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Pill Delivery And Medical Payments: The Latest In Healthcare Disruption
Posted on June 19, 2018 June 19, 2018 3:07 pm
A prescription delivery program and a deal involving medical payments data show how the healthcare industry is quickly changing as technology develops, and as Amazon prepares its own major moves.
First, the news that's most directly related to payments: Verscend Technologies has agreed to buy Cotiviti Holdings for $4.9 billion in cash, the two healthcare technology firms said in a press release on Tuesday (June 19).
"Together, Verscend and Cotiviti will offer our clients a comprehensive, integrated end-to-end solution to address the estimated $900 billion in healthcare waste and abuse across the claims payment and care continuum," said Emad Rizk, the medical doctor who is president and CEO of Verscend. "Financial data coupled with clinical data from our Risk Adjustment, Quality and Population Health lines of business offer increased value to commercial payers, government entities and providers."
Cotiviti described itself as a provider of "payment accuracy and analytics-driven solutions that helps payers, other risk-bearing healthcare organizations and retailers achieve their business objectives," according to the statement. Services provided by Verscend drive "better healthcare outcomes through data analytics, supporting payers' financial performance and quality improvement initiatives." Verscend is a portfolio company of Veritas Capital, a private equity firm.
The transaction will closed in the fourth quarter, the two companies said.
Meanwhile, CVS Health is trying to stay a step ahead of Amazon, according to reports. On Tuesday (June 19), the retailer launched prescription delivery from CVS Pharmacy locations nationwide.
"Customers who wish to have their medications delivered directly to their mailbox, as quickly as the next day, can now request prescription delivery via the CVS Pharmacy app or by calling their neighborhood store and asking to have their prescriptions delivered," the company said in a press release.
The delivery service charge is $4.99, the retailer said — though same-day delivery, if available, costs $8.99. CVS said it is the "first national retailer to offer pharmacy and front-store delivery chain-wide."
According to CNBC, "Customers in most markets where CVS' nearly 10,000 stores are located will be able to receive their orders either one or two days after placing them. Some customers in urban markets will be able to receive orders the same day."
The CVS service is a preemptive strike against Amazon, according to CNBC. Amazon not only offers same-day and two-day shipping, but "is now eyeing the prescription drug market," the report noted. "The eCommerce giant already sells private label over-the-counter drugs through a partnership with Perrigo, and has obtained pharmacy licenses in a handful of states. Amazon has licenses to distribute medical devices in nearly all U.S. states.
That's not all, of course.
Amazon is designing technology to take unstructured data from electronic medical records and identify an incorrect code or the misdiagnosis of a patient. A healthcare venture backed by Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase seeks to launch a company that would reduce healthcare costs, among other goals. To achieve that, the collaborative — which still lacks a CEO — will create a constraint-free independent company that isn't focused on profit-making incentives.
Google, too, is getting deeper into healthcare.
It is hiring staff to work on an early-stage research project called Medical Digital Assist, which will use voice recognition to help physicians take notes. Four recently posted internal job listings describe building the "next-gen clinical visit experience," as well as utilizing audio and touch technologies to improve the accuracy and availability of care.
That stands as just the latest project for Google Brain, which focuses on healthcare. Late last year, the Brain team launched a "digital scribe" study with Stanford Medicine, using speech recognition and machine learning tools so that doctors could automatically fill out electronic health records (EHR) from patient visits.
Additionally, Microsoft is working with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center on its own Intelligent Scribe system.
Related Items:Amazon, Cotiviti, cvs, Google, medical payments, News, prescription delivery, Verscend, What is Healthcare?
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Brex Raises VC Funding As It Launches Card For Startups


This card was inspired by Krista, using the paper and stamp set from Postcard perfect.
These Cards are from the workshops in the new expressions using Beautiful friendship.
If you want to see this new collection go to my website. While your there check out the NEW father's day stamp set "Dad is Rad.


Learn more about our internationally accredited TEFL certification course in Chiang Mai, Thailand to teach English in Southeast Asia & around the World.
Deposit: $500; Balance: $895 if enrolled 6 weeks in advance, $995 if enrolled 3-6 weeks in advance, $1095 if enrolled within 3 weeks of start date.
Housing costs not included in tuition. Learn More About Housing Options.
More information on TEFL Course Dates & Tuition. We recommend enrolling at least 90 days prior to your course start date.
Students should expect to be in class from 9:00 am - 4:00 pm. Occasionally on practice teaching days, class may start early or end a bit later.
A 4-year BA college degree is not required to enroll for this course. Be aware, a 4-year degree is normally required to obtain a work permit in Thailand.
Chiang Mai, Thailand - Our school is located close to the Tunghotel Road & Kaewnawarat Road junction between Arcade Bus Station & McCormick Hospital.
All students and graduates receive hands-on job placement assistance from the local staff in Thailand in addition to lifetime, worldwide job search guidance from ITA's expert team of advisors.
*Please note: All job search assistance from onsite coordinators and in-person TEFL courses are reserved only for students who enroll and take each respective onsite course. If you did not take an in-person course, please contact the Student Affairs team at International TEFL Academy for job search assistance.
Classes are capped at 20 students; reliable WiFi throughout building.
All International TEFL Academy TEFL Classes meet or exceed international standards and are accredited by recognized bodies in the field. Read more.
Read our Thailand - Country Profile to learn about the local job market for teaching English in Thailand, including salaries, interview procedures, visas & more.
Please review our Registration Procedure and the Terms & Conditions prior to enrolling (these documents will need to be signed upon registration).
We recommend they possess a language proficiency equivalent to at least IELTS band 6.5.
Looking to earn an accredited 4-week TEFL TESOL certification that will qualify you for thousands of English teaching jobs in Thailand and around the World? This state-of-the-art TEFL certification course not only provides expert-led training and a recognized qualification but personalized job placement assistance for finding jobs teaching English in Thailand and around the globe.
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Though most locals' command of English is limited, you'll find them warm and anxious to help. Thais are among the most friendly and outgoing of all people; most are curious about foreigners, and that curiosity is tempered by their interest in Western culture and your efforts to live among them and teach their friends and families. Our TEFL TESOL teachers have noted that the intensity with which Thai students throw themselves into learning English is amazing.
Our Chiang Mai Thailand TEFL TESOL course includes Cultural Awareness Day, which is Friday during the first week of class. This is part of the training.
Students are encouraged to organize their own evening and weekend social activities. Arcade Bus Station is 400m from the school. Chiang Mai International Airport is 5km away, and the Chiang Mai training station is 1km away.


Alderney was first inhabited 2000 years before the arrival of the Romans. However the oldest surviving reference to the island is in the Charter of 1042. When William the Conquerer become King in 1066 Alderney was attached to the English Crown for the first time.
Due to the island's position in the English Channel it has always been an area of strategic importance. The many fortifications on the island have been built by various occupying forces over the centuries. During the reign of Henry VIII war broke out between England and France and work commenced on a strong defensive fortification – Fort Essex – which can still be seen today. In 1793 with the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars, and a general feeling of instability, the British government sent 300 men to Alderney and they built Fort Doyle. A little later, in 1811, the Telegraph Tower was built to establish communication with Guernsey and Jersey. Locals have always been at the mercy of those who want to use the island to defend their own territories.
Fortification started in earnest in the 1850's when the British Admirality felt threatened by the strong French naval base at Cherbourg. At this point the Braye breakwater was constructed to create 'a harbour of refuge and observation'. Ten large forts were also built by an imported labour force, and these impressive structures can still be seen today.
The other evidence of military defence visible all over the island are the many bunkers. The Germans built these during World War Two, using Russian and French Jewish slave labour. The aim was to turn the island into one large fortress, with gun emplacements, defensive works, underground shelters and a network of tunnels. Alderney residents were evacuated at this occupied time but returned at the end of the war to find houses damaged, possessions gone, the breakwater in disrepair and the island itself looking a very different place.
The British government provided aid for the islanders to rebuild their homes, and also took the opportunity to instigate radical reforms in Alderney, resulting in the adoption of the Government of Alderney Law of 1948, that still regulates the island to this day. The island is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey and has all the tax advantages of it Channel Island neighbours, however Alderney does not have the restrictive residency qualifications requirements of Guernsey and Jersey. Non-locals are able to buy houses and take advantage of the lower tax and inheritance laws.


Reaching more HNWI who spend an increasingly amount of time online or "on-the-go" and demand great transparency from their wealth advisor, is also a key concern.
Capitalising on accrued business experience in the sector of Investment Management, Profile Software and its flagship investment management platform, IMSplus, enable you not only to address the above concerns but also to turn them into your benefit. IMSplus platform with the mobile application IMSplus Mobility ensure that the modern investment professionals (like RMs, asset managers and investors) are always up to speed with the latest developments and market updates while having instant access to portfolio analysis and trading tools.
Download the IMSplus Mobility trial version and see how this can help you reach out to your existing and potential clients and grow your book!
Make your banking operations flexible?
Profile Software announced the launch of the FMS.next Universal Banking on a new technological platform. The new version introduces an innovative approach to the operation of banking platforms, constituting a major technological upgrade of Profile Software's international Banking system.
Based on the latest .NET framework and designed with the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), FMS.next now offers an exciting, modern, flexible and easy to navigate user interface to Bank users. Integrated customization capabilities allow users to accelerate daily tasks and increase productivity, efficiency and customer satisfaction.
Profile Software will be hosting a short afternoon event for the Wealth management industry in the UK on 20 June 2013, between 17.00 and 20.00, at The Landmark Hotel London. The event will explore into the recent trends and concerns of the Wealth management professionals as the industry is being transformed by the latest regulations. Keynote speaker at the event, who will offer his valuable insight, is Mr. Ian Woodhouse, Director at PwC.His presentation titled "Wealth Management trends-opportunities and challenges in the changing landscape", will take place at 17:45.
The system's open architecture allows connection to any back office system enabling complete management of profit centres, data transmission as well as multi market support for order routing and front-to-back compliance checks.
After the successful reception in Geneva in the beginning of the year, Profile Software organized an event for the Investment Management firms in the MENA region, at the Grand Hyatt Hotel Dubai. The company's executives discussed the key industry concerns for regulation, compliance, transparency and profitability.
Profile Software has been awarded the "GoodAccredited Standard 2013" by Goodacre UK, the specialist consultancy firm operating within the financial services sector. Goodacre provides FCA authorised market participants with a unique source of reference on systems through the www.systemsinthecity.co.uk site.
Suppose you want to design the best company on earth to work for. What would it be like?
When companies try to accommodate differences, they too often confine themselves to traditional diversity categories—gender, race, age, ethnicity, and the like. These efforts are laudable, but the executives we interviewed were after something more subtle—differences in perspectives, habits of mind, and core assumptions.


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Q: Import empty string(column default value) instead of NULL value when using bcp utility with a external data file and format file I have a small issue with using bcp import tool. This is the case I have a .csv data file (field separator if | character) and format file. I can import data into the table successfully, but it is importing NULL value instead of empty strings in data file. consider below as sample record in data file
col1|col2|||col5|col6

I got output like below
col1 col2 NULL NULL col5 col6

but I am expecting below output
col1 col2  (empty string) (empty string) col5 col6

in my table definition, default values are empty string, is this due to an issue with data file (bcp data exporting command) or my data importing bcp command.
this is the command I used to import data
bcp [database].[table] in M:\data\xx.csv -f M:\format\XX.FMT -S serverName -T
Thanks and All reply are welcome.

A: I believe you have to create the column of the table to have default value empty string ""
For example:
create table mytable (
  col1 varchar(10) default ""
)

A: You can update from the interface in management studio In the editor properties of the column Default Value or Binding :
    (' ')

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Come to the Waverly Heritage Days "A Feast For Fireworks Fundraiser" on Wednesday, June 5, 2013 from 5-8 PM at the Waverly Pizza Ranch. Our can and bottle redemption donations are down this year and we're having this fundraiser for fireworks. A portion of the night's sales, along with tip offerings will go directly to support the fireworks spectacular. Please continue to drop off any extra cans or bottles at our bins in Waverly at Kwik Star East and Fareway.
← Who wants to march in a parade?


The basis of our portfolio construction process is that it must be consistent, clearly articulated and based on the latest academic research about building effective long term investment portfolios.
When we look to build an investment portfolio, there are various 'asset classes' into which we can invest your money. These include cash investments (like bank accounts), Australian share investments (which is an investment in Australian companies), property investments and international share investments (which is investing in overseas companies in the United States, Europe and Asia). There are even obscure asset classes like 'taxi licenses', 'wines' and 'art' - although we steer clear of these.
To get this mix right we very keenly focus on what income you need to draw from your portfolio, the time frame you intend to invest for and your investment experience. We also take into account our assessment of your attitude towards investment volatility (the ups and downs likely to be experienced by your investment portfolio) and your desire for investment profits.
We categorise all of the investments that are available into two general categories - defensive assets and growth assets.
Defensive assets are generally cash and fixed interest investments. Cash investments are bank account investments. The fixed interest investments we use are similar to bank term deposits. These investments provide a steady income stream, with the safety that the money invested in these asset classes is secure. You might say that these are the low risk, low return investments that will help you to sleep soundly at night.
Growth assets classes include Listed Property, Australian shares and International shares. Listed property investments are listed on the stock exchange, with the underlying assets being office buildings, retail shops and industrial sites (for example Westfield Shopping Centres). Owning Australian shares means that you are a part owner of a business, or portfolio of businesses listed on the Australian stock exchange (businesses like BHP and Telstra). Owning international shares means that you are owning businesses listed all over the world - the US, Europe and Asia. In owning all of these assets you would expect to experience significant fluctuations (volatility) in asset values. In some years they will rise sharply in value, other years they will fall in value. Importantly, the average return from these asset classes have been higher than the returns you get from investing in cash and fixed interest investments.
# The Australian share investments that we incorporate in out portfolio also include some listed property trusts.
Now, to get the balance of your portfolio right between the 'defensive' investments and the 'growth' investments, we take into account your specific income and capital needs, your investment timeframe and your acceptance of investment volatility. (The more growth assets in a portfolio, the higher expected return BUT the greater volatility).
The next step is to select the actual growth investments within each asset class. That is, how do we expose the portfolio to Australian shares, International shares and listed property trusts?
What exactly is an Index?
An index is the collection of all the investments in a particular investment universe. For example, the ASX 200 is the collection of the largest 200 companies on the Australian stock exchange (ASX).
Indices were developed as a method of measuring the performance of a market over time. What people did was to measure the change in performance of all of the companies in the index over time. For example, you often hear on the news that the 'ASX200' has risen by 1%. That means that on average the top 200 companies have risen in value by 1%. The biggest six companies in the ASX 200 index at the moment are BHP, the big 4 banks and Westfield.
Given that indices are used to measure performance, many investment managers measure their returns against the index. The results have been really significant - very few active investment managers managed to perform better than the index. This led, in the 1970's, to the start of a new way of investing, the 'Index Fund'.
An index fund is a managed fund investment that owns all of the investments that are in an index, in the same proportion as they exist in the index. For example, as we said previously the largest 6 companies in the ASX200 index are BHP, the big 4 banks and Westfield. These are then the biggest 6 companies in an index fund. An index fund simply mirrors the companies that make up the index.
Why do index funds work?
Index funds tend to have lower levels of trading. They are not buying and selling shares all the time, rather they hold the same portfolio of shares. There are two advantages of this. Firstly, you don't have the trading costs of buying and selling investments all the time and secondly, in the Australian tax environment, it is far more tax effective to buy and hold investments rather than trading all the time. Trading frequently leads to more capital gains tax having to be paid.
Here is an important point. The market index is a measure of the average market return. Therefore if you invest in an index fund you get the market return, less the relatively low index fund costs. The average return of all the other investors, then, must be the average market return (index return) less their higher active investment costs. Investing in an index fund actually guarantees you a higher return than most investors receive!
What are the index funds we use?
We use two main providers of index funds - Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA) Australia and Vanguard Investments - as a basis for our portfolios. The Australian shares component of our portfolios is based on the Dimensional Large Company Trust or Vanguard Australian Shares Index Fund or SSgA Australian Equities Index Trust, the International shares component of our portfolios is based on the Dimensional International Large Company Trust and our Listed property investments include the Vanguard Property Securities Index Fund (Australian listed property trust investments) and Vanguard Hedged International Property Securities Index Fund (international listed property trust investments).
On the defensive side of things, our core fixed interest investment is the Dimensional 5 Year Diversified Fixed Interest Trust. The '5 year' part of the title refers to the fact that it does not hold any fixed interest investments with more than a 5 year term. This is the first part of the strategy to keep this trust low risk for investors. The second part is to only invest in very high quality fixed interest investments, which rating agencies have rated 'AA' or better. This rating means that these are the highest quality fixed interest investments available - including Government bonds and bank bonds.
· The Company Size effect identified that small company shares have higher expected returns than large company shares. This is not entirely new to Fama and French's research, it had been proposed for some time. An example of a small company would be the Bank of Queensland - much smaller than the Commonwealth Bank which is amongst the 5 biggest companies listed on the Australian stock exchange.
· The Value Effect identifies that financially pressured or out of favour 'value' companies have higher expected returns than healthy and popular companies. This does not seem to make sense at first glance. One way to think about it is this, when a company is out of favour or under financial pressure everyone sells their shares. The price of the company falls, and it is only once it has fallen a long way that people become interested in buying it again - only once they are attracted to the company by the higher expected returns that come about because its share price has fallen so far.
All that is good in theory; however what we need is a 'show me the money' test. How have these index style small and value company funds performed.
The following tables represent the Australian share returns in two ways. Firstly is the average annual return over 10 years followed by the growth of $10,000 invested over 10 years. All returns are after Dimensional fees, and returns are to the end of June, 2012. As you can see the performance of the actual funds show that small companies and value companies, invested in a strategic way, provide a higher return than just the index return ( with the Dimensional Australian Large Company Trust reflecting the index return).
Within International shares these same sources of return premiums from value and small companies can be found.
There is also an extra sub-category to add to this mix - companies in Emerging Markets. Emerging Markets are those that are not yet developed but have significant potential for growth. Consequently they also are riskier and therefore can provide an extra risk premium for an investor who is comfortable to take on this extra risk. Our preferred fund, Dimensional Emerging Markets Trust, holds shares in companies listed in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Czech Republic, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Israel, Malaysia, Mexico, Philippines, Poland, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Turkey.
While we have not gone into as much detail with our returns data, the three year and five year returns show the value and small company premium over the index (the Dimensional Global Large Company Fund being close to the index return), as well as showing the effectiveness of the Emerging Markets fund.
How do we Build Portfolios from these Australian Funds and International Funds?
We combine all of these funds into investment portfolios. Commonly, we would invest around 50% of a portfolios Australian share exposure to the large companies fund, 30% to the value company fund and 20% to the small company fund. This provides a conservative core using the large company fund, with a tilt to the extra returns expected from value and small company funds.
For the international shares we use the global large fund as the main holding, and the small and value funds to tilt the portfolio towards these sources of additional return. We also include some exposure to the Emerging Markets fund, around 10% to 15% of the international investments in a portfolio.
For property we again incorporate the index style of investing by using index funds to access property investments. We break this investment down into 60% Australian Listed Property and 40% International Property. We choose a higher weighting towards Australian listed property because it has a tendency to provide more tax effective income. To achieve this we use the Vanguard Property Securities Index Fund for Australian property and Vanguard International Property Securities Index Fund (Hedged) for international property. Hedging the international property exposure takes out any currency exchange rate risk that can be found with investing in international markets.
The following graph gives an overall picture of the allocation of growth assets within a normal portfolio. This shows that that the portfolio has a significant amount of diversification.
While we are confident that Dimensional are the leaders in investment solutions, they themselves acknowledge that they will always be able to improve the structure of their investments. And with the intellectual capital at their disposal, such as two Nobel prize winners on their investment board, the continuing improvement will be rooted in intellectual rigour.
One recent improvement has been the introduction of 'core' trusts, both the Dimensional Australian core trust and the Dimensional Global core trust. These trusts have a structure that mirrors using 50% Dimensional large, 30% Dimensional value and 20% Dimensional small trusts. So why is this better? Because there is a reduced amount of trading in the core fund, compared to the three component funds - and that means reduced costs and taxes for investors. For example, if an investment moves from being classified as 'small' to 'large', then usually it has to be sold out of one trust and bought back into another. However, using the core trusts the investment does not have to be sold - it just passes within the trust. The expected benefit is not large, less than half a percent a year. Our strong feeling is that every small source of additional return is worth pursuing for clients!
Access to the Dimensional investments is restricted. Only financial advisers approved by Dimensional are allowed to access these funds for clients. This is primarily because Dimensional want their funds to be understood by investors, and used in long term investment portfolios, rather than being traded regularly. The regular buying and selling of funds creates tax problems and trading costs for all investors. Dimensional also have a $1 million minimum investment in their funds. That means that individual investors have to work through an approved adviser and through an administration service that allows access to the Dimensional accounts.
We currently choose Macquarie Investment Management Limited's Wrap Solutions, a division of the Macquarie Financial Services Group. Macquarie has won many industry awards for client service over the past decade. Their service standard commitments are genuinely good, their electronic portfolio administration platform uses leading edge technology, their systems are particularly secure, and they allow us access to the Dimensional and Vanguard funds from which we build effective client portfolios. We are particularly impressed by the Macquarie Wrap service's provision of online access to accounts by our clients with the ability to monitor progress and produce relevant reports such as: portfolio snapshots, valuations, performance reports to name a few. The Macquarie service also provides important records that help in the preparation of your tax returns. In the case of superannuation and pension investments, Macquarie looks after all of the tax accounting of the fund.
We also receive a significant rebate from Macquarie for using their Wrap which we pass on in full to our clients. This reduces the cost of the Macquarie fees by nearly 50%, and makes the Macquarie Wrap a very effective and cost effective solution.
This document has been prepared as a brief summary of how we develop investment portfolios. If you would like more detailed information please refer to our 'Investment Philosophy' which can be obtained through our website or by requesting a copy by email or phone.
This document is a publication of A Clear Direction Financial Planning. It contains general financial advice. Readers should check this advice with a professional financial adviser before acting on any of the material contained in this document.


When you shop for skin care products, do you shop based on the brand, the skin benefits it claims to offer, the color of the bottle, or maybe it was recommended to you? There are many reasons why we choose the skin care products that we choose. Perhaps you have tried numerous cleansers, lotions, masks, and scrubs until you found the one that left your skin feeling and looking better. Or maybe you just like switching it up and trying new things.
While you may not know what any of the ingredients in your skin care products do, let alone if they are beneficial or harmful, we think it is important to know what you are putting on your skin. At Azeal Dermatology Institute in Boulder, we can provide you with the skin care treatments and knowledge you need to help keep your skin healthy and beautiful. Let's start with the ingredients in your skin care products. While we offer general, cosmetic, and aesthetic dermatology services to help your skin, good skin care starts at home!
In this blog, we are going to talk about some of the ingredients and things to look for in your skin care products to ensure you are using a beneficial product that is healthy for your skin. Read on to learn more and try flipping the bottle over next time you purchase skin care products.
This is a chemical that your body creates naturally. It is contained in every cell and is an antioxidant, attacking free radicals in the body. An article from Cleveland Clinic mentions that its claim to fame is its anti-aging properties. This chemical can help prevent future skin damage and repair past damage. Thanks to it being soluble in water and oil, it can enter all parts of the cell. Alpha-lipoic acid is believed to provide the greatest protection against free radicals compared to other antioxidants. There are many benefits of this chemical in your skin care products including reducing fine lines, leaving skin glowing, and boosting other antioxidant levels. If you are looking for a skin care product that fights free radical damage and helps keep your skin looking young, this is one ingredient you will want in your products.
A MindBodyGreen article mentions this high performing ingredient that is found in the skin, connective tissue, and nerve tissue. This ingredient can help boost the appearance of dry, damaged skin by restoring suppleness and increasing the moisture in your skin. Hyaluronic acid can often be found in moisturizers and anti-wrinkle products because of its moisturizing properties. This acid can also boost the firmness and suppleness of skin because it can absorb up to 1000 times its own weight in water.
You may know the benefits vitamin C offers your body when you consume it daily, but do you know what it can do for your skin? Another MindBodyGreen article mentions some of these benefits. There are two forms of vitamin C. The first is called Ascorbyl palmitate. It is a "stable" form of the vitamin that does not require preservatives to stay active and functioning. The other form is more irritating and unstable, but it is also more beneficial for the skin. This is called ascorbic acid. The Cleveland Clinic article even mentions that this is the only form of vitamin C that you should look for in your skin care products. Others are not effective and do not offer any benefits.
Ascorbic acid can help with pigmentation, is necessary for collagen production, and acts as a natural sunscreen. This form of vitamin C also helps to strengthen the red blood capillaries that appear in the nose and cheeks as we wage, which help to keep them less visible. Since vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant, it helps fight free radicals that cause inflammation, which is another major benefit.
This ingredient is made from vitamin A and can often be found in anti-aging products. It helps boost the amount of collagen your skin makes, adding more plumpness to your skin. This form of vitamin A can also reduce signs of fine lines and wrinkles, improve skin tone, and even out complexion. The WebMD article mentions that over-the-counter products with retinol will be weaker, but you can be prescribed stronger products to help with aging, irregular color, and acne. Over-the-counter products will still be beneficial, but are weaker. One thing to be aware of is that retinol-based products may cause your skin to dry out slightly. It is best to use these products at night and a different moisturizer in the morning.
This ingredient is found in many products that treat acne. It is made from the bark of the willow tree and is oil soluble. This means it can blend with your skin's natural oils and penetrate the pores. Once in the pores, salicylic acid removes dead skin cells that clog the pore and cause breakouts. The removal of dead skin cells can also help to improve texture and color of sun-damaged skin. This ingredient is less irritating to the skin than products that contain alpha-hydroxy acids (which are also beneficial), while still providing similar benefits and improvements in color and texture of skin. The WebMD article mentions that you should avoid salicylic acid if you are allergic to aspirin. If you are allergic to aspirin and notice that your skin care products are making your skin itchy and causing hives, you may want to make sure it does not contain salicylic acid.
These are only a few of the main ingredients that you want to be added to your skin care products. There are many ingredients that can benefit your skin and target your needs. But there are also many ingredients that you should avoid, which we will go over some in our next blog.
Start checking the labels on your skin care products to ensure you are giving your skin what it needs to look and feel amazing. Schedule an appointment at Azeal Dermatology Institute in Boulder today to get your skin the treatment it needs! Or you can simply schedule a skin care consultation to learn more about your skin and what it needs. You can also shop through the products we offer at our office to find something that is healthy and recommended by us! Contact us today to learn more!


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Julie Lyonn Lieberman
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Short Bio, Composer Bio, and Full Length History
CONTACT: julielyonnmusic (at) gmail (dot) com
Julie Lyonn Lieberman is the recipient of the 2014 American String Teachers Association (ASTA) Kudos Award, over two-dozen ASCAP Plus Awards, eight Meet the Composer awards and three American String Teachers Association's National Citation for Leadership & Merit awards. The documentary she designed, moderated, performed in and edited—Improvised Violin: Four Personal Views—with Leroy Jenkins, Billy Bang, and John Blake, Jr. won honorable mention in the American Film and Video Festival.
FORMER STUDENTS:
She has had the honor of helping thousands of string players develop their professional lives, including Rani Arbo (Daisy Mayhem), Michael Snow, Sam Bardfeld, Asha Mevlana (Transiberian Orchestra), David Finch, Sarah Hubbard (Flobots), Heather Hardy (Lil' M`ama Band), Val Vigoda, Nathalie Bonin, Chris Murphy, Lisa Liu, Leanne Darling, Janice Martin, plus singers Grammy-nominated Vanessa Carlton, Putnam Murdoch, and Julie Flanders (October Project), and many, many more ...
JULIE LYONN LIEBERMAN has helped develop the multi-style string field over the last forty+ years through her work as an educator, author, radio producer, composer, writer, recording artist, and performer. She has performed on and off Broadway as well as in folk and jazz clubs throughout the United States, and abroad.
Julie is the author of twelve music books, five instructional music videos, seven hours of programming for National Public Radio, over two dozen string orchestra scores published by Alfred, Excelcia Music (originally Kendor Music) and Carl Fischer, as well as over fifty articles for music magazines.
Julie has presented master classes for ASTA, European String Teachers Association (ESTA), National Association for Music Education (NAfME), International Association for Jazz Educators (IAJE), the Suzuki Institute, National String Workshop, National Orchestra Festival, International String Workshop, National Young Audiences, and the Carnegie Hall LinkUp Program. She's been
on faculty as an adjunct at The Juilliard School, The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, William Paterson College Jazz Department, Manhattan School of Music, New York University's Gallatin Division, VanderCook College of Music, and Mercy College. In addition, she has worked as a guest clinician at the Eastman School of Music, Stanford Jazz Workshop, and many other schools and programs across the US, in Canada, and abroad.
She produced four American Jazz String Summits in the 1980s and 1990s featuring many of the top improvising string players in America, and co-produced three multi-style string festivals within the American String Teachers Conference in 2003, 2004, and 2005, serving as the chair for the 2004 component.
Julie is the Artistic Director for the program, Strings Without Boundaries, a D'Addario Orchestral Premiere Clinician through which she runs quarterly teacher training sessions in multi-style playing, an NS Design Performance Artist, as well as an Eastman Strings Ambassador.
Composer Bio
Julie Lyonn Lieberman has composed over two dozen American and World roots styled string orchestra scores published by Carl Fischer, Excelcia Music (originally Kendor Music), and Alfred Music. She is the recipient of over two dozen ASCAP awards and eight Meet the Composer awards and has performed her original music on and off Broadway, throughout the U.S., Canada, and in Europe, and on television and radio. She also has five recordings of original music to her credit.
Lieberman acted as composer-in-residence for four seasons at the City Center Manhattan Theatre Club Writers in Performance series. Her music for Alec Baldwin's/Steve Lawrence's production of "The Devil and Daniel Webster" aired on WNYC after premiering at City Center. Other productions include, "The Don," based on Edith Grossman's new translation and in celebration of Don Quixote's 400th birthday starring Mario Cantone, Ruben Santiago-Hudson and Daphne Rubin-Vega; as well as "Hemmingway," starring Peter Gallagher, and "Edgar," based on the life and writings of Edgar Allan Poe.
Lieberman's world jazz string quartet was commissioned by Manchester Music Festival, "Ben's Millennium Romp," and premiered to a standing ovation in 2000. She composed and recorded the sound track for the Taoist exercise video "Body Logos" in 2002. Her music for the play "The Yellow House" by Leonardo Shapiro won critical acclaim in the late eighties, premiering at La Mama in New York City and later traveled to Theatre of Nations, each for a thirty-night run.
Ms. Lieberman's recordings of original music include "Empathic Connections," 1981, "Arcturus," 1984, "The Roaring Brook Fiddler," 1991, and "Mixing America," 1994. She was also a guest artist on Laura Nyro's album, "Mother's Spiritual," 1984, designing her own violin lines for the album.
Ms. Lieberman was the composer-in-residence for the first feminist theatre company in the world, "Emmatroupe," for several years in the 1980s. The productions were contributed to by writers Gloria Steinem, Kate Millet, and Andrea Dworkin and directed by Eleanor Johnson.
She has also composed for and performed with such theater companies as Shaliko Company, The Magic Circle Opera Company, Imaginations Unlimited, and the Women's Ensemble Theatre. Compositions for dance companies include Sundance, The American Spanish Dance Company, and choreographers Merian Soto, Judy Dworin, and Holly Fairbank.
To date, Julie has fulfilled commissions for:
• City Center's "Writers in Performance" series (4 commissions)
• The off-Broadway production of "The Yellow House" written and directed by Leonardo Shapiro. It premiered at La Mama for 30 days and went to Theatre of Nations for another 30 days
• The off-off-Broadway productions of "A Girl Starts Out" and "Against Silence" for Emmatroupe
• Cedar Rapids Symphony
• Manchester Music Festival
• "Body Logos" (an exercise DVD)
• Numerous theater and dance companies and schools throughout the U.S.
Lieberman's compositions for blues, jazz, and world styles can be found in her books, "Rockin' Out with Blues Fiddle," "The Contemporary Violinist," "How to Play Contemporary Strings," and "A Festival of Violin & Fiddle Styles."
Full Length History
JULIE LYONN LIEBERMAN has helped develop the multi-style string field over the last forty+ years as a performer, recording artist, clinician, and author, as well as a concert, workshop and radio producer. She is the Artistic Director for the summer program, Strings Without Boundaries: Where 21st century techniques meet tradition, creativity, and style. She is also an NS Design Performance Artist, a D'Addario Premiere Clinician, and an Eastman Strings Ambassador.
Julie has performed her original music off-Broadway, with dance companies, in folk as well as in jazz clubs throughout the U.S., Canada, and in Europe, and on television and radio. She has five recordings of original music to her credit. Her original music was selected to be performed live at the 1984 New Music America conference in Houston, TX, and highlights in her career include concerts with the historic jazz violinists Joe Kennedy, Jr.
She started her performance career at folk festivals in the 1970s and 80s, working with artists like Lewis London, Papa John Kolstad, Barbara Dane, and David Amram. During this time period, she was a member of the trio, Nightsong, performing original and traditional music up and down the east coast. She then toured with Laraaji Venus, performing in venues like Omega Institute and New York Open Center. She also performed with three members of the Paul Winter Consort: Jim Scott, Susan Osborne, and David Darling.
She performed as a jazz violinist in the Steve Browman Jazz Quintet for a number of years before beginning to tour under her own name, hiring artists based on location.
She has performed on Broadway (M. Butterfly) in New York City, Toronto, and Atlanta, as well as off-Broadway as the composer/performer for the productions of The Yellow House (at La Mama and Theatre of Nations) as well two productions by Emmatroupe, the first feminist theatre company in the world: Against Silence and A Girl Starts Out.
Julie has also performed with Grammy-nominated vocalist Janet Lawson, and has shared the stage with colleagues such as Matt Glaser, Darol Anger, John Blake, Jr., L Shankar, Dave Balakrishnan, Martin Norgaard, Matt Wilson, Richard Greene, as well as artists like Glen Velez and Steve Gorn.
Julie's violin playing can be heard on Laura Nyro's final album, Mother's Spiritual, as well as on material recorded by New Kids on the Block. Her recordings of original music featuring voice and violin, include Empathic Connections, 1981, Arcturus, 1984, Roaring Brook Fiddler, 1991, and Mixing America, 1994. She has also played violin on made-for-TV films, and TV commercials.
Lieberman has been featured as the primary violinist on the recording, Fiddle, that is used throughout the world by the organization "Music Together."
Some of the artists that have recorded with Julie include Dave Samuels, Rufus Reid, and Armen Donelian, among others.
Julie is the author of thirteen music books, including A Festival of Violin & Fiddle Styles, 12 Rock Strings Lesson Plans, The Creative Band and Orchestra, The Contemporary Violinist, 12-Key Practice, How to Play Contemporary Strings, Alternative Strings: The New Curriculum, Improvising Violin, Rockin' Out With Blues Fiddle, You Are Your Instrument, and Planet Musician.
She has written over 55 articles for publications such as STRINGS, STRAD, Fiddler Magazine, Downbeat Magazine, School Band and Orchestra, American String Teacher Journal, and Jazz Educators Journal, and has been featured in hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles and reviews.
She authored the Creative Musicianship section for ASTA's national curriculum book, and has six educational DVDs to her credit. Julie also worked on Tracy Silverman's Strum Bowing book, Jeannie Deva's Powerful Performances, as well as Debbie Lyle's Bornoff Primer (Foundation for the Advancement of String Education).In addition, she has created seven programs for National Public Radio on jazz violin (The Talking Violin hosted by Billy Taylor, and Jazz Profiles: Jazz Violin hosted by Nancy Wilson). In addition, she developed the creative musicianship curriculum for American String Teachers Association's publication, Curriculum for School String Programs K-12, authored a chapter for a book by STRINGS Magazine and helped The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music develop a jazz string curriculum.
Her curriculum for her national project, The Green Anthem was implemented in part by MENC: Music Educators National Conference, reaching six million participants.
Julie has composed over two dozen published string orchestra scores in American and World styles (Kendor Music, Alfred Music, and Carl Fischer).
Lieberman is the recipient of two-dozen ASCAP awards and eight Meet the Composer awards for her original music. Her opus to the planet, The Green Anthem, was included in MENC's 2010 World's Largest Concert.
She was the composer-in-residence for three seasons at the City Center Manhattan Theatre Club "Writers in Performance" series. Her music for Alec Baldwin's/Steve Lawrence's production of "The Devil and Daniel Webster" aired on WNYC after premiering at City Center. Other productions included "The Don," based on Edith Grossman's new translation and in celebration of Don Quixote's 400th birthday starring Mario Cantone, Ruben Santiago-Hudson and Daphne Rubin-Vega,; "Hemmingway," starring Peter Gallagher, and "Edgar," based on the life and writings of Edgar Allan Poe.
Lieberman's jazz string quartet, commissioned by Manchester Music Festival, premiered to a standing ovation in 2000. She also composed and recorded the soundtrack for the Taoist exercise video Body Logos in 2002. Her music for the play The Yellow House by Leonardo Shapiro won critical acclaim in the late eighties. To date, she has fulfilled numerous multi-style string orchestra commissions for venues like Cedar Rapids Symphony, Duluth High School (premiered at GMEA), Milwaukee School for Languages, to name a few.
Julie has taught creative musicianship and world string styles privately as well as in school residencies and teacher trainings across the United States, Europe, and Canada, as well as through organizations and institutions like American String Teachers Association, European String Teachers Association, National Orchestra Festival, National Association for Music Education, International Association of Jazz Educators, The Midwest Clinic, The Starling-Delay Symposium, Suzuki Institute, National String Workshop, International String Workshop, Django in June, The Juilliard MAP Program, National Young Audiences, the Carnegie Hall LinkUp Program, and The Academy (produced by Carnegie/Weill Hall/Juilliard). She also served on the board of advisors for Ken Burns's 2001 Jazz documentary.
Homespun Tapes has issued three products featuring her as an educator: "Improvising Violin" (a series of five lessons on CD); "The Instrumentalist's Guide To Fitness, Health, and Musicianship" (a companion DVD to her book, You Are Your Instrument); and "The Vocalist's Guide To Fitness, Health, and Musicianship" (a companion DVD to her book, You Are Your Instrument).
She has created dozens of video tutorials for bowed string players as well as vocalists.
Julie Lyonn Lieberman is the recipient of the 2014 ASTA Kudos Award, and has garnered over two-dozen ASCAP Plus Awards, and three American String Teachers Association's National Citation for Leadership & Merit awards.
Julie produced specials and appeared on a weekly interview show on WBAI in NYC for four years. Her music and live interviews were featured a number of times on WNYC in NYC, including on John Shaefer's program, New Sounds. She has been interviewed on numerous radio programs across the country as well as in France. She also produced two series for National Public Radio: The Talking Violin with Dr. Billy Taylor, host, and Jazz Profiles: Jazz Violin with Nancy Wilson, host.
Julie Lyonn Lieberman Early History
Early History (synopsis)
Julie Lyonn Lieberman grew up in Montclair, New Jersey. Her parents, Dr. Rosilyn Wilder (d.2006), actress, educator, director, and author, and Ben Lieberman (d. 1999), journalist and sculptor, exposed her to dance, theater, and music lessons from age two, on. Her sister, Jeannie Deva, was a prominent vocal coach, singer, and authored The Contemporary Vocalist. Her husband, Len Cascia, is an instrument-builder, software programmer, and plays pedal steel, guitar and piano. They married in 1998. She was exposed to American and world roots music from an early age. Her family was extremely active on the folk music scene, helping to start the Folk Society of Northern New Jersey. Her cousins booked the U.S. tour for the Boys of the Lough—with whom she traveled as a teen, and her Uncle, Robert Weiss, created the alternative to Tanglewood, The Music Inn, in the Berkshires, which was run by her cousin, David Rothstein.
Between the years 1962 to 1976, Lieberman studied classical violin with Samuel Applebaum, Nancy Clarke, Romuald Tecco, Stanley Richie, William Henry, and at Manhattan School of Music Prep Division. While in college at Sarah Lawrence College (1972–1976, BA) she began eight years of study off-campus with jazz pianist Sal Mosca (1974–1982). Later, she earned her MA at New York University Gallatin Division.
Parallel to her education on violin, Julie took private voice lessons and weekly performance workshops with Ray Evans Harrell, Director of the Magic Circle Repertory Company, for seven years; she also studied voice with Maitland Peters, Department Chair at Manhattan School of Music, for another seven years. Other studies include four years of Alexander Technique with Judah Kataloni, an in-depth workshop with famed Moshe Feldenkrais, composition with Dary John Mizelle and Stanley Walden, and Technologies for Creating as well as Structural Consulting with Robert Fritz.
During the eighties, Lieberman produced the First, Second, and Third American Jazz String Summits in New York City. These seminal events helped put improvised string players on the map. She presented over thirty improvising string players, such as Claude "Fiddler" Williams, Darol Anger and Dave Balakrishnan's first installment of Turtle Island String Quartet, David Darling, John Blake, Jr., Scarlet Rivera, Vicki Horner Richards, L. Subramanium, L. Shankar, and more, helping many of these artists achieve recognition on a broader scale through coverage of the concerts by The New York Times, The Daily News, The New York Post, prominent radio programs like "New Sounds" with John Schaefer, host, as well as through string magazine coverage. Her first National Public radio series, The Talking Violin, premiered in 1989, and featured the history of improvisation on violin from 1925 through the late eighties. Over fifty improvising violinists were included. Ms. Lieberman also helped create and appeared in the documentary film, Improvised Violin: Four Personal Views, with Leroy Jenkins, Billy Bang, and John Blake, Jr. In the late eighties. She also toured with the bilingual theatre company as musical director to perform Della Burford's "Journey to Dodoland" throughout NYC and Guatemala.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


First to review Katia R.
Part of a chain of seven Frog pubs, Frog and Princess is a no-frills sports bar that brews its own beer and is frequented by a primarily English-speaking crowd drawn in by the home brews, numerous TVs, and loudly cheering sports fans who gather to watch their favorite teams.
A long bar, simple dark wood fixtures, and rustic booths constitute the décor, though the main focus are the enormous brewing vats hooked up to the taps and sporting wry names like The Dark de Triomphe, Inseine, and Parislytic. The bar also hosts various parties and theme nights that always promise a good time.
Though the crowd is on the young side, just about anyone who shows up will fit right in with the boisterous, fun-loving expats who flock in to share the Frog's convivial atmosphere.
The Frog and Princess has become an institution for homesick expats in need of comfort food and an English-speaking crowd. One amusing exception to that rule is the French contingent drawn in for the 'Speed English' games on Wednesday nights – always worth a few laughs with a great mix of people.
Sports shown on TV. Theme nights includes Sunday's Quiz Night, Monday's all-night Happy Hour, and Speed English on Wednesdays. Check the website for details on changing themes and nights.
Typical bar menu of wings, nachos, potato skins, and burgers served daily 5:30–11:30pm, brunch served Saturdays and Sundays noon–4pm.
Happy Hour M–F 5:30–8pm, all night on Monday for select beers. Patrons can show their passports any night to get a free drink.
Menu €6–€13. Beer €6+, pitchers €20+.
Mondays for the all-night Happy Hour.
Across the street is Coffee Parisien (4 Rue Princesse), which serves classic American diner food like home fries, pancakes, and burgers from noon to midnight.
As hesitant as I am to head to a bar in Paris, knowing it is going to be mostly foreigners, I can't deny The Frog And The Princess was a favorite spot of mine. It definitely is filled with students studying or backpackers traveling through Paris, with everyone speaking English. However, it offers a sense of comfort to those, especially Americans and Australians, I'd say, that are looking to meet others like themselves. Everyone there, including the staff members, are always consistently friendly and welcoming. The dress code is casual but this is in an alley where there are tons of other places to check-out and some are a bit more upscale. So, if you are looking to check out a few bars in the area on the same night, I'd suggest dressing a bit on the nicer side.


Battalion 1, Quint 17, Engine 17, Engine 21, and other FWFD units are on scene of a well involved structure fire, reported to be at a vacant church, in the 5000 block of Stanley Ave. Requesting a second alarm to the scene. Avoid this area.


Notice: If you have an Android version lower than 5, you need to give ROOT permission to be able to use the Screenshot function with EasyTouch. For Android versions 5 (and 5+), you DON'T NEED any permission to use the Screenshot. Thank you!
EasyTouch (pink style) is an assistive tool especially designed for girls' smartphone. It is a floating button that you can move anywhere on your screen. It is fast, small, smooth and easy to use. It contains the Android system most used switches and all your installed apps. You can control your device or open your favorite app easily without exiting the app currently in use. All the functionalities are fast accessible just with a single touch. It remains floating on your screen and it is quick, easy, convenient and customizable. With a great variety of theme styles available.
With a pink floating panel on the screen, you can easily operate your smartphone. It is very convenient to quickly access to all your favorite apps, games, settings and notifications. If your phone becomes slow, laggy and it freezes, you can use the Boost function to make your phone faster. Easy Touch is also an ideal app to protect the physical buttons (Home Back Button or Volume Button).
– With Easy Touch, you can easily operate your Android phone with just one hand.
– Click on the icon to set your function mode in the small floating button.
– Take screenhots & create your own Screenshot style.
– Supports DIY theme & new themes are often updated.
3.How do we use the sensitive permissions?
– BIND_DEVICE_ADMIN: Only used to lock device screen andturn off the screen of your device.
1.The default theme has gone back to the original one!


Prof. Huang Wei, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, is an expert in Organic Optoelectronics. He is a chair professor of the "Thousand Talents Program" and the "Cheung Kong Scholars Program", winner of the "National Outstanding Youth Fund", chief scientist of the "National 973 Programs", visiting professor of National University of Singapore, honorary professor and part-time professor of Peking University and the Chemistry Institute of Chinese Academy of Sciences and the other research institutes. He leads the construction of the discipline of organic optoelectronics which has been listed into the dominant disciplines to be constructed with priority in Jiangsu Province. He is invited reviewer for more than 40 well-known international academic journals and a number of international academic foundations. He has published more than 480 academic papers in SCI Journals as first author or corresponding author. He has won a first prize and two second prizes of the Jiangsu Provincial Science and Technology Progress Award. He has won titles of "Nanjing Top 10 Star of Science and Technology", "Jiangsu Provincial Outstanding Worker of Science and Technology", "National Advanced Worker of Science and Technology", "Jiangsu Provincial 333 High-Level Personnel", "Chief Young Scientist" etc.


You may have seen a BBC News story that reported that half of Britons hold 'authoritarian populist' views, perhaps a prelude to the rise of a British Donald Trump. It was covered on the Today Programme and given a long, uncritical article on the BBC News website.
The study … measured the sentiment by assessing respondents' ideological sympathy for the market and rolling back the state; a "strong and tough" foreign policy; a negative emotional response to immigration; a critical attitude to human rights and disapproval of the European Union.
To quote Ed Miliband, that's just totally wrong. Ideological sympathy for the market and rolling back the state, as readers of this blog presumably know along with almost anybody who has thought about it for more than two seconds, is not an authoritarian belief. Indeed given that the state can be reasonably described as an 'authority' it would not be inaccurate to call these beliefs 'anti-authoritarian'.
Most of the other categories are hardly 'authoritarian populism' either. One can favour a 'strong' foreign policy that nevertheless does not kill innocent people needlessly. My grandmother sometimes has a 'negative emotional response to immigration', but does not actually want to restrict it. I guess our internationalist Liberal Case for Leave counts as 'authoritarian populism' by this study's metrics, as would Jeremy Bentham for daring to take a critical attitude to human rights.
Obviously this is a crap bit of research and it should be ignored. But what's frustrating is not just how unquestioningly the BBC reported it, but that the paper itself does not seem to be publicly available, even to other academics. I cannot find even a working paper online and it doesn't seem to have been published yet. The BBC say it was 'shared with BBC Radio 4's Today programme' so I think it's fair to presume that we can't look at this unless we contact the authors directly and ask nicely.
This is irresponsible. It just doesn't do to give airtime to an unpublished paper that describes centre-right and liberal views as quasi-Trumpist authoritarianism – not just because it's unfair to people like me who don't really want to be thought of as authoritarian populists, but because it's misleading and false. I guess the authors don't realize how wrong they are, and think that the only reason you might be 'right-wing' is because you're an angry authoritarian – not because you think markets make people better off, or the EU doesn't work as well as we'd like.
The last decade or so has seen academia become increasingly open to scrutiny and criticism, and that's a good thing. Open access journals and the use of 'working papers' to get round publishing restrictions in gated journals allow people from outside academia to use and challenge existing research. The more freely-available work like this is, the better.
But much of the media hasn't caught up. It's common to cover research papers from think tanks, consultancy firms and academics that haven't been made publicly available – take this FT article, based on unpublished research, that claimed that building more houses didn't drive down house prices (because it only looked at prices in small areas where houses were being built). At least a dozen times in the past twelve months alone the ASI has been asked to comment on some new study that hasn't been made available yet – as if we can criticise something without seeing it first.
The practice of reporting on research that is not open to scrutiny by others has to stop. At best it holds back the progress the world is making towards more open access to academic research. At worst it leads to bad research being reported without being challenged properly, and people who trust the news they read being misled.


text:
Q: Normalizing to log I have an array of numbers I'd like to normalize. Problem is that I do not want a linear normalization. The numbers represent a ranking of people and I want the values to be spread between 0 and 10 inclusive and it should be easy to climb the lower ranks and hard for the hard ones.
I was thinking about distributing them similar to a logarithmic scale, but have no idea on how to do that.
Any idea

A: You can certainly make breakpoints anything you want.  For example, if the range of raw scores is $1$ to $1024$, you could take the base $2$ log and get $0$ to $10$.  Then to get from $9$ to $10$ you need $512$ added raw points.  If your range is $a$ to $b$ you can just do a linear rescaling to get to $1$ to $1024$: $scaled=1+1023\frac{raw-a}{b-a}$, then take the log.  Does this help?


text:
Why Mikhail Gribov Believes Instagram Reels is Necessary in a Social Media Strategy
Instagram Reels has become one of the major social media trends where individuals and businesses have grown their networks exponentially. However, while this new Insta feature offers exponential growth in both reach and revenues, one needs a guide to gain followers despite the unique challenges in language and demographics.
Mikhail Gribov, a Russian influencer and entrepreneur from Moscow, created an online university that helps people learn a new skill and earn money online with more than 10,000 students in 2020; they decided to enter the international scene and help individuals and businesses grow their own Instagram account.
After Mikhail picked up a bachelor's degree, he worked in human resources for a few years. Then, he would later realize that he wasn't cut out for the typical nine-to-five pattern. So last February 2020, he created a new personal brand on Instagram called "@instacoachmike." He also started creating content on TikTok, focusing on education content about social media growth but encountered hurdles along the way. Six months later, with a high-level determination and consistency, he was able to gain 700,000 followers on IG and, in nine months, built online businesses that have earned six figures in revenue. He would later shift towards teaching people to reach the same milestones. Since then, Mikhail ha has helped over 2,000 people grow their accounts and businesses on Instagram with almost 13-minute viewership.
In recent times, Mikhail has been focusing heavily on teaching his students to utilize Instagram Reels to grow their brands and promote their businesses. He started an online course called "Master Reels," which dives deep into Reels, one of Instagram's latest features to adopt the short video era of content. He shows how he could use IG Reels to grow his following and generate more leads and sales for his online business. The course goes into everything one needs to know about Instagram's latest feature, including algorithms, types of effective reels, content ideas, how to set up a content plan, and so on.
Many people think you need to post entertaining content to grow on social media. Like dancing, twerk, and so on. But Gribov teaches his students to study and know their niche to know their behavior and mindsets.
In Gribov's desire to help anyone who wants to grow their accounts or business on Instagram, he has discovered the fundamentals of building followers on Instagram from scratch. He teaches one technique to show people how to zero in on a practical niche. Doing so makes it much easier to develop ideas and gain followers once the people know what your account is all about. "To find your niche, you can ask yourself: What is my biggest passion? What do I know or love the most?" explains Mikhail.
Still, with all that Mikhail Gribov has accomplished, he remains hungry. His goal is to create a product that would benefit and enrich a million people. He knows how to do that best by teaching them how to leverage social media strategies to scale businesses and influence. To start growing your IG followers for personal or business purposes, you can check out Mikhail Gribov's website.


Who Gave Chalabi Top-Secret Info?
FBI agents are questioning Defense Department officials in an effort to find out who told Iraqi leader Ahmad Chalabi that the U.S. had cracked secret codes used by Iran.
CBS News has learned that Chalabi recently told an Iranian intelligence official that the U.S. had cracked the codes, allowing the U.S. to read communications on everything from Iran's sponsorship of terrorists to its covert operations inside Iraq.
Chalabi has denied passing any classified information to Iran, and Chalabi supporters have asserted that the CIA is out to destroy the former exile.
In Najaf, Iraq, Chalabi said Wednesday it was "false" and "stupid" to assert he had tipped Iran to the code break.
"Where would I get this from?" he asked. "I have no such information. How would I know anything about that? That's stupid from every aspect."
Chalabli was once touted as a strong candidate to lead postwar Iraq by some White House and Pentagon officials, but he has suffered a rapid fall from the grace, in no small measure because the U.S. learned he was giving secret information to Iran.
On May 20, Iraqi police backed by American soldiers raided Chalabi's Baghdad home and offices. Chalabi is a controversial figure who provided the Bush administration with prewar intelligence on supposed weapons of mass destruction in Iraq -- including the now-discredited information about mobile weapons labs.
After the raid on his home and offices, 60 Minutes Correspondent Lesley Stahl reported that the U.S. had evidence Chalabi has been passing highly classified U.S. intelligence to Iran.
The New York Times, citing U.S. intelligence officials, said the U.S. learned of Chalabi's activities when an Iranian intelligence agent in Baghdad sent a coded message to Tehran reporting that Chalabi had told him the U.S. had broken the codes.
According to the message, which was read by the U.S., Chalabi claimed to have gotten the information from an unnamed American who was drunk, the Times said.
Chalabi is still active and visible on the scene in Iraq where he is a member of the Iraqi Governing Council.
Over the Memorial Day weekend, Chalabi was reportedly involved in negotiations to maintain a faltering ceasefire in the city of Kufa between U.S. military and radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
Chalabi and other Shiite leaders met with al-Sadr representatives and declared there was "a momentum for peace."