bats (I think one of them in the film has its baby on the belly). Sorry for my english, I am french.
What an amazing compilation of work, SeEtta; we were fascinated by the butterflies as well as the bats. Seeing the spider go for the hummingbird made me gasp. There wasn't a part of it that wasn't interesting. Definately worth sharing. Thank you so much.
OMG- The music and the images combined to give me chills.


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Provence Honey
NectarPerty
You are too late to adopt a beehive from this Farmer. Check out the other projects.
What do you adopt?
What will you receive?
When will you receive it?
Why should you adopt?
Adopt {publicVariety} from the apiary "{farmName}" in {cityfarm} ({countryFarm}) and receive your harvest in the form of {production} at home. The Farmer {farmerName} will take care of your adoption and take its picture. Also, you will be able to download the adoption certificate and, if you wish, plan your visit to the farm. As the production coming from one {variety} is big, the adoption is shared among various people. If you wish to have a bigger share, you may adopt more than once. You do not enter into any long-term commitment: once you receive your harvest and you enjoyed the experience, you may decide to renew and extend the adoption.
A bee colony of the Apis mellifera carnica or buckfast (Brother Adam), species and their natural hybrids. Each {variety} is adopted by 12 CrowdFarmers who receive a box with {masterUnitsMax}kg of {production}. Our bees live in wooden Dadant hives, with 10 or 12 frames, in an environment almost free of pesticides, as it is located in the middle of the natural regional park of the provençal Baronnies. The beehives are nearby the Ouvèze river (bees, too, need water to live). There are 20 of them, which we named after well-known airports: BER (Berlin-Schönefeld), CDG (Paris-Charles de Gaulle), DUS (Düsseldorf), FRA (Frankfurt), HAM (Hamburg), JFK (New York), LHR (London-Heathrow), LYS (Lyon), ORY (Paris-Orly), TXL (Berlin-Tegel), VIE (Vienna), CPH (Copenhagen), BRU (Brussels), ZRH (Zurich), CGN (Cologne), ARN (Stockholm), GVA (Geneva), LUX (Luxembourg), NCE (Nice) et MRS (Marseille), as a reminder of the far-away civilised world! Every beehive hosts a colony of 10,000 to 50,000 bees depending on the season. A colony produces roughly 25 kg of honey on average per year. During harvest, we take the honey frames out of the hive and remove the seal from the honeycomb. Then the frames are spun in a centrifuge and the honey is filtered. The honey matures in stainless steel barrels for at least two weeks before being filled into jars.
The box we will send you contains: 2 x Provençal garrigue honey (500 gram per jar) The provençal garrigue honey is harvested at the beginning of the summer. It comes from the pollen of provençal plants, such as rosemary, thyme, savory, but also box trees, bramble, broom, clover and heather. It has a lovely golden color. The flavours of the Provence region are highlighted well in this honey through an intense, persistent fragrance. It has a fresh taste, with a touch of lemon. 2 x Lavender honey (500 gram per jar) Lavender honey is harvested in the middle of the summer. Its particularity is that it does not contain much pollen, and therefore has a very light color. Its composition can incorporate other plants blooming at the same time, as bees can't be forced to forage for nectar from just one field! This rare honey will surprise you with its subtle scent. It has a nuanced sweet taste and its aroma stand out among all others. Stored in a dry place away from light, our honey will keep its quality for at least two years after harvest. Naturally, raw honey will evolve over time, and can crystallize depending on its floral composition. If you prefer it liquid, you may heat it gently in a water bath.
Please, check the deadline for participating in this project (deadline for adoption) below. As of this date the Farmer will start preparing the orders that are to be shipped. You may select the delivery date of your box as suggested by the Farmer at check-out.
* Learn who produces your food, how and where. Receive your food in a conscious manner. * Buy directly from the farmer. Help to generate wealth and better jobs in the rural areas. * Plan ahead and enable the Farmer to produce on demand. This way we can avoid overproduction and fight food waste. * Reward Farmers who make an effort to use environmentally-friendly packaging and cultivation techniques.
Adopt and plan your harvest
Let the Farmer and nature work
Receive your harvest at home
Mariane Heberlein
My roots are here in Montauban-sur-l'Ouvèze, where my grand-father comes from (I was born in Buis-les-Baronnies, roughly 20 km away, which is also where our olive trees grow). My husband and I met during our studies. He was born in Berlin and always had a green thumb, but he saw a lavender field for the first time when he came to Montauban-sur-l'Ouvèze at the beginning of the 90's. I cherish this apiary as it has lived on through generations: my grand-father kept bees for family consumption and my father further developed the activity; he volunteers in a beekeeper association, and started to sell the surplus. He is keen to pass on his knowledge and shares his passion with my husband who also trained as a beekeeper. Over the medium term, we aim to devote ourselves fully to this activity.
"The practice of beekeeping fascinates me because it conveys the cycles of nature in a very concrete way. The resulting honey produced here, on the Provence hillsides, is a real delight. I am happy to share with you its authentic qualities."
Our namesake is the Perty pass, located in a lateral valley of the Mont Ventoux, and whose peak is the Chamouse mountain at 1,500 meters. We are practically at the source of the Ouvèze river, which flows into the Rhône near Avignon. We do not operate the apiary for maximum efficiency, but aim to preserve the species in line with animal welfare. We strive for a circular economy: for instance, we recycle wax from old honeycombs to form the basis for new frames needed for the next season. Respecting nature through beekeeping gives everyone the greatest joy, from the point of view of the Farmer as well as of the Crowdfarmer. We handle resources carefully, and are planning, in the medium term, to seek an organic certification. In addition to beekeeping, our small enterprise is also engaged in growing olives, another family farming activity. We cultivate an olive grove of the « tanche de Nyons » variety in Buis-les-Baronnies and transform our harvest in table olives, olive oil and olive paste.
NectarPerty, Montauban-sur-l'Ouvèze, FR
hello@crowdfarming.com
Questions and answers Gender specification in our texts
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Would you like to be a Farmer?


A little dust has settled. So, let me lay out at least a few of the points that led me, after nine years and much success in a ministry that has been one of the most rewarding experiences in my life, to begin looking anew at Adventism. This is not a systematic review, nor is it an apologetic. It's just an outline of some of the paths my reflection took.
Despite having left, I could never pull away from Adventist influence completely. My wife, my kids, and my in-laws are Adventist—I've gone to campmeeting with them in Maine on vacation. My parents and some of my siblings are Adventist, as are many friends. I've stayed in touch with old professors and a year or so ago got on Sam Bacchiocchi's e-mail list.
In 2004 I went to New England intending to go to BloggerCon conference at Harvard; it was also Atlantic Union College alumni weekend, and my 20th reunion, so I decided to do both, and stayed in the home of a former professor, Myron Wehtje. I ended up skipping the conference entirely to attend the events at AUC. Some were very surprised to see me—many others were very welcoming.
In 2005 I thought about writing a book about Adventism. I had begun the process of re-evaluating it years before, after being asked in a seminary evaluation, "What can you say positively about your wife's Adventist faith?" I reflected on some of these themes in my D.Min. project, and in a chapter I contributed to a friend's book, When Only One Converts (published by Our Sunday Visitor). And as I began to write in 2005, I saw even more clearly that my years in Catholicism had led me to a different place, where I could now look at Adventism differently than when I was caught up in the excitement and anger of the late 70s and early 80s.
On the Gospel: I have a better appreciation not only of the good news of God's forgiveness and justification, but of the call to holiness. And I have looked back and had to confess that my break with Adventism did not improve my spiritual life. Positive experiences that I have had with spiritual direction have recalled things that I knew as an Adventist. On the other hand, I was naive about the ecumenical agreements on justification; the 1999 "Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification" was much talk, no action. Merit still occupies a key role in Catholic soteriology, and "justification," a key word in the New Testament, is a meaningless term to many Catholics.
On Ellen White: I have a better appreciation for the role that private revelations (as Catholic call them) have played through history, how they help God's people to live faithfully at particular times, and how they invite us back to Scripture; and of the critical role that Ellen White played in maintaining the unity of the fledgling church, of keeping it evangelical and Trinitarian, of guarding it from extremes within. I have a historian's understanding of her sources, but more of an appreciation for what she did with those sources to meet the pastoral needs. If I read Steps to Christ and Desire of Ages, the spirit of Christian gentleness emanating from those pages still speaks softly to my heart.
On the Sabbath: Adventists wonder how any one can leave this experience? It's hard. Sunday just isn't the same. My work in Jewish-Christian relations has also focused my historical studies on the point that Bacchiocchi raised of the importance of the crisis in the time of Hadrian which led many early Christians, particularly in Rome, to seek to distance themselves from Judaism. As a result, while other places had observed the Sunday Eucharist, Rome took the lead in urging people to abandon the Sabbath, and to shift observance of Pesach/Easter from Nisan 14 to Sunday. This latter finally became a universal mandate at Nicea in 325, and Constantine's letter to those who couldn't attend underscores the anti-Jewish reasons for the Sunday Easter (of which the weekly Sunday is a reflection). I asked myself, how can decisions made for such hate-filled motives have been inspired by the Spirit of God?
On the human person: John Paul II's writings on the "theology of the body" and Ratzinger's book on eschatology have given me a renewed appreciation of the Adventist understanding of the question of the soul, of death, and of diet. God created us as whole people. He wants to restore us to that wholeness. Catholic practices of fasting, of abstinence, and the vegetarianism of religious orders such as the Trappists showed me that these are not extreme teachings but have been common to renewal and penitential movements throughout history. And in a day when we hear so much of illnesses related to food, of the allure of the New Age movement and "Near Death Experiences," as some Catholic leaders wrestle with the extremes of superstition in devotion to the saints while others, even conservatives like Hans Urs von Balthasar, dabble in the occult, the Adventist teachings emerge as all the more prophetic and grounded in Scripture.
On the priestly ministry of Christ: Too many debates in the 70s and 80s focused on issues of heavenly geography. The better question is perhaps, what does it mean for Christ to intercede for us? I've seen that no Christians really talk about these things that are so important in Hebrews. Our hope is located "within the veil," where he intercedes for us, one who has been made like us in every respect, been tempted like we are, yet without sin. I've tried to keep up with the writings of Adventist theologians and I see things are phrased in different ways today than they were 25 years ago. But clearly Adventists are alone in lifting up what Christ is doing now, and what the implications of that might be for his return.
On the return of Christ: Catholics pray for it every day, but never preach about it. My hope in his return has never wavered. The Advent season of the church year reminds me of it each year (that's a season not only of preparation for Christmas, but of looking beyond his first advent to his second). And much of the Adventist scenario has always made more sense to me than the liberal reinterpretations of Lutheranism, the dispensationalism of the evangelicals, or the various things one might read in Catholic visionaries.
On the Catholic Church in history: Newman pointed out the critical issue of Church authority. If you accept that, everything else falls in place. If you accept Church authority, you will listen to her teachings and seek to conform yourself to them. Many Catholic teachings hinge on this: purgatory (also here and here), Marian dogmas, saints, the developed papacy, etc. As in Luther's day, you're asked to let the Church interpret Scripture; and the Gospel and the Scripture are not to be used to criticize the Church and her teachings.
The message is always: Trust us. This can sometimes be positive—it was not just Scripture, but the continuity of tradition, that led me to see that Catholicism's stand for a moral perspective is needed in a world of relativism and rethinking of issues such as gay marriage. And yet sometimes it has a darker edge to it, as in the anti-Judaism that was involved in the enshrinement of Sunday and Easter, in the justification of crusades and executions, in the stifling of criticism of abuse in the Middle Ages and in the attempt to stifle criticism of abusive priests in the 20th century.
This focus on authority results in what I've called "magisterial positivism," in which truth is what the Church teaches. If it appears it taught something else, such an apparent contradiction lies only in your perception. In fact, what this means is that Church teaching can flip-flop from age to age and lay people are yanked back and forth and always expected to respond with "docility" (Catechism of the Catholic Church 87). Thus the church could tell the state in one era, "You must execute," and in another era, "You must not execute." It commands kneeling to one generation and forbids it for another. It rejects religious liberty and proclaims religious liberty. It excommunicates people of one era for wanting mass in the vernacular and in another era excommunicates them for wanting it in Latin. It claims the ability to create laws binding in conscience and to remit even divine laws, and to do so without providing explanation or justification.
This creates in laity and clergy alike the state of docility which is complete reliance upon the Magisterium–and this docility was taken advantage of by both abusive priests, the bishops who transferred them and covered up their crimes (and who were sometimes complicit in them), and the system whereby bishops were unable and unwilling to criticize or to seek the removal of their peers.
Such ecclesiastical hubris is what led Protestant exegetes to identify the Roman Catholic Church with the Babylonian harlot on the seven-headed-beast. Catholics are outraged by this, but as von Balthasar has shown, many respected Catholic theologians have also seen the Church as a whore.
Contrary to such authoritarianism and demand for blind trust we see the teaching of the apostles. St. Paul commended the Bereans for searching the scriptures to test what he said. He could rebuke Peter in public for clearly being in the wrong. And John could see churches whose candle stands are removed, and speaks of a remnant that will persevere.
May 6, 2007 in Adventism.
Best of luck in your spiritual journey. I'll keep you and yours in my prayers.
There are, of course, many problems with the Catholic leadership, both today and in the past which you have put your finger on.
When I became a Catholic I was spiritual both a Jew and a Muslim and I didn't have to give up either to become a Catholic.
I don't think you needed to completely give up being an Adventist when you became a Catholic and you won't need to give up being a Catholic if you return to the Adventist fold.
I sincerely second Chris' wishes.
About the Church's teaching on purgatory, I'm not so sure that this doesn't have a historical precedent in Judaism. There certainly are very old descriptions (Book of Enoch, for instance) presenting Gehenna as a place of purification, not strictly eternal damnation. One viewpoint in the Talmud places a 12-month limit on a soul's existence in the purifying fires of Gehenna before it rises to the Garden of Eden.
Plato was influential on Judaism, too. E.g., Philo.
Just think, Bill! Today you're an Adventist Catholic. Tomorrow you could be an Adventist Catholic Hindu Muslim!
Next week you could try also being a duck and a possum! Or a duck and a chicken and a turkey!
… Christianity is an European religion, not a Jewish one.
I see. And Jesus was …?
Truly, the Bible is The Truth, there is no other and The Bible is the Adventist Message !


College basketball's championship tournament, "March Madness," is finally here. For the 6th year in a row, Market Folly will be hosting its annual free bracket contest for fellow college basketball fans. Entry is completely free!
To be entered into the contest, you must fill out your bracket picks before the main games start this Thursday (March 19th). Only 1 entry per person allowed. Good luck!


You and your child should stay at the nursery school no more than an hour. No separations!
The first separation (15 minutes at the most). Say goodbye to your child, leave the room, but stay close. If your child cannot be comforted, you will be asked to come back.
In that case, the next separation should be 2 or 3 days away. However, if your child can be comforted right away, the separation can be extended to the next day.
Even if your child stays at the nursery school without any hesitation, you should pick them up after lunch. If your child handles the separations well, they can stay after lunch as well. We will talk to you about situations like sleeping for instance, to make sure that everything is according to your child's needs. In the first 3 weeks you must be reachable and you should be able to pick up your child at any given time.
If your child has an especially hard time to say goodbye to one parent, it could make sense to let the other parent accompany the child in the settling-in phase. It could be possible that a child gets used to a new surrounding quicker when they are accompanied by their father (or vice versa).
Tip: Leave a personal item in the group the first couple of days. A jacket, your purse, etc. That item might convey that you will be back later. Create some sort of rituals when you say goodbye. For instance: let your child "fly" to the educator like an airplane, wave goodbye to them through the window, and so forth.
Even if it is hard: try to say goodbye as quickly as possible. It is usually stressful for a child if the parting takes a long time.
Don't be disappointed with yourself, your child, or the nursery school, if the settling-in takes longer than you thought. It is nobody's "fault". You have to be patient. Sometimes you have to take a step back to move forward in a secure way. Within the relationship "parents, child, educator" we will find a solution that is fitting for your child. Remember: even if it takes longer, it will turn out well.


Hosting your own event is a super fun way to support GP2C because you can invite all your friends to do it with you. We have a bunch of ideas for you to choose from below that others have pulled off -and we certainly encourage you to try anything else you can come up with.
Whichever you choose, we're here to help make your event successful. We either have the resources on-hand, or can help you with an event logo and all promotional materials including: posters, tickets, postcards, t-shirt design and more!
We also have a event kit with awareness materials and merchandise to purchase to make your event even more successful. Visit this link to pick out what is right for you.
Use the ideas below to get started, or think of one of your own. When you're ready to start planning your event, shoot us an email! We can't wait to hear from you.
Contact Amei Prachthauser: amei@gp2c.org or 904-277-2628.
Bring on the music! Girl Power 2 Cure, Inc. is excited to offer this great event to raise awareness and funds! While we hope to have concerts held in October for Rett Syndrome Awareness Month, a Rockin' for Rett event can be hosted anytime of the year. You can work with just one musician, a band, two bands – or even go with a BATTLE OF THE BANDS! No matter what venue you decide on this event is sure to be ROCKIN'!
We have a great event kit for a 5K run! Best for a park trail so you don't have the expense of traffic control.
Want an opportunity for your favorite golfer to get in the swing of things? Then "Golf for a Cure" is the ideal fundraiser for you! It is a chance for you combine golf, lunch and/or dinner, and maybe even a silent auction or raffle....all while raising funds for Rett Syndrome.
White? Red? No matter your favorite, you can host a "Toast for a Cure" event guaranteed to raise everyone's spirits while raising awareness and funds for Rett Syndrome! Contact your local winery or favorite restaurant and let's raise our glasses for OUR girls and boys!
Little girls love to play dress up, so in that tradition, we have launched a fundraising event centered around 'dressing up' to help fight Rett Syndrome. This is a fun, silly way to spread hope and combat a very serious disorder! Learn how you and even your local schools can get involved.
Dig Deep and help us "plant" flowers to raise awareness and research funds for Rett Syndrome. Similar to the March of Dimes, we have paper icons that are signed for a $1 donation. Only we have a flower! Together these flowers create a "Garden of Hope." We will GROW these funds into even more money for research! WE will mail you a FREE KIT with 250 paper flowers and instructions.
What are you passionate about? We will help you find a way to incorporate your love for books, movies, music, sports, or hobbies into a fun-filled fundraiser! We can help you with a logo and all promotional materials to include: posters, tickets, postcards, t-shirt design and more!
We are excited to introduce the GP2C Event Kit! This kit includes awareness materials to make your event even more successful!
Click Here to get your event kit!
Additional merchandise must be purchased through our online shop.
If you would like to use our logo or flower on an item you will be selling. Please email amei@gp2c.org for more information.
Contact Amei Prachthauser: amei@gp2c.org or 904-277-2628 for more information on events!


text:
Fasting: for body and spirit
St. Catherine of Siena was known for rigorous fasting and abstinence.
Her fast was so severe at times that it was questioned by her sisterhood
and the clergy, who insisted she eat properly.
Having struggled with the obesity epidemic for decades,1,2 the scientific and health care communities are now giving attention to the effects of fasting for preventing and treating this important health problem. Appearing at first sight to be a simple issue of energetic balance, obesity has been shown instead to be a complex disease with genetic, behavioral, socioeconomic, and sociocultural determinants. It is moreover entangled with insulin resistance, hypertension, and dyslipidemia as part of the metabolic syndrome, a major cause of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.3
As expected, calorie restriction reduces body weight.4,5,6 Most humans, however, have been shown to be incapable of voluntarily restricting calorie intake for long periods of time.7 By contrast, intermittent fasting also decreases body weight and appears much more feasible.8 As a matter of fact, humans have practiced intermittent fasting for millennia – for environmental, medical, or religious reasons.
Intermittent fasting is a dietary approach in which no or few calories are consumed for periods ranging from twelve hours to one or more days, in a recurrent pattern. There is an extensive and solid amount of research work in animals and some studies in humans demonstrating the striking effects of fasting. As previously described for calorie restriction, fasting decreases body weight and improves metabolic parameters associated with type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer.9-12 Intermittent fasting has additional health benefits when compared to calorie restriction in that it favorably interacts with circadian biology, gut microbiota, and motor activity.9-11,13,14 It also spares lean mass, a most important point, especially in the context of aging.8
The metabolic consequences of fasting were first published in the nineteenth century. The biochemistry and physiology of the feed-fast cycle, with the metabolic switch between glucose oxidation and fat oxidation/ketogenesis, along with the ratio insulin/glucagon hormones, have been studied for many decades. It is well known that to remove fat acquired in times of plenty, it is necessary to fast for long enough to deplete liver glycogen, revert the insulin/glucagon ratio, and shift metabolism from lipid synthesis to fat mobilization through fatty acid oxidation and production of ketones. It is thus intriguing that attention to fasting as therapy for obesity has taken such a long time.
More recent is the discovery of orexins, neuropeptides produced in the hypothalamus during fasting. They increase appetite and increase vigilance, exploration, and locomotor activity.15-18 Dietary regimens that include significant periods of fasting facilitate motor activity, in contrast to feast periods, when the body demands rest. This is probably a further mechanism by which fasting benefits health.
Although ketones were shown more than fifty years ago to be the primary fuel for the brain during starvation, they were thought of being mere metabolic fuel.19 Recent research, however, has been showing a growing number of pleiotropic effects of ketones at the central nervous system. Beyond prevailing interest in the treatment of epilepsy,20 ketones may be useful in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease,21,22 and may be responsible for the improvement in various cognition parameters observed during fasting.11
It can be concluded that intermittent fasting regimens promote weight loss and may improve metabolic health. They also induce metabolic and signaling pathways that optimize performance, slowing aging and disease processes.
A variety of intermittent fasting regimens have been studied.10,11 In "time-restricted eating" a minimum of twelve hours of nightly fast is recommended, sixteen hours being better.11,23 An interesting regimen is one called "5:2" (severe energy restriction for two non-consecutive days per week and ad libitum eating for the other five days). It mirrors the traditional religious fasting of Jews and Christians.24 Christians, however, dropped one of the weekly fasting days, and currently obligatory fast is reduced to two days per year (Ash Wednesday and Good Friday in Lent).24
Most religions recommend periodic fasting, presumably to enhance spirituality. The impact of fasting on resting state brain networks25 or on the activation of dopaminergic activity by orexin,26 are indeed compatible with an ego dissolution effect, as described for mindfulness 27 or some drugs.28 But prescription of fasting by religious authorities also seemed to include a hygienic aim, as in St. Paul's Letter to the Philippians, or in St. Anthony's (1195 –1231, born in Lisbon, died in Padua) sermon. St. Anthony considered that gluttony had several forms: eating ravenously, too much, or too soon. This instruction from hundreds of years ago is now receiving support from modern science: time-restricted eating is a powerful cue to synchronize body and brain clocks, leading to marked health benefits.9,23,30
Saint Catherine of Siena. 19th century. from Chiesa di Santa Maria del Rosario in Prati, Roma
"Obesity" WHO, World Health Organization . http://www.who.int/topics/obesity/en/. 2017. Accessed March 28, 2019.
Hruby A, Hu FB. The epidemiology of obesity: a big picture. Pharmacoeconomics 2015; 33:673–689.
Azevedo A, Santos AC, Ribeiro L, Azevedo I. The metabolic syndrome. In: Soares R, Costa C (Eds), Oxidative stress, inflammation and angiogenesis in the metabolic syndrome. Springer, 2009. Pp.1-19.
Weindruch R. The retardation of aging by caloric restriction: studies in rodents and primates. Toxicol Pathol. 1996; 24:742–745.
Colman RJ, Anderson RM, Johnson SC, et al. Caloric restriction delays disease onset and mortality in rhesus monkeys. Science. 2009; 325:201–204.
Redman LM, Ravussin E. Caloric restriction in humans: impact on physiological, psychological, and behavioral outcomes. Antioxid Redox Signal. 2011; 14:275–287.
Scheen AJ. The future of obesity: new drugs versus lifestyle interventions. Expert Opin Investig Drugs. 2008; 17:263–267.
Varady KA. Intermittent versus daily calorie restriction: which diet regimen is more effective for weight loss? Obes Rev. 2011;12:e593–e601.
Longo VD, Panda S. Fasting, circadian rhythms, and time-restricted feeding in healthy lifespan. Cell Metabolism 2016; 23: 1048-1059.
Patterson RE, Sears DD. Metabolic effects of intermittent fasting. Annu Rev Nutr 2017; 37:371-393.
Anton SD, Moehl K, Donahoo WT et al. Flipping the metabolic switch: understanding and applying the health benefits of fasting. Obesity (Silver Spring) 2018; 26:254-268.
Mitchell SJ, Bernier M, Mattison JA et al. Daily fasting improves health and survival in male mice independent of diet composition and calories. Cell Metab 2019; 29:221-228.
Zarrinpar A, Chaix A, Yooseph S et al. Diet and feeding pattern affect the diurnal dynamics of the gut microbiome. Cell Metab 2014; 20:1006-1017.
Hatori M, Vollmers C, Zarrinpar A et al. Time-restricted feeding without reducing caloric intake prevents metabolic diseases in mice fed a high-fat diet. Cell Metab 2012; 15:848-860.
de Lecea L, Kilduff TS, Peyron C et al. The hypocretins: hypothalamus-specific peptides with neuroexcitatory activity. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1998; 95:322–327.
Sakurai T, Amemiya A, Ishii M et al. Orexin and orexin receptors: a family of hypothalamic neuropeptides and G protein-coupled receptors that regulate feeding behavior. Cell 1998; 92:573-585.
Yamanaka A, Beuckmann CT, Willi JT et al. Hypothalamic orexin neurons regulate arousal according to energy balance in mice. Neuron 2003; 38:701-713.
Zhang XY, Yu L, Zhuang QX et al. Central function of the orexinergic system. Neurosci Bull 2013; 29: 355-365.
Owen OE, Morgan AP, Kemp HG et al. Brain metabolism during fasting. J Clin Invest 1967; 46: 1595.
Roehl K, Sewak SL. Practice paper of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics: classic and modified ketogenic diets for treatment of epilepsy. J Acad Nutr Diet 2017; 117: 1279-1292.
Hashim SA, VanItallie TB. Ketone body therapy: from the ketogenic diet to the oral administration of ketone ester. J Lipid Res 2014; 55: 1818-1826.
Newport MT, VanItallie TB, Kashiwaya Y et al. A new way to produce hyperketonemia: use of ketone ester in a case of Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimers Dement 2015; 11: 99-103.
Mattson MP, Allison DB, Fontana L et al. Meal frequency and timing in health and disease. PNAS 2014; 111: 16647-16653.
Chadwick H, Evans GR (Eds). Atlas of the Christian Church. 1987, MacMillan London Limited.
Tzurugizawa T, Djemai B, Zalesky A. The impact of fasting on resting state brain networks in mice. Sci Rep 2019; 9: 2976.
Nakamura T, Uramura K, Nambu T et al. Orexin-induced hyperlocomotion and stereotypy are mediated by the dopaminergic system. Brain Res 2000; 873: 181-187.
Dor-Ziderman Y, Berkovich-Ohana A, Glicksoh J et al. Mindfulness-induced selflessness: a MEG neurophenomenological study. Front Hum Neurosci 2013; 7: 582. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2013.00582.
Millière R. Looking for the self: phenomenology, neurophysiology and philosophical significance of drug-induced ego dissolution. Front Hum Neurosci 2017; 11: 245. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2017.00245.
Santo António de Lisboa. Obras Completas. Sermões dominicais e festivos. 1987, Lello & Irmão, Porto.
Mendoza J. Eating rewards the gears of the clock. Trends Endocrinol Metab 2019. Pii: S1043-2760(19)30046-3. doi: 10.1016/j.tem.2019.03.001. [Epub ahead of print]
ISABEL AZEVEDO, M.D., Ph.D., is a Professor of Biochemistry, previously Professor of Pharmacology and Therapeutics at the Faculty of Medicine of Porto University. She has worked for forty years as researcher and teacher, and has investigated chiefly the area of adrenergic mechanisms at the cardiovascular system and metabolism, having over 200 publications in international scientific journals.
Spring 2019 | Sections | Food


text:
package com.example.antoan.planit;

import android.content.Context;

import javax.inject.Inject;

import dagger.Module;
import dagger.Provides;

/**
 * Created by Antoan on 2/19/2017.
 */
@Module
public class ApplicationModule {
    private final Context context;

    @Inject
    public ApplicationModule(Context context) {
        this.context = context;
    }

    @Provides
    Context provideContext() {
        return this.context;
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
But that would be too easy: Dan Brown's "I could kill you now, Mr. Bond" problem
Posted on July 14, 2013 by Richard Bowker
The Heat is a hilarious movie that doesn't bother much with plausibility. Towards the end Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy track down the bad guys to a warehouse, kill a few of them, but then get captured by the #2 bad guy. He could simply shoot them, of course, but he decides to tie them up and torture them first. Oh, no! The torture is about to begin when he is called upstairs to a meeting with the #1 bad guy. So Sandra and Melissa get to exchange some snappy dialog, figure out how to untie themselves, and carry on with the plot.
This is a standard action movie sequence. The hero doesn't get killed as the climax approaches; he gets tied up. My friend Craig Gardner calls this the "I could kill you now, Mr. Bond" moment. The evil mastermind has Bond in his clutches, but his hubris makes him say something like: "I could kill you now, Mr. Bond. But that would be too easy. Instead, I will let you watch as I carry out my plan for world domination. And then you will die a slow, horrible death."
The evil mastermind's hubris always leads to his downfall in these movies, of course. And in the meantime we get to see the hero extricate himself from a difficult situation just in the nick of time to save the world.
Dan Brown's Inferno is an action novel that features a standard evil mastermind with plenty of hubris. Stripped of its endless lessons about art and literature and history and geography, it's a James Bond novel. Except that Brown makes a lot of odd plotting decisions that, for me at least, screw up this basic plot structure completely and fundamentally ruin the novel. Spoiler alert: don't read on if you are going to care about this plot:
First and foremost, the entire plot is predicated on the evil mastermind's hubris, not just the climactic scene where he decides to keep the hero alive. Nothing that happens in the book has to happen, except that this guy decides to leave some clever clues behind, mainly because he can. He could simply have carried out his evil plan without telling anyone.
Second, and almost as bad, all the hero's running around trying to stop the evil plan doesn't amount to anything whatsoever because the evil plan has already successfully taken place by the time the novel starts. We just don't find out until page 400 or so. So the action is doubly pointless. Robert Langdon has raced around Florence and Venice and Istanbul for absolutely no reason.
Next, the evil mastermind is dead by the time the plot starts. So there is no opportunity for a climactic confrontation, and his explanations for what he is doing all take place in flashback.
Finally–and I find this deeply weird–Brown seems to agree with the evil mastermind. Well, Brown seems to be saying, his methods may not have been the best, but his analysis of the overpopulation problem was accurate, and obviously something more needs to be done . . . He never allows any of the good guys to offer a convincing rebuttal to that analysis, although surely one exists (I could do a better job than the good guys, frankly).
So we spend the novel rooting for Langdon to succeed, but ultimately we find out that he couldn't have succeeded, and we probably wouldn't have wanted him to succeed. What a letdown.
This entry was posted in Reading, Watching and tagged Dan Brown, fiction, Inferno, James Bond, novels, plots, The Heat, writing by Richard Bowker. Bookmark the permalink.
4 thoughts on "But that would be too easy: Dan Brown's "I could kill you now, Mr. Bond" problem"
joebowker on July 14, 2013 at 11:46 am said:
Rich, you think about this plot stuff way too much. That being said, I didn't think that Brown's latest was any near as good as his previous novels.
Richard Bowker on July 14, 2013 at 11:50 am said:
I live for plots.
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Danny Batth has this message for Sunderland fans and Black Cats team-mates after damaging Cheltenham Town defeat
Sunderland defender Danny Batth has called for unity following Sunderland's 2-1 defeat at Cheltenham.
By Joe Nicholson
9th Feb 2022, 10:34am - 3 min read
The Black Cats have won just one of their last seven games, including three successive defeats in League One.
Batth joined the club from Stoke in January and is seen as one of the more experienced members of the group.
The 31-year-old admits it's been a challenging start to his Black Cats career but says the squad must repay the loyal supporters – after 1,520 travelling fans made the trip to Cheltenham.
Sunderland defender Danny Batth.
"I think you have got to reflect first of all which is very important and you have to do, say and work incredibly hard," said Batth.
"You have to work so much harder when momentum is against you and I think that is important.
"We have to travel back down, recover right, eat right and prepare, looking forward to the next game now and learn valuable lessons.
"It's a case of repaying the supporters for their incredible support.
"Since I've come, I've not been here a long time, but I can't say about how well they've done, and likewise the staff standing in.
"They have set us up and done everything right off the pitch and given us every opportunity to get a result today and obviously we haven't done that.
"As players we are at the forefront of it and we have to react now, do the right thing and get a big result for this club."
Batth was the captain at former clubs Wolves and Stoke, and has been praised for his leadership qualities and professionalism since joining Sunderland.
When asked if he's been giving advice to the younger members of the group, Batth added: "Obviously it's tough for the young lads at the moment but they are good players and they can handle it.
"It won't be my first period of bad results, I know how to get through it and the luck will turn.
"There is nothing more to be said, you don't want to be overtalking it and overhyping it, I think the main thing is the lads have to look at the goals.
"They were both fortunate and we have to react."
An interim coaching team, led by Mike Dodds, have taken charge of the team's last two matches, though it is hoped a permanent head coach will be in place for Saturday's trip to AFC Wimbledon.
"I think every game is a big game when you are chasing promotion and every point is valuable," said Batth when asked about that fixture.
"We have to go into every game with the mentality where first of all we don't get beat but try and take the three points.
"The support has been incredible so far despite the results.
"We have to dig deep and repay that because we are so lucky and it's a privilege to play for the club.
"That is the reason I came here because I want to take the club in the right direction.
"We have to reflect, pull together as a group and come through the other end."
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On May 11, 2017, the Ministry of Public Health of the Democratic Republic of the Congo notified international public health agencies of a cluster of suspected cases of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in the Likati health zone of the province of Bas Uélé. The report mentions nine cases, including two deaths, with a third death reported on May 12. Testing of samples was conducted by the Institut National de Recherche Biomedicale (INRB) in Kinshasa, with two samples testing positive for Ebola Zaire by RT-PCR. Teams from international agencies, including CDC, World Health Organization (WHO), MSF (Doctors without Borders), and others, are supporting the Ministry of Public Health's epidemiologic, diagnostic, clinical, and communications efforts to respond to the outbreak. The response faces challenging logistical obstacles, including the remoteness of the area and limited services. Mobile diagnostic laboratories have been deployed to the affected areas.
The map shows the country of Democratic Republic of Congo, located in Cental Africa, and indicates outbreaks of Ebola that have happened there. The maps indicates outbreaks of Ebola in Yambuku in 1976, Tandala in 1977, Kikwit in 1995, Mweka in 2007, Luebo in 2008, Isiro in 2012, Tshuapa in 2014, and, presently, in Likati in 2017. All outbreaks were of the Ebola Zaire subtype, except for the Isiro outbreak, with Ebola Bundibugyo. All outbreaks of Ebola Zaire were between 51-75 cases; the Isiro outbreak was from 26 to 50 cases.