text:
Out of This World Experience with these Exotic Travel Destinations
Watch Awesome Kate Manner Go Full Dancing Pro in Peru this Week
HomeDigiday
Digiday+ Research: Buzz aside, how are publishers and marketers really experimenting with blockchain?
This is the fifth part of a research series on the most popular emerging technologies. The series follows up on a report Digiday produced five years ago to discover how technologies previously reported on have evolved and to explore new technologies that have since emerged. In this segment, we look at how publishers and marketers are using blockchain technology.
Despite a lot of hype surrounding non-fungible token drops and cryptocurrency investments, blockchain technology is lagging well behind other emerging technologies in widespread adoption. In fact, of all the emerging technologies Digiday+ Research has examined in this series, blockchain remains the most theoretical and speculative in its use.
NFTs and cryptocurrency were hot buzzwords in 2021, with brands and publishers ramping up investments and experiments – or at least paying lip service to doing so. But by late 2022, the daily market size of NFTs on Ethereum, a cryptocurrency platform supporting the majority of NFTs, was much lower than in 2021. The daily average sales value dropped from $178 million in August 2021 to just $90,000 by Nov. 29, 2022, according to Statista.
And cryptocurrency itself suffered a major market crash late last year, with crypto exchange FTX filing for bankruptcy in November. The crypto market in general tends to be volatile as cryptocurrencies are purely speculative, backed by little inherent value or meaningful regulation. Waning consumer interest in cryptocurrency was also reflected in Google search trends, as searches for the term "cryptocurrency" rose and fell rapidly between 2020 and 2022 with lower and lower peaks, according to Digiday analysis.
Of the small set of publishers and marketers who do use blockchain technology, the majority have found the most practical applications in NFTs, with cryptocurrencies coming in third in actual usage. To ramp up consumer interest, some early adopters aim to make the technologies more accessible and easy to use. Publishers are incorporating blockchain experiences into live events by turning event tickets into NFTs, while marketers are hoping to demystify NFT sales by letting consumers use credit cards rather than cryptocurrency for transactions. Other marketers are adding bitcoin payment options for transactions on their websites. But across the board, both companies and consumers are struggling to find a true purpose for the technology.
"If there's a term that is overused more than AI, it's probably blockchain," said Gannett's CTO Vincent Cirel. "I don't think the general public out there has anything but the vaguest idea of what some of the use cases for blockchain are."
For this report, Digiday+ Research surveyed 388 industry professionals at organizations including agencies, brands, retailers and publishers to uncover how they're currently using blockchain technologies, like NFTs and cryptocurrency – and how they plan to incorporate the technologies in the future.
Only 16% of marketer and publisher respondents invest in or use blockchain, making it the most theoretical emerging technology in Digiday's series. More than 70% said they do not use it at all.
Of those who do use blockchain, more than half (51%) rely on third-party vendors to build their blockchain technology.
NFTs are the most used blockchain technology, with 64% of respondents using them. Supply chain transparency and cryptocurrency are the second and third most common uses at more than 45% each. Security is last at slightly more than one third of respondents.
Publishers and marketers mainly use NFTs with the goal of generating brand awareness (81% of respondents). Establishing new revenue streams and gaining new customers come next.
The most common goal for using cryptocurrency is for transactions (58% of respondents chose this), with new revenue streams, brand awareness and customer acquisition also top of mind, similar to NFTs.
Third-party NFT marketplaces (70%) and cryptocurrency exchanges (45%) are platforms marketers and publishers commonly use to sell virtual goods in exchange for crypto payments. But owned and operated platforms rank high too, in second place at 60%.
Publishers and marketers alike are struggling to find practical ways to implement blockchain technology, with the majority (71%) saying it is not relevant to their business.
Blockchain's potential has yet to be realized, as real-world applications are lacking
When considered alongside the other emerging technologies Digiday has examined over the course of this series, such as artificial intelligence and augmented and virtual reality, blockchain is lagging behind other emerging technologies in widespread marketer and publisher adoption. Only 16% of marketer and publisher respondents invest in or use blockchain and nearly three quarters (72%) of marketers and publishers said they don't use the technology at all.
Adam Simon, executive director at IPG Media Lab, said this lack of adoption is keeping blockchain stuck in the realm of a largely theoretical emerging technology, rather than one with widespread usage. "NFTs and Web3 technologies have gotten a lot of attention, but if you look at the real numbers, they're quite small," Simon said. "The number of people who have activated a crypto wallet is less than a million people."
A primary reason behind the lack of adoption is that companies are struggling to find real-world opportunities to use the technology beyond creating buzz through one-off events like NFT drops. NFTs act as a non-duplicable digital certificate of ownership for any assigned digital asset. They are easier to market to consumers in the form of digital artwork or collectibles, but maintaining consumer interest in NFTs is something companies are still experimenting with, according to Simon.
"There are potential long-term interesting applications of things like tokenized access — using an NFT on the blockchain to provide access to unique experiences," he said. "The experiments we've seen with tokenized access so far have been very similar to things you could easily build using traditional technologies like ticketing."
"There has been talk about reducing the cost of coordination and offering experiences that are unique to someone who is a holder of multiple NFTs from different providers," Simon added.
Cryptocurrency has its own hardships to face when it comes to business investment and consumer interest. It took a major hit recently — both financially and in terms of public perception. FTX, a popular cryptocurrency exchange based in the Bahamas, collapsed in November 2022 after a CoinDesk report revealed that the company lacked funds to back customers' withdrawals. FTX declared bankruptcy on Nov. 11, with founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried stepping down as his net worth dipped to near-zero from almost $16 billion. In December 2022, Bankman-Fried was arrested on eight federal counts of fraud and conspiracy after being accused of organizing a plan to defraud FTX investors.
In general, the crypto market tends to be volatile, as cryptocurrencies are currently purely speculative, backed by no inherent value and no federal governing body yet regulating the market. Likewise, the value of NFTs can be unpredictable, since they tend to rely on hype to drive and sustain consumer interest.
For companies that have found a reason to invest in blockchain technology, most rely on external vendors to build their technology applications, with just over half (51%) of respondents saying they use a third-party vendor. Only about one quarter (24%) use an in-house team to build blockchain technology – likely given its complexity and security implications – and another 25% use a combination of in-house and third party vendors.
Decrypt Studios is one such third-party vendor that helps provide brands with the means to mint their own NFTs and produce other blockchain-related products. The studio is owned by the media arm of the blockchain investment company ConsenSys Mesh and opened in October 2021. It focuses on producing projects using blockchain and Web3 technology for both brands and individual creators, ranging from NFT drops to metaverse-adjacent activations.
"Minting an NFT is not for the faint of heart. You have to understand things that are endemic to the crypto world that a lot of the folks coming into [Web3] don't understand yet," said Alanna Roazzi-Laforet, CRO and publisher at Decrypt Media and head of Decrypt Studios. "There's so many open questions in the space and the answers keep changing. So we help demystify all of that.
In other instances, brands themselves are investing in third-party solutions. For example, late last year Nike bought digital art studio RTFKT, which specializes in virtual product drops and NFTs. With the purchase, Nike became the first major retailer to acquire a company in the NFT space, perhaps signaling that NFTs and virtual product drops could become a more important part of retailers' digital strategies going forward, despite some post-hype skepticism.
Marketers, publishers primarily use blockchain tech for NFTs
Although blockchain's early promise for business utility was to securely log transactions between buyers and sellers — and indeed that remains its most talked-about capability — the most common reason marketers and publishers use blockchain technology is for NFTs (according to 64% of respondents). Supply chain transparency and sustainability (49%) and cryptocurrency (47%) are second and third, with nearly half of respondents using blockchain for those purposes, respectively. Only a little more than one-third of respondents have found reasons to employ blockchain for encryption and security, making it the least common utility.
NFTs have risen to the top of the list of potential applications thus far because both publishers and marketers can readily market and sell NFTs to consumers as digital art pieces or collectible items, foregrounding the aspect most understandable to consumers. Brands generally make the one-of-a-kind digital tokens available through "drops" on an app or NFT marketplace, releasing them at an exact date and time and minting them in limited batches.
An NFT's value is based on how well received the item is by the people who are willing to buy it, usually using cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin. Once a consumer has purchased an NFT, they have the digital rights to resell, distribute or license it as they see fit.
Some companies, like clothing brand PacSun, have even shifted to a digital-first marketing strategy, with an emphasis on NFTs, along with other emerging technologies like AR and VR. The company launched its first NFT initiative in November 2021, which focused on its classic wave logo. In January 2022, PacSun unveiled its own NFT series, dubbed Pac Mall Rats.
"This is not just a new category, but it's an important one," PacSun co-CEO Alfred Chang said. "Being able to have products, skins and other elements in a virtual world along with the physical world, I think it just expands our retail reach. For us, it's important that we not only participate today, but it's something that we absolutely [need to] stay relevant. Our expectation is that we will be right there as well in terms of expanding our offering."
While PacSun has its eye on increasing its future use of NFTs, Complex Networks' head of experiential Neil Wright said not enough brands have thought about how to use the technology beyond initial experimentation.
"A lot of brands have tried to drop an NFT as a knee-jerk reaction to what was happening [in the marketplace], but they didn't have a long term strategy," Wright said. "They're not monetizing this NFT on the secondary market because there's really no value, no incentive for people to want to trade it."
Notably, brands are unable to make revenue in the secondary market when NFTs are resold because reselling typically happens on platforms other than brand owned-and-operated ones. Since NFTs do not generate lifelong revenue for brands, marketers typically use NFT drops in order to bring attention to the brand and the company's ability to use emerging technologies.
Supply chain transparency and cryptocurrency are next in line, but security has low priority
Companies' second most used application of blockchain technology is for supply chain transparency and sustainability. This form of blockchain technology provides accountability and security through the production process —- something that's particularly important for fashion brands as a way to better verify a material or product's authenticity.
In April 2021, luxury goods conglomerate LVMH, in conjunction with Cartier and Prada, launched a global luxury blockchain in which users can add information about a product as it makes its way from where materials are sourced to the creation of the finished product — thus opening a window into the company's supply chain and allowing consumers to follow the entire product journey.
The nature of a blockchain means that no one can change any information added to the ledger, and LVMH said in a statement at the time, "The objective is to provide consumers with a high level of transparency and traceability throughout the lifecycle of a product."
Five years ago, as blockchain began to enter more mainstream vernacular, it mainly referred to cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and Tether. However, in 2022, cryptocurrency is only the third most commonly used form of blockchain technology, with 47% of respondents saying they use blockchain for cryptocurrency and digital coins — mainly by accepting them as payment.
Much of the early hype around cryptocurrencies subsided not long after it began. Crypto values skyrocketed for a while until early 2018, when the bitcoin bubble burst and prices dropped. At the same time, public perception of the technology began to erode.
Early on in blockchain discussions, security and decentralization were main selling points for the entire blockchain paradigm as well. However, the majority of companies do not use the technology in that context — or at least for that purpose — with less than 35% of respondents saying they use blockchain for encryption and security benefits.
When Time launched its first NFT, decentralization and security were front of mind for the publisher, but Time's CTO Bharat Krish noted the company had to adjust its strategy for future sales. "We went into the first drop thinking that we have to keep it open and inclusive, but it turns out it was actually the opposite effect," Krish said. "We kept it so open that only the crypto-native and people who could game the system could participate. That gave us an important lesson that we really need to focus on the customer journey from the beginning for somebody who's a novice."
Since then, Time has shifted its approach to put more emphasis on requiring advanced user registration and verification prior to NFT purchase, while adhering to the principles of decentralization. "Everything we've built is 80 to 90% decentralized," Krish said. "We purposely made sure that we don't use the centralized ways of database management. Everything we do is purposefully decentralized to follow the principles of Web3."
It's important to emphasize that security and decentralization aren't always ends unto themselves, but can be a feature inherent in some other blockchain use cases. So, while survey results show that security isn't respondents' main end use, it may factor into other blockchain technology applications, such as supply chain transparency, as discussed above.
Marketers, publishers use NFTs to elevate brand awareness
As marketers and publishers dip their toes into the NFT waters, they do so mainly with the goal of raising awareness about their brands. The majority of respondents (81%) said they use NFTs for brand awareness, while more than half (64%) use NFTs as a new revenue stream. New customer acquisition and increased security were less important outcomes for companies.
NFT drops can be a quick way for larger companies with research and development dollars to spend to create attention-grabbing headlines and potentially generate new revenue in the process. The strategy focuses on using the moments in which the brand announces it's using blockchain technology and then actually releases the NFT to garner interest, but it tends to be employed as a short-term strategy to generate public awareness rather than as a long-term technology strategy.
In July 2021, Campbell Soup Company jumped into the NFT game with a digital product art drop geared toward increasing brand awareness and product purchases after canned goods sales declined post-pandemic. It used the drop to remind customers of its most iconic brand images, including the red and white soup can labels Andy Warhol appropriated in the 1960s to create his famous Campbell's Soup Cans artwork. The NFT collection could be repurchased on OpenSea, a leading NFT marketplace, and the art pieces were selling at around 0.39 ETH (Ether, equaling $1,283.38) in January 2022. Campbell also used the drop as an opportunity to further connect with the tech-savvy millennial demographic.
Time magazine, on the other hand, has taken a slightly different approach in its use of NFTs — potentially converting a shorter-term awareness tactic into a longer-term strategy — by stoking a community in which current and future NFTs will maintain value and cachet. The publisher built its encompassing blockchain business bit by bit. The publication represented one of the only companies seeming to use blockchain technology as a long-term strategy.
In March 2021, Time launched its first NFT project, a three-part collection of digitized magazine covers from decades prior. The top-selling one sold for the equivalent of $250,000 (135 ETH at the time). One month later, the company began accepting cryptocurrencies as payment for both subscriptions and advertising deals. That fall, Time launched its TIMEPieces project, which convenes crypto-enthusiastic audiences into one Discord-based club (that had 40,000 community members as of April 2022) and labels all of its NFT drops under the TIMEPieces umbrella.
Keith Grossman, who was president of Time when Digiday spoke with him and is now president of enterprise at MoonPay, said Time's strategy is meant to engage consumers on a long-term basis. "What we learned through all of the ups and downs is the importance of building community," Grossman said. "It doesn't make a difference that we dropped all these NFTs. What makes a difference is how much we've managed the community. Our community is not about short-term thinking."
"The community is about values, and we rally our community around those values every single day," Grossman added. "The rationale is that we believe that values create value over time. Our ability to think long about what we're building allows people to think and care about the community that we're building through good moments in the crypto cycle and challenging moments in the crypto cycle."
Other publishers see potential value in future use of NFTs and other blockchain technologies to serve multiple purposes at the same time, such as providing access to events or educational certifications while creating brand loyalty. This overlap within blockchain applications harkens back to the security-based underpinnings of the technology and the potential to apply these benefits across uses of the technologies.
Vadim Supitskiy, CTO at Forbes, said he sees many potential uses for blockchain technology among publishers. "One of the major use cases is access — membership, access to live events, access to metaverse," Supitskiy said. "The second is authentication — education, certifications, validation that you completed a course. For publishers it could be grading, reading a series of articles or watching a series of videos that are reported on blockchain."
"For publications, it creates loyalty and engagement," he added. "It gamifies the whole experience and it gives the user that validation, 'Hey, I accomplished that.' [The user] could potentially get perks for [activities] on a website or inside that ecosystem." For the time being, however, these applications of blockchain are largely theoretical outside of some publishers sporadically using NFTs as authenticated event passes.
Companies hope crypto will increase brand recognition and revenue, but it's a largely speculative endeavor
Cryptocurrency, while a more established use of blockchain than the theoretical authentication and certification applications mentioned above, is still largely abstract. Marketer and publisher survey respondents said that their most common goal for future usage of cryptocurrency is for transactions, with new revenue streams (50%), brand awareness (47%) and new customer acquisition (33%) also top of mind, similar to NFTs.
However, when it comes to real-world use of cryptocurrency, most notably consumers typically use cryptocurrency as a speculative investment. Cryptocurrencies are created, distributed, traded and stored using blockchain technology, which serves as a digital ledger, recording and facilitating the digital transactions. This is the only mainstream practical application of cryptocurrency currently, while survey responses noted here are marketers' and publishers' goals for its future use.
Several beauty brands have been adding bitcoin payment options for transactions, the most common usage goal of cryptocurrencies, with nearly 60% of survey respondents selecting this usage. It is also the only one that most companies can readily implement.
In January 2021, Wake Skincare, a U.K.-based DTC brand designed for millennial and Gen-Z consumers, began accepting cryptocurrency payments by making bitcoin and ethereum payment options available using Coinbase in its Shopify checkout. Wake co-founder Alex Mavor said he sees the payment option as a long-term strategy for the company. ??
"The reason why we wanted to do it is because other beauty brands weren't doing it," Mavor said. "We know that we're not going to get a load of customers, or maybe any customers, today paying with bitcoin."
"A lot of the people at the moment are just using it as an investment," he added. "But the thing is that — with all technologies — they always say that change happens really slowly, then all at once."
Publisher Time has aimed to use crypto applications to create new revenue streams and to stimulate brand awareness, the second and third most commonly selected answers at about 50% of respondents each. In April 2021, Time started accepting bitcoin (and 31 other types of cryptocurrencies) from paid subscribers through a partnership with Crypto.com.
Maya Draisin, chief brand officer at Time, said while current subscribers weren't asked to switch to the crypto payment options, the method allows the company to introduce the Time brand to native crypto users and to give them accessible payment options — thereby setting up pipelines to generate new revenue streams. She said she hoped it would also give current subscribers that are "crypto curious" an entry point to see crypto usage in the real world.
While not an offered survey response, other brands are using cryptocurrencies to create brand loyalty. Lolli, a Rakuten-esque platform, gives portions of bitcoin as online shopping rewards rather than money. Similar to NFTs, this usage generates buzz for the brand, and the application has gained traction, with more than 1,000 Lolli merchants using the program. Alex Adelman, co-founder of Lolli, said the incentives are not aimed at getting consumers to spend bitcoin just yet.
"We saw it as a way to distribute bitcoin to more people, way easier by not making them have to be an investor to get into bitcoin," Adelman said. "They could just be a shopper, which is something that everybody [is]."
While cryptocurrency, like other areas of blockchain technology, has strong potential applications for security by using cryptography to secure transactions, security was very low in importance to survey respondents. Only 11% of respondents said their goal is to use cryptocurrency for its security benefits.
IPG Media Lab's Simon said one reason for the lack of interest may be the need for users to set up crypto wallets to protect their currency from hacks. "The complexity of setting up a crypto [wallet] is the biggest consumer block and some of the complexity extends to things like security," he said.
"You see high profile people all the time who theoretically know what they're doing, who get their NFTs phished and lose millions of dollars, everyone from celebrities to people who are leaders in the space have fallen victim," Simon added. "The setup and onboarding is complicated, but the security is also complicated. Until we have decent answers to both of those things, it's going to remain a niche hobby technology."
NFT marketplaces and owned-and-operated platforms are best for crypto transactions
When marketers and publishers are determining where to sell virtual items like digital art pieces in exchange for cryptocurrencies, the majority turn to NFT marketplaces. Seventy percent of respondents said they use the third-party marketplaces to sell virtual goods for cryptocurrencies and digital coin-based payments. Owned-and-operated platforms, where some companies are putting the framework in place now for what could become more wide-scale use of crypto in the future, are their next best choice, in second place at 60% of respondents.
Cryptocurrency exchanges are much less commonly used, with less than half (45%) of respondents saying they use the exchanges – likely because they're only accepting cryptocurrencies, not creating them. But, perhaps not surprisingly, almost one-third of companies are finding opportunities to sell goods in gaming environments, with 30% of respondents selling virtual products through online gaming.
The most commonly used platforms, NFT marketplaces such as OpenSea and Rarible, allow companies and individuals to display, sell and buy NFTs in exchange for cryptocurrencies. Consumers can also resell NFTs to other shoppers on the marketplaces, and some NFT marketplaces offer the ability to mint NFTs on the platforms as well.
Time magazine chose not to create its own platform for selling its TIMEPieces NFTs, instead making them available through a third-party marketplace. Time's Krish said the marketplaces offer a built-in consumer base.
"We don't need to build our own marketplace because the audience is actually in marketplaces like OpenSea and Coinbase," Krish said. "So we only take care of the primary mint and then we create our community within our collection within OpenSea for secondary sales."
"The journey of going from a primary mint to the secondary sales is also something that's part of a lifetime customer journey that we've built," Krish added. "User experience is really important. … We want to make sure that everybody who comes in could be a novice and participate in this."
Other companies find value in offering consumers the opportunity to use cryptocurrencies on their owned-and-operated platforms (60% of respondents). The strategy is interesting considering the majority of respondents said they primarily use third parties to build their blockchain technology. However, having a strong owned-and-operated system in place now could pay off down the road.
By accepting cryptocurrencies on their own platforms, companies can potentially set themselves up technologically now for what could become more wide-scale use of cryptocurrencies in the future. Additionally, accepting crypto payments may provide access to new and younger demographic groups and to consumers who may not have access to more traditional payment methods like bank accounts and credit cards.
Another platform through which publishers and marketers are trying to reach new consumer groups with cryptocurrency transactions is online gaming. Thirty percent of respondents said they are selling virtual goods for cryptocurrencies and digital coin-based payments in gaming environments.
Companies, including the aforementioned PacSun, sold NFTs in ComplexLand 3.0, the third iteration of a virtual fashion and music festival hosted by BuzzFeed's Complex Networks in May 2022. ComplexLand sold its own artist-created NFTs within the environment as well.
Complex Networks' Wright said although the NFTs were available in the virtual environment, sales took place on third-party platforms. "In year two, our NFT gallery was in partnership with Nifty Gateway, so everything was a click out to Nifty Gateway's marketplace for the actual transaction," Wright said. "This year, we weren't rigid to one partner. So many different marketplaces have emerged that we are working with whatever the artist or the collaborator prefers. If an artist is dropping on OpenSea, we could accommodate that."
Wright said that selling NFTs in gaming environments has the dual value of helping artists monetize their artwork, while simultaneously supporting burgeoning Web3 technology. "That's really important that whatever we do within ComplexLand, even if it isn't happening within the confines of the venue that we've created, that we're still supporting it," he added. "The technology is very important to these virtual worlds and we really want to stay curatorial, first and foremost, whether it's brands or artists, and then be able to support them wherever their transactions are occurring."
Blockchain needs tech improvements before adoption increases
Despite marketers' and publishers' new ventures and experiments with NFTs and cryptocurrencies, the majority of survey respondents haven't found a reason to use blockchain technology yet. Business relevance is the main barrier to company adoption, with the majority of respondents (71%) saying the technology isn't relevant to their business.
Of the respondents who aren't currently using blockchain technology, more than half said they aren't investing in the technology because it isn't relevant to their business, while another 16% percent cited a lack of customer interest.
When it comes to NFTs, the digital tokens are often used to create immediate buzz and awareness around a brand, but companies struggle to maintain ongoing consumer interest. Another challenge is getting audiences to care about acquiring digital art in the form of NFTs. The inability to associate value to some level of ownership of an image, video or other digital asset limits adoption by individuals who have never before bought an NFT or invested in crypto.
Complex Networks' Wright said finding a long-term approach with added user benefits is needed to retain consumer attention. "In the short term, there's no equity or utility in the actual [NFT]," Wright said. "If you are strategic about how you're launching it, from a brand standpoint, you can really build a deep connection to your community that is giving them skin in the game to a certain degree of decision making. That's the lowest barrier of entry, giving them perks."
Turner Sports has attempted to do that by creating an NFT-based golf game called Blockletes that gives players the opportunity to buy and increase the value of their NFTs. Yang Adija, svp of digital league business operations, growth and innovation at Turner Sports, said perks can help build communities among users and increase and sustain longer-term consumer interest.
"If you own a particular NFT or digital collectible, you are then given access to other media assets … and so these become a rewards program and a ticket that you then own and have access to something that has a value," Adija said. "Because you own this, you can sell it or give someone else access to it, and you've earned it. It's yours, and you have jurisdiction."
Turner Sports' approach is similar to Time magazine's community building approach noted earlier — here within a game and there within a cultivated community — of creating a context in which the NFTs are valuable, and sustaining that context so the NFTs maintain value within it beyond the initial purchase. The companies' efforts to make NFTs matter to specific circles of users, within specific environments, while not banking on the inherent value of the NFTs, seems to offer a winning strategy.
Cryptocurrency faces some of the same challenges as NFTs in terms of lack of consumer interest, including a need for more widespread use for transactions as opposed to speculation. But a more pressing concern at the moment is market stability.
With the recent FTX collapse, some prominent companies have begun distancing themselves from crypto across the board. At last November's Fortnite Championship Series 2022 Invitational, for example, TSM taped over the FTX sponsor logo. When asked about the move, an Epic Games spokesperson pointed Digiday toward the company's public event license terms, which restrict the promotion of sponsors in a number of "risky" categories, including crypto.
Gannett's Cirel, whom Digiday spoke with prior to the recent crypto market crash, said he could see potential for increased use of blockchain if the industry can find a way to move past the technology being discussed theoretically and if cryptocurrencies were narrowed down to a few select digital coins.
"When you say blockchain, people automatically think of cryptocurrencies, bitcoin," Cirel said. "It's pretty clear that as those types of services and products and domains become more commonplace that some form of cryptocurrency is an absolute requirement to facilitate the economy. … One of the things that the industry and the players in the industry have to sort out is how do we divorce the term blockchain from equating to cryptocurrency? Are we going to wind up with hundreds of different ones? I don't think that's a sustainable structure."
Time's former president Grossman agreed the technology itself needs to be less at the forefront of discussions and instead must become enmeshed in people's everyday lives, similar to the way computers evolved. "The technology right now is leading the conversation, in the way that in the earliest days of PC adoption, people talked about their computers," Grossman said.
"What's really important is [blockchain] will not be mass adopted until the technology is invisible and people are not using the term NFT," he added. "It's at the earliest point of the early adopter curve, but we could see, every day, friction being removed from the ecosystem and mass adoption coming."
IPG Media Lab's Simon said user experience needs to improve, with more decentralization. "People who are theoretically primed to do something like own multiple NFTs from multiple brands and unlock experiences is still a very small number," he said. "There's a lot of work to be done on the user experience side."
"The way those technologies are mainstreamed is that they're absorbed into the platforms and the platform owners that we already have," he added. "A lot of the promise of decentralization around Web3 is not guaranteed because decentralization tends to be pretty consumer- and user-hostile."
In order for blockchain technology to see increased future marketer and publisher adoption, further innovations to the technology will likely need to come from tech giants that have the funds and bandwidth to invest in improvements. In the same way that Meta acquired VR headset maker and developer Oculus VR in 2014 and Samsung and Apple are creating AR compatible smartphone camera lenses, other tech companies will need to lay the foundational infrastructure to make blockchain technology readily available before marketers, publishers and consumers alike increase their use.
So, for now, blockchain remains a largely theoretical emerging technology.
Beyond Ads
How NFTs could evolve for brands — now that marketers know what they actually are
Marketing on Platforms
Can Snap make it as an AR company?
Digiday+ Research deep dive: Publishers anticipate a big drop in ad revenue this year
Why digital clutter is driving brands to rethink the value of newspapers advertising
Brands in Culture
The 'retirement' of M&M spokescandies raises questions about viral marketing, edgy content


text:
Best Free DVD Ripper Software
15 Jul, 2013 @jabberking Free Downloads 8,932 views	0 3
While DVDs are one of the more common ways of storing and viewing video files, the rise of smartphones and tablet mobile device has meant that increasingly people want to be able to view the video files from their DVDs on their iPad, iPhone or Android. DVDs are also at risk from scratching so having a backup copy can give you piece of mind. For extracting video files to view in iTunes or another player or to backup a DVD you will need DVD ripping software. There are a number of free DVD ripper programs available to assist you in extracting the video files from a DVD and we list the best free DVD ripper software for Windows, Linux and Mac OSX users below. (Note: Jabbersite does not endorse copying copyrighted movies for commercial sale or redistribution. Video piracy is a crime and we are only advocating the free DVD ripper software for legal use only.)
Available for Windows, Linux, Mac OSX
Handbrake is a good choice for a DVD ripper on Windows and possibly the best choice as a free DVD ripper for Mac. It has loads of features which are disguised by the relatively small file size. The recoded video is of good quality although conversions do take a bit longer than competitors. Mpeg-4 files are produced using the Handbrake system and there are many different audio and video parameters for you to play with and set to esnure you get the correct output you are looking for. Alternatively for the simple-minded you can simply start the process with one clock and the default settings. Testing has shown that Handbrake can rip some commercial DVDs depending on their settings and age.
Get Handbrake
WinX DVD Ripper
Available for Windows or Mac OSX
Win DVD is a free DVD ripper that enables you to rip encrypted DVDs and enable the video files for playback onMP4, H.264, WMV, MPEG, MOV, FLV, Music, iPhone, iPod, Apple TV, PSP, HTC and Samsung Galaxy Tab. It might struggle with newer DVD encryptions such as Disney but used in conjunction with other programs, you should be able to circumnavigate this problem.
Get WinX DVD Ripper
DVD Fab HD Decrypter
DVD Fab HD Decrypter enables you to copy the content of a DVD to a separate hard drive, with the option to copy the full disc or simply the title menu. The main problem with this software is the lack of features in the free version, which have to be supplemented by upgrades to produce a wider range of output formats. Test it and see if it works for you.
Get DVD Fab HD Decrypter
DVD Shrink
Available for Windows
DVD Shrink is a program built to rip a DVD to the your hard drive and compress the DVD data with hardly any noticeable loss in video quality. The user-friendly interface allows you to select which parts of the DVD file structure you want to include in the rip and can also be used in tandem with burn software such as Nero. However it is worth noting that the software has not been updated by developers since 2004, meaning that many recent DVD encryptions cannot be ripped. With non-encrypted DVDs though it works like a charm.
Get DVD Shrink
Freemake Video Converter
Free DVD ripper Freemake Video Converter is really more as the name suggests a video converter software with a DVD ripper included as part of the features. The video converter software works well converting videos to different formats for playback on portable devices including iPad, iPhone, iPod, Android, PSP, and Blackberry. There is even a feature which allows you to paste a URL for converting online videos. The DVD ripper sadly is not as good, lacking the ability to rip encrypted DVDs crashing on most commercial titles. But for backing up your own home DVDs this ripper is still worth a look, especially when combined with the excellent converter software.
Get Freemake Video Converter
Tags copy dvddvd ripperextract video files
Previous Best New Free Photo App- Elements of Photography
Next Use iPhone as a Security Camera- Manything App Review
Best Free Video Player App for iPhone and iPad- Infuse 2 Released
Find and Watch Movies on Your iPad Free- Luma App Review
Top Free App for iPhone- Quiz Up Trivia Game
New OS X Mavericks Tips and Tricks
Top Free Website Monitoring Services

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
How rapid delivery services are evolving in Latin America
Rapid delivery services have been present in Latin America for around a decade, although the most successful start-ups launched in 2014 and 2015. Through a range of providers customers can order fast-food, restaurant meals, groceries, medicine, and more and have these delivered by courier in under an hour. Evolving region creating opportunity for rapid delivery services Latin America's ci...
Innovative formats and omnichannel growth underpin Grupo Éxito's solid Q1 performance
Grupo Éxito (part of French retail group Casino) has reported net sales of COP2.9 tn (US$744m) for Q1. This represents sales growth of 9.4%, or 5.3% ex-COVID-19. Same-store sales (SSS) grew by 9.6% in the quarter. Grupo Éxito has seen positive sales growth over the last 18 months, which has been largely driven by the solid performance of its latest store formats, as well as omnichannel growth....
Coronavirus (COVID-19): DIA evolves its online operations in Latin America in response to Covid-19
Less than a year after closing its online operations in Brazil, DIA has partnered with online food deliverer iFood to reintroduce a delivery service in the country. Similarly, in Argentina it has partnered with Pedidos Ya (Order Now) and Glovo, to cope with overwhelming demand for deliveries as a result of the lockdown. Latest DIA store design in São Paulo, Brazil Source: IGD Resea...
Coronavirus (COVID-19): Rappi trials robot food deliveries in Colombia
In response to COVID-19, Rappi has partnered with Colombian technology business KiwiBot to trial using robots for last mile food deliveries. The aim is to fulfil safe food deliveries, which reduce face-to-face contact and, therefore, prevent spreading the virus further. To protect customers' safety, the robots are thoroughly disinfected before and after each delivery. "We believe that by pa...
Coronavirus (COVID-19): Grupo Éxito launches 'Buy and Collect' initiative to support social distancing
On 13 April Grupo Éxito, the Colombian subsidiary of French retail group Casino, launched its "Compra y recoge" (buy and collect) initiative. Customers can make purchases either online or by telephone and arrange to collect their completed order in store free of charge. How does this different to regular click and collect? Éxito has offered click and collect for several years, but consideri...
Coronavirus (COVID-19): Colombia to impose gender restrictions during lockdown
Colombia becomes the third country in Latin America to implement gender restrictions during the lockdown, after Peru and Panama. 'Peak and gender' lockdown As of 13 April, the country's capital city, Bogotá, has imposed a 'peak and gender' rule. The measure ordered by Bogotá's mayor, Claudia López, enables men to leave the house on calendar days that are odd numbers, and women to leav...
Coronavirus (COVID-19): D1 partners with third parties to enable home delivery
Colombian discount retailer D1 has formed alliances with two online delivery platforms, Mi Aguila and Picap, to offer customers home delivery during the coronavirus epidemic. Initially 2,000 motorcyclists from Picap's Pimarket service will be used and close to 2,000 drivers from Mi Aguila (My Eagle). The alliances were launched in Colombia's capital city, Bogotá, on Saturday 28 March and will ...
Ara to open around 130 new stores in Colombia in 2020
Portuguese retail group Jerónimo Martins, owner of Colombia-based discount chain Ara, recently announced its 2019 results and detailed plans to open 130 new Ara stores in 2020. The business launched in Colombia just seven years ago and closed 2019 with 616 stores, with 85 (84 net) openings in 2019. Source: IGD Research Ara delivers solid 2019 results Ara reported total revenue of ...
OXXO grew revenue by 10.4% in 2019
Mexican business FEMSA, which owns the OXXO convenience store chain, has reported sales of MXN184.8 bn (US$8.4 bn) for 2019 for its proximity division (it also owns health stores and gas stations). This figure, which includes all its proximity stores in Mexico, Colombia, Chile and Peru, represents a 10.4% year-on-year (YoY) increase. Same-store-sales (SSS) rose by an average of 5%, which was d...
Grupo Éxito's latest formats drive solid annual performance
Grupo Éxito Colombia has reported net sales of COP11tn (US$3,273m) for 2019, a 4.2% growth year-on-year (YoY). This performance is mainly attributed to solid sales from its innovative Wow, FreshMarket and Surtimayorista formats, strong omnichannel growth (+37% YoY) and the opening of 29 new stores. Same-store-sales (SSS) were up 4% YoY, driven by the strong performance of its Éxito banner (where ...


text:
Q: Excel 2007 Function, last three items My question is twofold, so bear with the wall of text. I'm making sort of a banking spreadsheet. I will input income/expenses in four columns (Date/Amount/Type/Description) and I need it to keep track of my day to day spending. I already have it so that if the date is not today, it won't add/subtract it until it is. Also, I have it so two/three/four weeks in the future. However, I want to add something to the effect of "Last three paychecks". The "Type" column has only three possible entries, "Income", "Transfer", and "Expense". If I can find a function to work for one, I'm sure I can get it to work with the rest easily. I need it to show the most recent "income" amount. For instance:

Date    Amount      Type
Sep 1    100         Income
Sep 2    100         Expense
Sep 3    100         Income
Sep 4    100         Expense
Sep 5    100         Income
Sep 6    100         Income
Sep 7    100         Income

Let's say it's Sep 6th today. I would want it to show Sep 5ths amount, Sep 5ths, and Sep 3rds. I don't want it to show expenses, and it's not yet Sep 7th. It would have to be three functions (one for each box), so how would I get it to do the most recent, second to most recent, and so on? If I can get it to work, I can edit to get the description as well, and refit it to expenses if need be.
Question 2:
I would like an "annual checkup" kind of thing. How would I get it to lookup each of every type (same as above), but then have cutoff dates so it's only one year?

A: This might help you get the three most recent transactions per type. It helps if you've used named ranges for your data sheet.
To get the 3 most recent Income dates, you can use this array formula:
=INDEX(dates,LARGE(ROW(dates)*(dates<=TODAY())*(types="Income"),XXX)-1,1)

Where:
dates -- the cell range/column range that contains the dates
types -- the cell range/column that contains either "Income", "Transfer" or "Expenses"
XXX -- contains either 1 (most recent), 2 (2nd most recent) or 3.
To get the most recent amount and description, replace the first instance of dates in the formula above with the cell range that contains the money amounts and descriptions.
=INDEX(amounts,LARGE(ROW(dates)*(dates<=TODAY())*(types="Income"),XXX)-1,1)

&
=INDEX(descriptions,LARGE(ROW(dates)*(dates<=TODAY())*(types="Income"),XXX)-1,1)

In the example below, dates refers to A2:A100, amounts refers to B2:B100, types refers to C2:C100 and descriptions refers to D2:D100.

In order for the formulas to work, the data table needs to be sorted according to date (oldest to latest). Be sure to commit the formulas using Ctrl + Shift + Enter. This also assumes that there are unique dates for each type of transaction (i.e. no multiple Income entries for a single date).

If you don't want to have to sort the table by date, here's an array formula you can try:
=INDEX(dates,
 MATCH(SMALL(IF((dates<=TODAY())*(types="Income"),(TODAY()-dates),""),XXX),
             IF((dates<=TODAY())*(types="Income"),(TODAY()-dates),""),0),1)

Where:
dates -- the cell range/column range that contains the dates
types -- the cell range/column that contains either "Income", "Transfer" or "Expenses"
XXX -- contains either 1 (most recent), 2 (2nd most recent) or 3
Again, to get the most recent amounts and descriptions, replace the first instance of dates in the formula above with the cell range that contains the money amounts and descriptions. Something like this:
=INDEX(amounts,
 MATCH(SMALL(IF((dates<=TODAY())*(types="Income"),(TODAY()-dates),""),XXX),
             IF((dates<=TODAY())*(types="Income"),(TODAY()-dates),""),0),1)

and
=INDEX(descriptions,
 MATCH(SMALL(IF((dates<=TODAY())*(types="Income"),(TODAY()-dates),""),XXX),
             IF((dates<=TODAY())*(types="Income"),(TODAY()-dates),""),0),1)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Q: Bing Maps, Finding Multiple Geocode Search Results (Did you mean: Functionality) hope all is well.
I am using Version 7.0.
This morning I was struggling with something I thought should be rather simple.  Providing alternative search results in a Store Locator scenario. (Just like here - http://www.bing.com/maps)
I make a geocode request to Bing Maps Rest service like so:
var geocodeRequest = "http://dev.virtualearth.net/REST/v1/Locations?query=" + encodeURI(searchString) + "&output=json&jsonp=GeocodeCallbackSearch&key=" + credentials;

This all works great! I can capture my result returned into my function and parse it just fine as long as the user has typed in a query which had a matching geocode.
function GeocodeCallbackSearch(result) {
    try
    {
        alert(result.resourceSets[0].resources.length);
        // When the user searches an address that isn't quite right, I notice that the
        // Length of the result set is greater then 1.
        // I would like to get at these so I can provide the "Did you Know"
        // functionality.

        // This is where I am having problems accessing the other results
        for (var i =0; i < result.resourceSets[0].resources.length;i++)
        {
           alert (result.resourceSets[i].resources[i].name);
        }
    }
    catch(err){
        alert(err.message)
    }

Error:  I keep getting result.resourceSets[i].resources[i].name is undefined.
I know they are buried in there some where because the length is sometimes greater than 1!
Am I mus-understanding that result.resourceSets[0].resources.length is the count of geocode results returned?
Thanks in advanced!

A: for (var i =0; i < result.resourceSets[0].resources.length;i++)
{
   alert (result.**resourceSets[i]**.resources[i].name);
}

Easy fix, the bolded needed to be changed, ofcourse!
// This is where I am having problems accessing the other results
        for (var i =0; i < result.resourceSets[0].resources.length;i++)
        {
           alert (result**.resourceSets[0]**.resources[i].name);
        }


It's been nearly four years since the release of Adele's record-breaking album, "21." While most of the world has been holding its breath in anticipation for her next musical move, I was indifferent towards her career. I liked some of her songs, but I wouldn't consider myself a "fan" of hers.
I expected her latest album, "25," to be full of depressing, yet beautiful, breakup ballads. And I was right- it is.
However, I wasn't expecting myself to enjoy her album as much as I did. I didn't think her powerful voice and haunting piano melodies would draw me in so quickly. Each song tells a different story about love and loss, but it's done in such a beautifully honest way that it made me want to put the whole album on repeat.
Vocally, "25" is incredible. Adele, after having throat surgery a couple years ago, hits notes that many artists can only dream about hitting. She makes singing sound effortless, and her voice exudes a hauntingly chilling passion, lamenting about love gone wrong. The key change in "All I Ask" is especially remarkable.
Lyrically, this album highlights different types of sadness. In "Hello," she sings about the regret of an ex-lover. "When We Were Young" mourns the loss of an old flame after meeting again many years later. "Million Years Ago" tells the story of Adele and her yearning to return to her simple life, before she was in the public's eye. "Send my Love (To Your New Lover)" is the only upbeat song on the album and is a fun and sassy tribute to an ex who has moved on to a new woman.
Instrumentally, "25" is impressive and fairly simplistic. There isn't an intricate production of sound, but the simple combination of violins and piano creates a beautiful melancholy mood that carries throughout the album. Being a sucker for a good piano ballad, I especially enjoyed the instrumental aspect of "All I Ask" and "Remedy." Both songs are just Adele and a piano, and that's all that is needed.
Overall, Adele's efforts on "25" are admirable. She has mastered the art of creating an album that is heartbreakingly real and captivating. While not every song on the album is a 5/5, "25" has enough good moments to convince me I made the right choice in buying it.


Adorable 2 bedroom bungalow close to downtown. Must see to appreciate, home is larger on the inside than it looks with its Open floor plan. Finish off the basement or the attic for extra living space. Attic would be great for storage. Home is available thru the Transform This Home Program and will need some love. Additional inspections will be required by the City of Battle Creek for occupancy. Home is being sold As-Is.


Hypertension. 2013 Nov;62(5):893-8. doi: 10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.113.01494. Epub 2013 Sep 30.
Shomer E1, Katzenell S, Zipori Y, Sammour RN, Isermann B, Brenner B, Aharon A.
Thrombosis and Hemostasis Unit, Department of Hematology, Rambam Health Care Campus, P.O. Box 9602, Haifa 31096, Israel. a_aharon@yahoo.com.
Microvesicles shedding from cell membrane affect inflammation, apoptosis, and angiogenesis. We hypothesize that microvesicles of women with gestational vascular complications reflect pathophysiological state of the patients and affect their endothelial and trophoblast cell function. Microvesicles of healthy pregnant women, women with gestational hypertension, mild, or severe preeclampsia/toxemia, were characterized, and their effects on early-stage or term trophoblasts and endothelial cells were evaluated using apoptosis, migration, and tube formation assays. Patient subgroups differed significantly only in proteinuria levels, therefore their microvesicles were assessed as 1 group, demonstrating higher levels of inflammatory and angiogenic proteins compared with those of healthy pregnant women. In endothelial cells, microvesicles of healthy pregnant women reduced caspase 3/7 activity, increased migration, and induced tube formation. These processes were suppressed by microvesicles of women with gestational vascular complications. In early-stage trophoblasts, microvesicles of healthy pregnant women decreased apoptosis compared with untreated cells (6±5% versus 13.8±5.8%; P<0.001) and caspase 3/7 activity and induced higher migration (39.7±10.1 versus 20.3±8.3 mm2; P<0.001). This effect was mediated through extracellular signal-regulated kinase pathway. Conversely, microvesicles of women with gestational vascular complications increased term trophoblast apoptosis compared with cells exposed to microvesicles of healthy pregnant women (15.1±3.3% versus 6.5±2.1%; P<0.001) and inhibited early-stage trophoblasts migration (21.4±18.5 versus 39.7±10.1 mm2; P<0.001). In conclusion, microvesicle content and effects on endothelial and trophoblast cells vary according to the physiological/pathological state of a pregnant woman. Microvesicles seem to play a pivotal role in the course of pregnancy, which could potentially result in gestational vascular complications.


text:
HISTORY: Subject Guide
Search tips and resource suggestions for research in history.
U.S. History Toggle Dropdown
Colonial & Revolutionary War
Civil War & Reconstruction
World History Toggle Dropdown
Core databases to search for articles
More databases with broader or narrower scopes to try
Selected scholarly journals from the field of history
Core Databases
Start with these core resources
These are your go-to databases for historical research.
JSTOR provides access to more than 12 million academic journal articles, books, and primary sources in 75 disciplines, and is especially strong in the humanities and social sciences. JSTOR's coverage often goes back to the first volume and issue of many journals, but it may not have the most recent issues.
Gale OneFile: U.S. History
Provides access to scholarly journals and magazines useful to both novice historians as well as advanced academic researchers. Updated daily, thie library resource offers balanced coverage of events in U.S. history and scholarly work being established in the field.
Gale OneFile: World History
Provides access to scholarly journals and magazines useful to both novice historians as well as advanced academic researchers. The database offers balanced coverage of events in world history and scholarly work being established in the field.
HeinOnline contains more than 186 million pages and 287,000 titles of historical and government documents in a fully searchable, image-based format. Covers disciplines such as law, history, international relations, criminal justice, and human rights. Includes North Dakota state government reports, laws, and history, as well as regularly-updated COVID-19 content.
These databases either focus on particular topics or aspects of historical research, or have a broader scope than the databases above.
U.S. History in Context
Designed to support U.S. history studies and provides an overview of our nation's past, covering the most-studied events, decades, conflicts, wars, political and cultural movements, and people.
World History in Context
Designed to provide an overview of world history covering the most-studied events, cultures, civilizations, religions, people, and more.
Gale OneFile: War & Terrorism
Authoritative periodical content addressing both historic and contemporary topics in the fields of war and terrorism.
Gale OneFile: Military & Intelligence
Access to scholarly journals, magazines, and reports covering all aspects of the past and present military affairs. Contains hand-selected content supporting key subject areas such as, governmental policies, the socioeconomic effects of war, the structure of the armed forces, and more.
Gale OneFile: Diversity Studies
Explores cultural differences, contributions and influences in the global community. This collection includes more than 2.7 million articles from 150 journals, updated daily.
Family history research tool with records from around the world.
*Access only available on-campus*
Gale in Context: Biography
Contextual information on the world's most influential people. Over 650,000 biographical entries cover a range of historically significant figures and present-day newsmakers.
HeinOnline's Civil Rights database brings together a diverse offering of publications covering civil rights in the United States as their legal protections and definitions are expanded to cover more and more Americans. Containing hearings and committee prints, legislative histories on the landmark legislations, CRS and GAO reports, briefs from major Supreme Court cases, and publications from the Commission on Civil Rights, this database allows users to educate themselves on the ways our civil rights have been strengthened and expanded over time, as well as how these legal protections can go further still.
A to Z Maps Online
This collection of world, continent, country, and state maps contains over 145,000 current maps.
Selected History Journals
Journal of Interdisciplinary History
Journal of World History
Rethinking History
URL: https://libguides.uj.edu/history
Subjects: History


As a Federally Qualified Health Center in West Philadelphia, Sayre Health Center is committed to providing access to quality and affordable healthcare to all members of the community regardless of their ability to pay.
We have been a part of the West Philadelphia community since 2006. We are dedicated to caring for our neighbors, friends, and you!
Our mission is to provide high-quality, culturally sensitive, accessible school-based primary and preventive healthcare services to the underserved West Philadelphia community surrounding the William L. Sayre High School; and offer health services education for high school students, undergraduate, graduate and professional students from universities and colleges in the Philadelphia area.


It's a huge loss when a candidate you have wooed for a CEO or other top job at a portfolio company turns you down. You've failed to get the attractive candidate — and you've wasted time and energy pursuing them instead of finding and hiring someone else.
You (and your search firm if you are using one) can minimize the probability of a late candidate withdrawal by identifying all potential issues early in the recruitment process.
Let's look first at some "bad outcomes" and then see what search pros suggest to avoid them.
Bad outcome 1: You are recruiting a CEO to lead a new portfolio company. Your search firm finds two strong candidates. Both candidates interview with the Board and both go through a deep psychological assessment. You decide on one and make him an offer. Unfortunately, he turns you down. Why? His explanation is that his wife wants him to stay at his current firm and retire after two years. You suspect this isn't the real issue, but you don't know.
Bad outcome 2: You need to recruit a leader of your firm's operations executives. After a search, you find someone suitable who claims he's ready to leave his #2 job at his current firm in order to lead an operations team of his own. But he will have to move from one major metropolitan area to another and his kids are still in high school. You make him an offer. After that, he calls you, not the recruiter, and says the job is too big for him. You feel it's a bizarre excuse and that the candidate handled it in a bizarre, indirect way.
In each case, something came up and prevented success. What are the typical problems that come up and how can you prevent last minute surprises?
That being said, the collective experience of search consultants I interviewed points to three deraillers in recruiting talent: family ties (the candidate is not the sole decision maker); compensation; and something else you don't know about.
Sheila O'Grady of SpencerStuart emphasizes understanding, from the very first discussion, the important other people who will affect the decision they may be making. Beyond the partner or spouse are children and their needs. Children who are juniors or seniors in high school or in eighth grade will often make relocation next to impossible. "Executives should be smart enough to consider the spouse's position," Kopsick notes, "but I have seen candidates get serious about an opportunity and go through the exercise of interviewing without really getting buy in from their wife or their husband or their partner. That's something the recruiter needs to be checking on to make sure there's engagement with the spouse or partner." O'Grady agrees.
It's dangerous to try to come up with one or two explanations for every time it happens. Changing jobs can be an extraordinarily stressful situation. Emotions get involved and fact-based decisions get put to the side.
The recruiter should also ask, many times, the open-ended question: What else could you imagine might get in the way of taking this job?
• How many of my own people do I get to bring in?
• What resources will I have?
• Can I bike to work?
There are so many things that you don't know about, that may be important to a candidate, and you won't know about them unless you ask. Paul Maranville of Lantern Partners said that he always asks candidate about their future career dreams and when they plan to retire to ensure goal alignment. If, for example, the investors think success will take eight years, but the person wants to retire in four, there isn't goal alignment. Some candidates may be concerned about the Board, so it's really good to let them know what the Board's going to be early on and to find out if they have concerns about it. Just as you ask what grade Junior's in, you find out their views of the Board. If they say, "I wish they had someone who was really a part of the industry," and if it's not a bad idea to find someone, then you can hire an independent Board member.
Communicate constantly with the candidate. Understand what is important to the executive and make sure that those important items are checked off in your offer.
You can't do anything about something you don't know about. But you can try to find out — upfront — what it will take for the candidate to agree to take the job. You can probe for every reason you have ever heard about from anyone, including family (spouse, children, parents, other family responsibilities), business challenges, compensation, risk, counteroffers. Then you can develop a strategy to help the candidate so he or she can decide to choose to take your offer.
WHAT TO DO – HOW DO YOU PREVENT LATE REJECTIONS?
Be realistic. Is this person really recruitable? Will your stock options be trumped by the person's existing employer's RSUs?
Be prepared for the late stages of negotiation. Let candidates know that they may have other opportunities, but that you are interested in them and are willing to pay to get them. Expect possible counter-offer, talk about them in advance with the candidate, and have a plan for dealing with them. Know where you can add to your offer (not necessarily cash) and what your best alternative is to a negotiated agreement.
Learn from a rejection when it happens. The search consultant should understand why it happened and give you honest feedback so that if style adjustments need to be made they can be made.
ARE ALL LATE REJECTIONS BAD?
Late rejection can sometimes be better than an acceptance, if you've missed something along the way.
Late rejections are bad — because they could always be replaced by earlier rejections (by you or by the candidate). But a late rejection can sometimes be better than an acceptance, if you've missed something along the way. Was he bi-polar, and will the charm, self-confidence, and energy with which he'd pursued the opportunity with your firm go away with the onset of a depressive cycle? Was he really not up to handling the job, and not able to stably pursue his own interests? If you do psychological testing, this should be discovered before you make an offer. If you do not do testing, then it is better to learn if the candidate is highly problematic before you hire him or her rather than after they start to work for you.


text:
Co-Ho Creative
Instagram Facebook-f Tiktok Youtube
Coronavirus in Thailand Worries: Should You Stay Or Should You Go?
Everything You Need to Know About the Coronavirus in Thailand
If you're planning a trip to literally anywhere, I'm sure you've heard the news. But what about the coronavirus in Thailand, specifically? There's so much news coverage across the world and with new cases being reported every day, it's only right that you find the most up to date information to help you plan your trip.
BREAKING NEWS 03/09/2020: Thai Government Cancels Full Moon Party 2020
We've previously put together some coronavirus prevention tactics to help make sure you have a healthy holiday, and it's great that so many of you have read the article and taken our advice on board. Each country is different, however, so we're taking a closer look at coronavirus in Thailand in particular. This is an important issue and you want to be as clued up as possible.
How worried should you be about coronavirus in Thailand?
In a country of 69 million people, many of whom travel abroad on a regular basis, it's inevitable that there have been some coronavirus cases reported in Thailand. At the time of publishing this blog (03/02/20), there have been 41 confirmed cases of the illness, of whom 22 people have recovered and 18 are currently still sick.
While this is a worrying number however, it's important to keep it in perspective. In 2019, 39.8 million people visited Thailand, which is an impressive number and which really puts the 41 cases of coronavirus in context. The number of cases is currently absolutely miniscule compared to the size of the population and the number of people visiting each year!
How serious is catching Coronavirus?
The prospect of catching the coronavirus flu is not a nice one, and it's important to practice good hygiene to avoid either contracting it or passing it on. It's worth underlining though, that most people only experience mild symptoms when they catch it, and it's been likened to a reasonably mild version of the normal flu.
The World Health Organization is monitoring the situation and has revealed that the people most at risk of developing a severe illness are older people and those with pre-existing medical conditions like diabetes and heart disease.
Lushsux's mural of Corona Chan and #1 YouTuber, PewDiePie
Preventative Measures of Coronavirus in Thailand
Thailand is taking coronavirus seriously, and there are lots of measures being taken to prevent it from spreading within the country. The first thing you'll see when you land in a Thai airport looks like a scene from a sci-fi film, but is actually a very sensible way to make sure everyone in the airport is safe and well.
As you walk off the plane and along the arrivals concourse, you'll be met with cordoned-off areas with plenty of smiling staff on duty. The cordons are to create corridors for you to walk along single-file, where an electronic thermal camera will film you and take your temperature to pick up anyone who has flu-like symptoms.
It's easy, quick, efficient and incredibly reassuring.
This simple system actually makes flying the best way to get around, as you can be sure that your fellow travelers are as healthy as you are and you can relax into your holiday experience. The bus stations, train stations and ferry ports don't have the same screening arrangements yet, but of course that may change going forward.
The following airports have screening processes in place:Suvarnabhumi International Airport, Bangkok
• Don Mueang International Airport, Bangkok
• Phuket International Airport
• Chiang Mai International Airport
• Krabi International Airport
• Chiang Rai International Airport
The Timeline of Coronavirus in Thailand
Thailand actually reported the first case of coronavirus outside China, but that case was a Chinese citizen from Wuhan who flew into Bangkok on the 8th January. Her high temperature and flu symptoms were actually picked up on the Suvarnabhumi airport thermal scanners and she was hospitalized immediately, thus proving that the scanning system definitely works!
The second case was also a Chinese resident who arrived in Bangkok with symptoms on the 17th January, and is in hospital receiving treatment now.
On the 22nd January the first Thai resident tested positive for coronavirus, although she had just visited Wuhan and contracted the illness there rather than in Thailand.
On the 28th January, several more cases were reported across the country, and Thailand began screening all travelers from China for symptoms of the disease.
The first case of someone getting ill who hadn't just been to China was reported on 31st January, when a Thai taxi driver tested positive after having given a lift to a Chinese tourist
In early February several more cases were reported, mostly of people who had either traveled to China, transited through Chinese airports, or people working in the tourist industry with direct contact with Chinese tourists
Following an 8-day break with no new cases, there were two more positive test results in Thailand on 24th February
The most recent cases reported in Thailand are of a local family who have been on holiday to Japan, and a Thai tour guide who has recently traveled to South Korea.
Coronavirus in Bangkok
As the capital city, Bangkok has seen a higher number of cases than elsewhere in the country, however in a city of 8.3 million people the numbers are proportionally still tiny. One way that Bangkok has been contributing globally is by pioneering treatments for coronavirus, and the Rajvithi Hospital has reported successes when using drugs that are normally used for other types of viruses and flu, hopefully advancing the effectiveness of treatments elsewhere.
All of the cases reported in Bangkok so far have either been in people who have recently traveled abroad to China or other destinations in the region, or people who have come into contact with those who have. Officials are offering face masks to people at local temples and tourist sites who might want to use them, but overall there is no spread among the general population.
The most recent cases in the city are linked to a family who had recently visited Hokkaido in Japan, but didn't immediately disclose that information when questioned by health officials. The message from the Public Health Minister was clear- don't be an idiot, please be honest when we're trying to help you!
It's important to note that normal life is still very much in progress in Thailand and in Bangkok, and with some good, common sense precautions there are no barriers to carrying on as usual. Many government buildings like the Chaeng Watthana Immigration office have implemented the same kinds of screening processes that you'll see at the airports, to make sure that people stay healthy and well. They're testing the body temperature of everyone who enters, and are providing hand sanitizer stations. If you go there, then use them! Simple as that. Getting a Thai visa extension in Bangkok is safe, despite the ever-present crowds.
Coronavirus in Chiang Mai
Chiang Mai has a very low number of cases of coronavirus, and those that have tested positive have been linked to travel abroad.
The most notable case was an 18 year old man who had recently arrived from Wuhan, however his illness improved pretty rapidly and he was discharged from hospital on the 31st January. Following on from this case, there have been a couple of other cases in the north of the country but Chiang Mai has not reported any new cases in recent days.
Coronavirus in Phuket
Phuket is one of the most popular areas of Thailand for foreign visitors, so it's natural that people are worried about whether it's still safe to travel.
The simple fact of the matter is that Phuket has seen zero cases of coronavirus to date, and there are no suspected cases currently being tested. The area is healthy and safe and with robust screening procedures in place at the airport, anyone arriving who is unwell will be picked up and treated automatically.
Phuket is an absolutely stunning place to come hang out, and the local economy is reliant on tourism to thrive. Having no coronavirus cases in the area is great news and the bars of Bangla Road are ready and waiting to get you drunk!
Coronavirus Travel Safety Tips
The best way to protect yourself from contracting coronavirus is by taking a few good personal hygiene precautions. These are all things which you should be doing anyway to keep yourself healthy on your trip, so it's no extra bother!
Wash your hands frequently with soap and hot water, or use an alcohol hand gel with a high alcohol content
Always cover your nose and mouth with the crook of your elbow or a tissue when you sneeze, and throw the tissue away immediately
Avoid hanging out with people who don't feel well, even though they've probably just got the common cold!
Don't visit any live animal markets. The current outbreak started in an animal market in Wuhan, so it's better to be safe than sorry
Avoid undercooked or raw animal products in your food. This will keep your gut healthy throughout your trip, even without the coronavirus!
Wear a face mask if you have cold or flu symptoms. It's personal choice as to whether to wear a mask if you still feel healthy, but you definitely should pop one on if you're starting to feel unwell
Is it safe to travel in Thailand right now?
So having looked at the stats and reviewed the current situation, the question remains- is it safe to travel in Thailand right now? Our answer is a definite YES!
You should take sensible hygiene precautions, of course, but the number of cases is currently so small and the controls in place are so comprehensive that it's safe to come to Thailand on holiday right now. Most cases of coronavirus are similar to the common flu, and only a very small number of people develop any symptoms that are any more severe. Keep checking in with the World Health Organization for all the latest news, and reassure your mum that you're going to be fine!
The bars are open, the restaurants are open, our amazing hostels are open and the Land of Smiles is ready and waiting to welcome you.
We'll leave the last word to infectious disease specialist who knows what she's talking about:
"Based on symptoms alone, COVID-19 and flu are very difficult to distinguish".
Manisha Juthani, MD, Yale Medicine
8 Top Tips For an Island Getaway You Cannot Miss
Who else feels like it has been ages since they...
6 Useful Tips On How To Find An Online Trusted Travel Guide
Choosing a travel guide is no easy task. With so...
Thailand Toasties: Eating Cheap at 7-11 Thailand
Thailand Toasties: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly. If you're...
6 Reasons Why Morning Walks Are A Great Health Booster
Everyone with two healthy legs does it all the time....
Things to Do in Koh Samui, Home of the Whitest Sands in Thailand
Activities in Paradise: Things to Do in Koh Samui Koh...
Meditation Retreats in Chiang Mai: Enter the Zen Zone
Inner Exploration, Among the Meditation Retreats in Chiang Mai Chiang...
5 Tips for Easing Stress While on Vacation
5 Tips That Can Keep You From Getting Stressed While...
Why Traveling Can Be Good for Your Mental Health
Travel Can Have Amazing Mental Health Benefits Traveling is something...
How To Prepare For Your First Camping Trip
In your everyday life, you're a city dweller. You like...
What To Look For In An Inflatable Paddle Board
What to Look for in an Inflatable Paddle Board If...
Fun Beach Activities That You Might Want to Try
Besides swimming, there are loads of fun activities you can...
Massaman Curry Origins: The Historic Taste of Thailand
Dine-amite Dining: The History of Thai Massaman Curry The food...
Unforgettable Travels. Bodega Hostels has a reputation for being the start and end point of every epic backpacking trip through Southeast Asia. Join the Bodega fam!
Copyright © Bodega Hostels
Hostels Development


With more than 25 years of experience in the industry the we are more than capable to provide customers with affordable yet efficient flooring solutions.
When you are looking for domestic and commercial flooring solutions that are durable, affordable and always of a high quality look no further than Solent Flooring.
When you are looking for domestic and commercial flooring solutions that are durable, affordable and always of a high quality look no further than Solent Flooring. With a showroom full of various designs, patterns and colours to choose from you are never stuck for choice whether you are domestic or commercial.
Our team of professional flooring fitters have years of experience and knowledge when it comes to flooring. All you need to do is let them know your requirements and they gather together the most suitable solutions for your needs and your budget amount. Once you have decided on the flooring solution for you our team can then install the floor at your property and never leave until you are fully satisfied with your new flooring from Solent Flooring.
Whether you are looking for carpet, vinyl, laminate or real wood flooring we have everything you could ever need all under one roof. Our showroom boasts various leading brands so that you have the best pick of the bunch to really make your guests jealous of your flooring every time they visit. Although we are based in Hampshire we carry out our flooring installations throughout Portsmouth, Southampton and the surrounding areas so as many people as possible can experience our high standard of service.
To get in touch with our friendly team who are members of The Guild Of Master Craftsmen and are also approved by Checkatrade call 02393 876700 (please note new dialling code). Our showroom (OPENING HOURS For our 'personal service' are MONDAY - FRIDAY 9.00AM - 2.00PM, AND MONDAY-FRIDAY AFTER 2 ON APPOINTMENT, SATURDAYS ALSO ON APPOINTMENT) we are in Gosport, Hampshire to view the high-quality flooring solutions yourself.


Whether you're just starting your college education or returning to school, DCC is the perfect place to begin. Our tuition is the lowest of any college or university in the state, and remarkable opportunities await graduates when they transfer to other schools or enter the workplace.
The College offers more than 50 degree and certificate programs in areas including Business Communications, Engineering, Art, Computer Science, Performing Arts, Liberal Arts and Human Services.
In a recent SUNY survey, DCC students gave the College top marks for quality of education, availability of instructors outside of class, library and classroom facilities and dozens of other important factors.
For those looking for an on-campus living experience, DCC's suite-style residence hall is a great option.
Questions? Need more information? E-mail the admissions office.
"Going to DCC is one of the best experiences I've had in my life! When I first came here, I didn't really know what I wanted to do. I chose art as my major, and eventually I became president of the Art Club."


text:
package de.andreasgiemza.mangadownloader.options;

import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.nio.file.Files;
import java.nio.file.Path;
import java.nio.file.Paths;
import java.util.Properties;

/**
 *
 * @author Andreas Giemza <andreas@giemza.net>
 */
public enum Options {

    INSTANCE;

    private final Properties properties = new Properties();
    private final Path optionsDir = Paths.get(System.getProperty("user.home"))
            .resolve(".MangaDownloader");
    private final Path optionsFile = optionsDir
            .resolve("MangaDownloader.properties");
    private final String mangasDir = "mangasDir";
    private final String selectedSource = "selectedSource";
    private final Path mangaListDir = optionsDir.resolve("sources");
    private final Path subscriptionsFile = optionsDir.resolve("subscriptions.xml");

    Options() {
        try {
            properties.load(new FileInputStream(optionsFile.toFile()));
        } catch (IOException ex) {
        }
    }

    public void setMangaDir(String mangaDir) {
        properties.setProperty(mangasDir, mangaDir);
    }

    public String getMangaDir() {
        String mangaDir = properties.getProperty(mangasDir, "");
        if (mangaDir.isEmpty()) {
            return Paths.get(System.getProperty("user.home")).resolve("Mangas")
                    .toString();
        } else {
            return mangaDir;
        }
    }

    public void setSelectedSource(String siteClass) {
        properties.setProperty(selectedSource, siteClass);
    }

    public String getSelectedSource() {
        return properties.getProperty(selectedSource, "");
    }

    public void saveOptions() {
        try {
            properties.store(new FileOutputStream(optionsFile.toFile()), null);
        } catch (IOException ex) {
        }
    }

    public void createOptionsDir() {
        if (!Files.exists(optionsDir)) {
            try {
                Files.createDirectory(optionsDir);
                Files.setAttribute(optionsDir, "dos:hidden", true);
            } catch (IOException ex) {
            }
        }
    }

    public Path getMangaListDir() {
        return mangaListDir;
    }

    public Path getSubscriptionsFile() {
        return subscriptionsFile;
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Nutanix delivered a weak forecast for its fiscal third quarter on Thursday afternoon.
Shares of former Wall Street darling Nutanix Inc. are on pace to lose almost a third of their value Friday, after the cloud-computing company delivered an extremely downbeat forecast.
Nutanix NTNX, +1.76% shares fell 31% in morning trading and were on track for their worst single-day slide in history, as the company's latest outlook prompted several analysts to head for the hills. If the losses hold, the plunge could erase $2.9 billion from Nutanix's market value, based on the share count from the company's latest filing.
"Ultimately, we think Nutanix has tried to do too much (massive portfolio expansion, cloud rollout, M&A, etc.) with too little (under investment in sales/go-to-market) for too long (recent year) and this has caught up with it," wrote Oppenheimer's Ittai Kidron, who cut his rating to perform from outperform on Friday.
The company's weak forecast is the reflection of an "emptied pipeline" and too few additions to the sales team, per Kidron. While the company seems "correctly focused" on hiring sales and engineering talent, he sees investments poised to "meaningfully rise" in the year ahead.
Stifel's Brad Reback also cited the company's issues with sales execution while downgrading the stock to hold from buy.
"With the installed base accounting for about 70% to 75% of new bookings over the last two years it seems that penetration rates for the company's core [hyperconverged-infrastructure] solution may be higher than we anticipated and newer solutions have yet to reach the necessary scale to drive overall revenue growth rates," he wrote.
Reback, who lowered his target price to $39 from $55, warned that Nutanix faces tough comparisons on billings in the coming quarters.
At least 13 analysts cut their price targets on Nutanix shares after the report, according to FactSet. Of the 22 analysts surveyed by FactSet who track the stock, 15 have buy ratings, six have hold ratings, and one has a sell rating. The average price target is $51.63, nearly 50% above current levels.
Susquehanna's Mehdi Hosseini said that the company's commentary validated his bearish call on the shares.
"Soft billings guidance and increased operating expenditures supports our negative view, as sales productivity needs to accelerate (not soften) in order for the company to hit its $3 billion target in fiscal 2021, which we believe is increasingly challenging, particularly given an intensifying competitive landscape with end-market demand growth decelerating," wrote Hosseini, who has a $33 target on the stock.
William Blair's Jason Ader is keeping the faith, writing that he remains a believer in the long-term story and thinks that the company's execution-related issues are fixable, including through a recently completed management change in sales, though the process will take a few quarters.
The stock has lost 24% over the past three months, as the S&P 500 SPX, +0.16% has ticked up 1.6%.


text:
Walk-on, Free Agent, Super Bowl Participant
New England Patriots rookie offensive lineman Cole Croston does an interview during Super Bowl LII Media Day on Jan. 29 in St. Paul, Minnesota. Croston was a three-year letterwinner for the University of Iowa from 2014-16. (Photo: Darren Miller)
Cole Croston put his head down and worked hard every step of his journey
By Darren Miller
ST. PAUL, Minn. -- When the World Champion New England Patriots scout for talent, they seek three qualities. Undrafted free agent offensive lineman Cole Croston possesses them all.
Croston, 24, a 2017 graduate of the University of Iowa, is listed as second-team left guard for the Patriots, who play Philadelphia on Sunday in Super Bowl LII at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.
Patriots offensive line coach Dante Scarnecchia revealed what he wants in players:
"They have to be smart, they have to be tough, and they have to be athletic enough...in that order," Scarnecchia said Monday at Super Bowl Media Day in the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. "We brought Cole in as a free agent and we love the kid. He has done a nice job. He has been on the varsity the whole year -- hasn't played much, but we feel his time will come in the future."
Croston's story isn't a complete rags-to-riches tale, but nothing was handed to the tall, skinny kid from Sergeant Bluff, Iowa. He used his 6-foot, 5-inch frame to average 12 points and nine rebounds in 67 basketball games for Sergeant Bluff-Luton High School. On the football field he was first-team all-district as an offensive lineman and punter.
His college offer list consisted of one small school for basketball and partial scholarships for football at Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa, and Augustana University in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
Croston's father, Dave, lettered in football for the Hawkeyes from 1984-86 and was selected by the Green Bay Packers in the third round of the 1987 NFL Draft. One way or another, Cole was following his father's path to Iowa City.
"I decided I was going to go to Iowa and be a student or go to Iowa and play football," Croston said. "Luckily the football part worked out. Coach (Reese) Morgan asked me to walk on and I took it in a heartbeat. I weighed about 220 pounds. It was quite the investment (for the Hawkeyes) and I'm glad he took it."
Croston came to practice with a chip on his shoulder. His path was not unlike that of several walk-ons before him. Croston added weight, muscle, and playing time. He became a two-year starter at offensive tackle and was named third-team All-Big Ten his senior season.
"I have to give a lot of thanks to (strength and conditioning) coach (Chris) Doyle," said Croston, who now weighs 315 pounds. "He put a lot of weight on me and a lot of strength that I needed. Coach Brian Ferentz and coach Kirk Ferentz helped transform me to the player I am now. Brian taught me so many things that I wouldn't have learned without him."
When the 2017 NFL Draft was held from April 27-29, Croston was not among the 253 players selected. When it was time to sign a free agent contract he noticed that players who worked hard stuck around and enjoyed solid careers with New England. He heard that every Patriot -- drafted or not -- was given an equal opportunity.
"You get the feel around here that it doesn't matter if you're a first round or undrafted guy, everyone is going to get their chance to play," Croston said.
He met with Scarnecchia, who put him through a chalk talk session.
"We did test stuff on the board, some things they do at New England, to learn whether I was able to understand that or not," Croston said.
The No. 1 trait the Patriots were looking for was intellect, and Croston was well-prepared after five years in Iowa's program.
There was more. Croston started games at right tackle and left tackle at Iowa and occasionally would get reps at guard during camp. That versatility paid off as a rookie in the NFL.
"They have a saying here: 'The more you can do,'" Croston said. "I was able to show that I could play multiple positions and I was able to take things from the classroom onto the field and they appreciated that."
Croston spent the entire season on New England's 53-player roster. His first action came Nov. 19 during a 33-8 victory over the Raiders in Mexico City.
As a youngster, Croston spent Super Sundays with family at the home of his uncle or grandparents. Many of his family will spend Super Bowl LII in Minneapolis, watching Croston and the Patriots perform on football's biggest stage.
"I wasn't sure if I was even going to make the team," Croston said. "I was able to grind it out and earn a roster spot. Throughout the season, we put our heads down, went to work and had a pretty good record. We won a couple (playoff) games and now we're in the Super Bowl."
Croston won't be the only Hawkeye-turned-Patriot at Sunday's Super Bowl. Offensive lineman James Ferentz and wide receiver Riley McCarron are also in the Twin Cities as members of New England's practice squad.
Posted by NC Sports on Thursday, February 01, 2018
Labels: cole croston, NC Sports Athletes in the News
Patriots Free Agency: Why Re-Signing Rex Burkhead ...
Ex-NFL QB Kordell Stewart Shares Vision for Mariot...
Ohio State's Katie Smith named finalist for anothe...
In five short years, Vince Marrow has gone from "S...
Why the Lions believe in new offensive line coach ...
Ohio State Great Katie Smith Selected to Women's B...
Texans WR DeAndre Hopkins Praises Titans Coach Mik...
Former Husker, TeamMates recognize mentors and stu...
Patriot to watch
Stephen Neal: National wrestling champion, 3-time ...
1-on-1 matchups in Super Bowl LII
Super Bowl 2018: Patriots versatile Rex Burkhead s...
Sergeant Bluff native Croston's latest stop is Sup...


text:
The Comedy About A Bank Robbery Announces New Cast
January 12, 2017 by Tom Bailey Leave a Comment
With Mischief Theatre's production of The Play That Goes Wrong soon to open on Broadway, today the company announces the new cast for its critically acclaimed The Comedy About A Bank Robbery. Jeremy Lloyd (Everyone Else) continues in the production and he is joined by Hannah Boyce (Caprice), Mark Hammersley (Warren), Sean Kearns (Freeboys), Steffan Lloyd-Evans (Sam), Tania Mathurin (Ruth), Christopher Pizzey (Smitties),Gareth Tempest (Mitch), Miles Yekinni (Cooper) and understudies Michael Bodie, Samuel Fogell, Paula Kay, Niall Ransome and Holly Sumpton. The new cast start from Wednesday 8 February 2017 and the show is currently booking until 29 October 2017, having originally opened in April 2016.
Mischief Theatre currently has three shows running simultaneously in the West End – The Comedy About A Bank Robbery as well as the Olivier Award-winning The Play That Goes Wrong at the Duchess Theatre and Peter Pan Goes Wrong at the Apollo Theatre. A specially written television adaptation of Peter Pan Goes Wrong was broadcast on BBC 1 on New Year's Eve.
Mischief Theatre is a comedy theatre company based in London, established in 2008 by a group of graduates and students of London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art. Since forming, the company has created and presented a number of productions across the UK and in Europe including The Play That Goes Wrong (Oliver Award for Best New Comedy, WhatsOnStage Award for Best New Comedy and Broadway World Theatre Award for Best Play) and Peter Pan Goes Wrong (Olivier Award Nominee for Best New Comedy 2016). The company is led by Artistic Director Henry Lewis and Company Director Jonathan Sayer.
In addition to its work in the UK, The Play That Goes Wrong has toured internationally visiting the Holder's Season Festival in Barbados, Madinat Theatre in Dubai and the Abu Dhabi Theatre, in its original English language. There are also productions being performed in translation, including 'Les Faux British' at Théâtre Saint-George, Paris, which won a prestigious Molière Award for Best New Comedy; in Greece at the Peroke Theatre; Bulgaria, under the title 'Unfortunate Whodunnit' at the Satira Theatre; Budapest under the title 'Ma Este Megabukunk' at Centrál Színaház and most recently in Tokyo at the Haiyuza Theatre. There have also been award-winning adaptations in Turkey and Poland. With further productions planned for Berlin, Australia, Spain and Italy later this year, the company is causing mischief around the globe.
Fizzy Sherbet Podcast Plays and Playwrights Announced


Who is 'not credible'—the union leaders or Corbyn?
Jeremy Corbyn angered and scared the Tories last weekend when he called for the legalisation of solidarity strikes, unilateral nuclear disarmament and a deal with Argentina over the Falklands.
He also enraged the Labour right in parliament and the trade union leaderships.
Corbyn is right on all these issues. And far from making Labour unelectable, he's showing a wholly refreshing change from the bland Tory-lite politics of his predecessors.
That's why Labour membership has doubled.
The Tories are blustering ahead with plans to spend up to £167 billion on renewing Trident nuclear missiles. They intend to ask MPs to vote on the issue in the next few months.
Nuclear weapons threaten the extinction of humanity and the planet.
Spending virtually unlimited funds on these weapons is spitting in the face of all of those who have suffered the government's vicious cuts year after year.
Corbyn is right to say Trident must go. And workers should have the right to strike in solidarity with others—as they could legally from 1946 until Tory Margaret Thatcher abolished it in 1980.
Bosses can support one another in a thousand different ways during class battles.
Why shouldn't Tube workers be able to say, "the health service matters to us, we want to strike for the nurses and the NHS"?
Why shouldn't local government workers say, "we're against privatisation, we will take action to stop it in the schools"?
Workers should be able to picket where they want in any numbers they choose.
Corbyn is mentioning what for decades has been unmentionable. Labour ought to be on the side of those fighting back.
But he faces serious obstacles.
Some union leaders are now fighting to keep Trident on the spurious grounds of safeguarding employment. They've done nothing effective to stop hundreds of thousands of job losses elsewhere.
GMB union leaders say Corbyn's plans are "incoherent" and "not credible".
Leading Unite union figures in the Trident-based plants have raised the spectre of up to 10,000 workers leaving the union unless it campaigns for renewal.
Unite leader Len McCluskey has urged Corbyn to give Labour MPs a free vote on the issue—which would guarantee the missiles would be retained.
Such pressures are why Corbyn comes up with suggestions such as keeping nuclear submarines but that they should not carry nuclear warheads.
And it's why Labour remains a very long way from lining up with all those fighting back.
cabinet refused to back the junior doctors' strike, even though it is a hugely popular strike.
But the shadow cabinet as a whole remains terrified of consistently backing resistance and radical policies.
A Clydeside defence worker has reacted angrily to union leaders' backing for the renewal of Trident.
The GMB union sent a letter to union reps spelling out their support for the Trident successor programme.
The worker said, "If people in England want to save Trident, they can have it down there.
"I don't want it on the Clyde—but it should be scrapped altogether.
"I think it is a disgrace that trade union leaders are prepared to countenance the melting of women and children in the event of a war.
The GMB letter claimed that the idea defence workers could have alternative jobs was "utter nonsense".
It said the only alternative for sacked workers was "the dole".
But the worker argued, "There is an alternative.
"Trident will cost £167 billion over its lifetime.