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At a glanceFriday, May 10, 2019
Collection Industry News At A Glance - May 10, 2019
This Week's Newsletter:
Credit bureaus draw the most consumer complaints to the CFPB
Getting incorrect or outdated information fixed or removed from one's credit report is a problem many consumers share. It's so common that hundreds of thousands of them lodged complaints against the three major credit bureaus last year. And that made credit reports the most-complained-about product in 2018, according to a new analysis of more than 257,000 complaints to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Credit reporting, credit-repair services or other personal consumer complaints accounted for 43 percent of all complaints to the CFPB last year. That's up from 23 percent in 2016, according to U.S. PIRG Education Fund, a nonpartisan consumer advocacy group.
CFPB Director Kathleen L. Kraninger's Speech at the Debt Collection Town Hall
Thank you all for coming. I'm delighted to be at my first CFPB town hall. Philadelphia has always been a special place to me. With Independence Hall as the foundation, this city always reminds me of the importance of democracy and public service. I could not think of a better city to be in as the Bureau continues to focus on developing and promoting the right policies for the American people. The Bureau issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking yesterday on debt collection. Clear rules of the road, where consumers know their rights and debt collectors know their limitations, are a step towards fulfilling the intent of the law.
Crypto-Friendly US Congress Members Join New Fintech Task Force
The U.S. House of Representatives is launching a new task force aimed specifically at financial technology – including blockchain. The new task force, referred to as the FinTech Task Force, was established by the House Financial Services Committee by a voice vote Thursday, and will examine blockchain and cryptocurrency tools, among others. The task force will be headed up by Massachusetts Rep. Stephen Lynch. Its initial list of issues includes regulating fintech from both domestic and international perspectives; lending and using "alternative data" for loan underwriting; examining the legal and regulatory frameworks for payments, as well as the infrastructure; and data privacy.
CFPB DEBT COLLECTION TOWN HALL
(Sacramento, CA) – Yesterday, the Receivables Management Association International (RMAI) had a front row seat at the CFPB Debt Collection Town Hall in Philadelphia, PA. Representing RMAI was RMAI Executive Director Jan Stieger, RMAI President Marian Sangalang, RMAI President-Elect Jim Mastriani, and RMAI Legal Counsel Don Maurice. The event was hosted by the CFPB to receive insights and feedback from the business and consumer communities on the CFPB's Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on Debt Collection Practices.
Clear and Present Danger?: New Ruling Highlights TCPA Perils Faced by Providers of Autodialer and Mass Message Services
It is a truism in this great nation of ours that weapons don't kill people, people do. So weapons manufacturers are rarely, if ever, liable for their sale—even if some remarkably high number of those weapons will eventually be used for illegal conduct. The second amendment, of course, assures that all Americans have the right to bear arms as long as they are part of a well-regulated, state-run militia. So… there.
WebRecon Stats for April 2019: Lawsuits up, YTD trends remain the same
For the first time since January, all lawsuit categories were up in April (FDCPA +11.5%, FCRA +22.3%, TCPA +1.7%) though CFPB complaints were down (fairly dramatically at -21.3%) from the prior month. FDCPA (-8.3%) and TCPA (10.9%) are still trending down YTD while FCRA is back trending up YTD (+5.3%) after briefly dipping into negative YTD territory last month.


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make your move
The Creative Brain On Exercise
For artists, entrepreneurs, and any other driven creators, exercise is a powerful tool in the quest to help transform the persistent uncertainty, fear, and anxiety that accompanies the quest to create from a source of suffering into something less toxic, then potentially even into fuel.
[Image: Flickr user Thomas Hawk]
By Jonathan Fields 6 minute Read
Fast Company wants you to have your best year yet in 2012; click for more advice and tips on how to work smarter, manage your career, and lead a more meaningful life.
For more than thirty years, Haruki Murakami has dazzled the world with his beautifully crafted words, most often in the form of novels and short stories. But his book What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (2008) opens a rare window into his life and process, revealing an obsession with running and how it fuels his creative process.
An excerpt from a 2004 interview with Murakami in The Paris Review brings home the connection between physical strength and creating extraordinary work:
When I'm in writing mode for a novel, I get up at 4:00 a.m. and work for five to six hours. In the afternoon, I run for ten kilometers or swim for fifteen hundred meters (or do both), then I read a bit, and listen to some music. I go to bed at 9:00 p.m. I keep to this routine every day without variation. The repetition itself becomes the important thing; it's a form of mesmerism. I mesmerize myself to reach a deeper state of mind. But to hold to such repetition for so long–six months to a year–requires a good amount of mental and physical strength. In that sense, writing a long novel is like survival training. Physical strength is as necessary as artistic sensitivity.
Murakami is guided by what the great scholars, writers, thinkers, and creators of ancient Greece knew yet so many modern-day creators have abandoned.
The physical state of our bodies can either serve or subvert the quest to create genius. We all know this intuitively. But with rare exceptions, because life seems to value output over the humanity of the process and the ability to sustain genius, attention to health, fitness, and exercise almost always take a back seat.That's tragic. Choosing art over health rather than art fueled by health kills you faster; it also makes the process so much more miserable and leads to poorer, slower, less innovative, and shallower creative output.
As Dr. John Ratey noted in his seminal work Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain (2008), exercise isn't just about physical health and appearance. It also has a profound effect on your brain chemistry, physiology, and neuroplasticity (the ability of the brain to literally rewire itself). It affects not only your ability to think, create, and solve, but your mood and ability to lean into uncertainty, risk, judgment, and anxiety in a substantial, measurable way, even though until very recently it's been consistently cast out as the therapeutic bastard child in lists of commonly accepted treatments for anxiety and depression.
In 2004 the esteemed New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) published a review of treatments for generalized anxiety disorder that noted thirteen pharmaceuticals, each with a laundry list of side effects, but nothing about exercise. In response, NEJM published a letter by renowned cardiologists Richard Milani and Carl Lavie, who had written more than seventy papers on the effect of exercise on the heart, eleven of them focused on anxiety. That letter criticizes the original article for omitting exercise, which, the writers note, "has been shown to lead to reductions of more than 50 percent in the prevalence of the symptoms of anxiety. This supports exercise training as an additional method to reduce chronic anxiety."
Ratey details many data points on the connection between exercise and mind-set; among them the following:
A 2004 study led by Joshua Broman-Fulks of the University of Southern Mississippi that showed students who walked at 50 percent of their maximum heart rates or ran on treadmills at 60 to 90 percent of their maximum heart rates reduced their sensitivity to anxiety, and that though rigorous exercise worked better. "Only the high intensity group felt less afraid of the physical symptoms of anxiety, and the distinction started to show up after just the second exercise session."
A 2006 Dutch study of 19,288 twins and their families that demonstrated that those who exercised were "less anxious, less depressed, less neurotic, and also more socially outgoing."
A 1999 Finnish study of 3,403 people that revealed that those who exercised two to three times a week "experience significantly less depression, anger, stress, and 'cynical distrust.'"
Ratey points to a number of proven chemical pathways, along with the brain's neuroplastic abilities, as the basis for these changes, arguing that exercise changes the expression of fear and anxiety, as well as the way the brain processes them from the inside out.
Studies now prove that aerobic exercise both increases the size of the prefrontal cortex and facilitates interaction between it and the amygdala. This is vitally important to creators because the prefrontal cortex, as we discussed earlier, is the part of the brain that helps tamp down the amygdala's fear and anxiety signals.
This is not to suggest that anyone suffering from a generalized or trait (that is, long-term) anxiety disorder avoid professional help and self-treat with exercise alone. People who suffer from anxiety should not hesitate to seek out the guidance of a qualified mental health-care professional.
The point is to apply the lessons from a growing body of research on the therapeutic effect of exercise on anxiety, mood, and fear to the often sustained low-level anxiety that rides organically along with the uncertainty of creation. Anyone involved in a creative endeavor should tap exercise as a potent elixir to help transform the uncomfortable sensation of anxiety from a source of pain and paralysis into something not only manageable but harnessable.
Exercise, it turns out, especially at higher levels of intensity, is an incredibly potent tool in the quest to train in the arts of the fear alchemist.
Still, a large number of artists and entrepreneurs resist exercise as a key element in their ability to do what they most want to do–make cool stuff that speaks to a lot of people. In the case of artists, I often wonder if that resistance is born of a cultural chasm that many artists grew up with, where jocks were jocks, artists were artists, hackers were hackers, and never the twain would meet. For more sedentary solo creators, historical assumptions about who exercises and who doesn't can impose some very real limits on a behavior that would be very beneficial on so many levels.
On the entrepreneur side, the excuse I've heard (and used myself) over and over is "I'm launching a damn company and my hair's on fire. I don't have time to work out." The sad truth is that if we make the time to exercise, it makes us so much more productive and leads to such improved creativity, cognitive function, and mood that the time we need for doing it will open up and then some–making us so much happier and better at the art of creation, to boot.
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Excerpted from Uncertainty by Jonathan Fields by arrangement with Portfolio Penguin, a member of Penguin Group (USA), Inc., Copyright (c) 2011 by Jonathan Fields.
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I'm a dad, husband, award-winning author, executive-producer/host of the top-ranked Good Life Project® podcast, founder/CEO of Spark Endeavors, and chief architect behind the Sparketypes®, an archetyping system and set of tools tapped by over 450,000 individuals and organizations to identify, embrace and cultivate work that makes people come alive, and equip organizations and leaders to better inspire extraordinary work.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Stress. No matter what job you have, at some point, it's going to be stressful. But jobs with chronic stress can destroy your health and happiness at all hours of the day. I've attempted to break out the different types of work stress below, to discuss which kinds of stress is ok (short-term) and which kind of stress should be avoided or engineered out of your life.
Work Quantity Stress — you may like your job, your compensation, your boss, and your peers, but you just have too much to do. Perhaps you're being scheduled for too many hours, or being handed too many clients than it's reasonably possible to manage in a week's work. If you can negotiate a lesser project load or convince your boss that additional resources need to be added, then this stress is manageable. However, if you are working in a situation where this is unlikely to change, it's best to start exploring new employers within the same field. You should determine if the workload is common across all employers in the field, or unique to your employer. If unique, start planning your exit. If not, determine if your career is truly sustainable.
Job Success Stress — some jobs are second nature to employees. There may be specific projects that require learning new skills or developing existing ones, but no matter what there's a core set of things that you do well, probably better than anyone else in your company. You take pride in these things and know they are adding value to your employer. If you do not have a core set of skills that add value to your employer, it's time to look at your career and scope your potential for success. If you're constantly unable to live up to expectations, and are unable to learn certain portions of the role (i.e. you have to be extroverted but you're really shy) it's time to look for a new job or career.
Management Stress (Boss) — your boss likes you give you one direction and then change it the next minute. Goals are never consistent and somehow a contribution you made once that received great praise is, despite being nearly identical a few days later, somehow not considered a win. You are fighting an uphill battle that you can't win. You should maybe start to look for a new boss. If you can move to another department in your company, this is worth a first step if you still like the overall company and culture.
Management Stress (Direct Reports) — no matter what, you just cannot get the best work out of your team. Maybe you are understaffed (see #1) or you made poor hiring choices. Even if you hired the world's best team, you still may not be helping them succeed due to your own poor managerial skills. Not everyone should be a manager. It's ok to take a step back and accept if you are not management material, as they say. You can still lead a very successful career without being in middle or senior management. Take stock of your stressors and see how many of these would go away if you could focus entirely on execution and not on leadership. If the answer is "most of them," consider a career change into a field where individual contributions are rewarded. Consultants can earn as much or more than middle managers. Don't be a slave to corporate hierarchies if you don't fit them well.
Financial Stress (Underpaid) — your life is more expensive than your compensation. Maybe you have a lot of debt, or have to support a growing family, and your work isn't paying enough to enable you to live the life you want. Just leaving your job and jumping to another role will unlikely solve this, unless you can manage a major pay increase. Examine your career and realistically address your likely compensation over the next 10 years within your role and field. If this won't help you achieve your financial goals, start to look for a career that pays better.
Financial Stress (Overpaid) — this one may seem odd, but there is a stress that comes along with negotiating well for yourself and making comparatively more than others at your level in the company. You and your own boss may place a great deal of stress on your successes that are in reality much bigger than the cost to the business for the extra couple hundred dollars you make each month after taxes. Determine if you'd be happier making less with less unreasonable pressure. It maybe be better to add a second job or some freelancing work to make up for the difference, versus being expected to give up your entire life for work.
Culture Stress — no matter what, you haven't been able to find your peer group in your organization. It's like you joined some super cliquey sorority and you were invited as a joke. Perhaps everyone at the office goes on and on about sports everyday and you haven't watched a game since you were forced to by your parents in second grade. Or the entire company is made out of male engineers who seem to have a touch of Aspergers, and won't listen to anything you have to say. It's ok to admit that the culture isn't right, and it's time to start looking elsewhere. If the company culture is causing you so much stress it's distracting you from getting your job done or enjoying your home life… it's ok to move on.
Individual Person Stress — is there one employee in your organization who just drives you absolutely batshit? If this employee isn't your boss, you probably can learn to deal with them, but it won't be easy. Every company is going to have its fair share of people who don't jive with your personality, and in most cases you have to learn how to deal with them and be a mature adult about the situation. If the person is related to the company's founder and is given special treatment, you're probably not the only one who notices. Remind yourself the job is not forever, and do your best now so you can be better suited for other companies – without this person as an employee – in the future.
Travel Stress — you joined the job thinking you'd be traveling a few times a year, but suddenly you're called on to travel every day of the week, and some weekends. You feel like you never see your family, significant other, pet or bed. Maybe the travel was fun and exciting for a while, but you've gotten to the point where you know the security gate attendant better than your partner. If the travel is creating more stress than reward, consider looking for a position in the same field that doesn't require constant time on the road.
Office Stress — getting out of the office every once in a while can do wonders to help you improve your work. If your employer doesn't support your attending industry conferences, sitting in on client meetings, or ever leaving your cubical, you may be stuck in a rut that won't be de-rutted until you make a move. This type of stress is manageable over the short term. Start to look for other positions which your skills can apply towards which offer more opportunities for travel or being put in front of users/clients. Or, talk to your boss and see if there are opportunities to improve this in your company today.
Jobs naturally are stressful – if they weren't, we wouldn't get paid to do them! But there are some stressors that are worse than others. Take stock of what is causing your stress today, and determine if this is something you can manage for a few months or years, or if it's time to start looking at a company or career change. This post was inspired by a friend of mine who is an occupational therapist, who, despite stresses over resources, really loves her actual job. She explained that it feels good to be really good at what she does. I returned to thinking about my own stresses today in work, and how most of these are due to my lack of confidence in being able to do any of my core job tasks well. By understanding this, I'm able to focus on looking for a new career where I can obtain a role where I can feel competent. Personally, I don't see this ever being possible in my current role/field for a number of reasons, so I am more convinced then ever that I must shake things up in order to lead a happy life over the long term.


Berkshire Hathaway reported financial results for 2011 over the weekend which included Warren Buffett's annual letter to shareholders. The most common Berkshire headline on various websites, such as this article by Bloomberg, refers to Berkshire's 30 percent decline in fourth quarter net income. Given the short attention span and investment horizon on Wall Street, financial journalists understandably seek attention by emphasizing the metric that most readers are looking for. Unfortunately, net income for a single quarter or even a full year is usually meaningless for Berkshire Hathaway where results must be examined over a very long time horizon to convey any meaningful information.
Many value oriented websites such as Guru Focus are taking a close look at 2011 results and focusing on some of the key points that matter when it comes to evaluating Berkshire's business performance. Rather than writing about the specifics of Berkshire's performance in 2011, we find it more useful to step back and assess Berkshire's performance over a much longer time frame – a full decade. While many investors will debate whether one, three, or five years should be considered "long term", very few would claim that a full decade doesn't qualify as a long term horizon. To illustrate the experience of a ten-year shareholder, we will examine the fictional story of Jane, a Berkshire shareholder who bought her shares on December 31, 2001 and is now assessing how Berkshire has performed over her ten years of ownership and trying to evaluate prospects for the next decade.
In the fall of 2001, Jane was shocked to receive a certified letter from an attorney informing her of a $750,000 inheritance from a distant relative she only vaguely recalled from her childhood. The relative had died in early 2001 and had left no will. The probate process finally identified Jane as the sole living heir and she received the funds in October 2001.
Jane was 45 years old at the time, had two years of college education, earned the median wage at a very secure job, and owned a median priced home in Omaha, her lifelong home town. Although Jane's only debt was a modest mortgage on her home due to be paid off in twenty years, she had no meaningful savings outside of a small emergency fund and no background or experience investing significant sums of money.
Mysteriously, helpful sounding financial planners and brokers starting calling Jane almost immediately after the close of probate. However, after meeting a few of these planners, Jane felt more confused than before regarding how to invest her windfall. Fortunately, Jane had attended Berkshire Hathaway's annual meeting the prior spring with a friend who owned shares of Berkshire. Several comments made by Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger seemed to cast doubts on the wisdom of entrusting money to financial "helpers".
Impressed by Warren Buffett's statements at the annual meeting and after reviewing the past few years of shareholder letters, on December 31, 2001 Jane decided to purchase 10 Class A shares for $75,600 each, a total investment of $756,000. Jane's time frame for holding her shares was indefinite, although she hoped that the funds would appreciate significantly over the next twenty years to provide a source of funds during her retirement which would begin in 2022.
Berkshire's stock price has fluctuated significantly over the years, particularly since the financial crisis of 2008-2009. For the ten year period from December 31, 2001 to December 30, 2011, Berkshire appreciated from $75,600 to $114,755 for a total return of 51.8 percent, or 4.26 percent annualized. Over the same period, a popular exchange traded fund tracking the S&P 500 (SPY) rose from $114.30 to $125.50 while paying $21.88 in dividends representing a total return of 28.9 percent, or 2.57 percent annualized.
Although Jane is pleased that Berkshire has outpaced the S&P 500 index fund and has provided a return in excess of inflation over her period of ownership, she can't help but feel somewhat underwhelmed by the performance of her investment and feels mentally anchored to the $150,000/share price that Berkshire briefly reached in late 2007. However, Warren Buffett's latest shareholder letter clearly signals that he believes Berkshire's intrinsic value is materially higher than the current stock price. Given that Jane is at roughly the half way point in her likely two decade ownership of Berkshire, she decided to dig a bit deeper by looking at the performance of the business rather than focusing only on the stock price.
Our Board of Directors has authorized Berkshire Hathaway to repurchase Class A and Class B shares of Berkshire at prices no higher than a 10% premium over the then-current book value of the shares. In the opinion of our Board and management, the underlying businesses of Berkshire are worth considerably more than this amount, though any such estimate is necessarily imprecise. If we are correct in our opinion, repurchases will enhance the per-share intrinsic value of Berkshire shares, benefiting shareholders who retain their interest.
In Mr. Buffett's letter to shareholders, he explicitly addresses the question of Berkshire's intrinsic value relative to book value for each of Berkshire's major business segments. While shareholders are not provided any specific figures, with a couple of minor exceptions it is clear that Mr. Buffett strongly believes that the intrinsic value of each of Berkshire's important business groups is far higher than 110 percent of book value.
The following chart replicates the stock price chart shown above but also includes Berkshire's latest reported book value for each quarter over the ten year period. We can see that the ratio of Berkshire's price to book value per share fluctuates significantly over time.
Here we can see that Berkshire's price/book ratio was nearly 2.0 at the time of Jane's initial purchase and fluctuated between 1.4 and 2.0 for most of the first seven years of the investment period. However, after the onset of the financial crisis, Berkshire's price/book ratio dropped into a lower range of between 1.0 and 1.5. At year-end 2011, the price/book ratio was 1.15 and has since increased to 1.20.
Berkshire's book value per share was $37,920 on December 31, 2001 and rose to $99,860 as of December 31, 2011. This represents a 163 percent increase, or 10.2 percent on an annualized basis. It is clear that Berkshire's book value has significantly outperformed the company's stock price over the ten year holding period of Jane's investment.
If Berkshire's price/book ratio on December 31, 2011 had held at the nearly 2.0 level that prevailed at the time of Jane's purchase on December 31, 2001, Berkshire's stock price would have been nearly $200,000 per share and the performance of Jane's investment would have been exactly the same as the advance in book value: approximately 10.2 percent annualized. If Berkshire's price/book ratio on December 31, 2011 had been approximately 1.5, the average price/book ratio since 2000, Berkshire's stock price would have been nearly $150,000 per share and Jane would have achieved a 7.1 percent annualized return. The relatively disappointing performance of Jane's investment is not attributable to poor business performance at Berkshire but due to the compression in the multiple of book value that the market has assigned to Berkshire's shares.
Shareholders' Equity increased from $58 billion to $164.9 billion. Shares outstanding increased from 1.528 million to 1.651 million resulting in book value per share advancing from $37,920 to $99,860. Most of the share count dilution can be attributed to Berkshire's acquisition of BNSF in early 2010.
Cumulative net income of $88.8 billion. Although annual results were uneven, Berkshire posted significant net income over the ten year period. Net income ranged from a low of $4.3 billion in 2002 to a high of $13.2 billion in 2007. Berkshire's net income can be heavily influenced by insurance results and the timing of realized capital gains and losses and are generally meaningless over short periods such as a quarter or a year. However, a full decade begins to reveal Berkshire's formidable earnings power.
Cumulative Free Cash Flow of $84.1 billion. Free cash flow is calculated by taking the total net cash flows from operations and subtracting capital expenditures.
Berkshire spent $51.1 billion of cash for acquisitions. The majority of Berkshire's free cash flow was devoted to purchasing wholly owned subsidiaries. This figure does not include stock issued in connection with acquisitions. It is notable that Berkshire spent nearly as much cash on acquisitions over the decade as the company held in shareholders equity on December 31, 2001.
Berkshire's Insurance operations posted underwriting profits in all years except 2002. As Warren Buffett points out in his shareholder letter, Berkshire's insurance businesses are unusual. The insurance industry as a whole tends to post underwriting losses on average.
Insurance Float grew from $35.5 billion to $70.6 billion. Insurance float represents liabilities earmarked to pay the claims of policy holders but available for Berkshire to invest. The presence of cost free float has enabled Berkshire to generate investment returns over long periods of time using "other people's money" without the negative qualities of using traditional leverage.
While these bullet points merely provide a 30,000 foot view of Berkshire's progress over the past decade, we can begin to get a sense of how Berkshire has managed to compound book value per share at a rate in excess of 10 percent while starting from a very large base of capital. It seems very clear that Berkshire is a vastly more valuable enterprise today than it was when Jane made her investment ten years ago. Furthermore, while we are not providing a specific valuation in this article, the qualities of the business appears to support Mr. Buffett's assertion that the business is worth more than book value.
Getting back to Jane's story, we recall that her investment time frame was for twenty years which means that she is only at the half way mark in her ownership of Berkshire Hathaway. Jane's original investment of $756,000 has appreciated to $1.2 million, a compound annual return of 4.6 percent. Jane could sell her shares at the current price but would owe taxes on her $444,000 gain. After paying federal and Nebraska taxes at a combined rate of about 21.7%, she would be left with slightly over $1.1 million to reinvest for the next ten years. Alternatively, Jane could retain her Berkshire holdings and defer taxes on her gains for another decade, but she has to be convinced that Berkshire's prospects going forward are acceptable.
There are many valuation approaches analysts have used to estimate Berkshire Hathaway's intrinsic value, many of which have been discussed on this site in the past. However, for purposes of addressing Jane's decision, we will approach the problem in a very simple manner in an attempt to estimate a ballpark price level for Berkshire in ten years.
Since Berkshire does not pay a dividend and has not repurchased a material number of shares, we assume that the aggregate net income will be added to retained earnings over the ten year period. Assuming that the undistributed investee income, on average, shows up in appreciation of the equity securities held, the aggregate figure will be accretive to Berkshire's equity either via net income if investments are sold or through other comprehensive income if the investments are held.
The table below calculates a projection of Berkshire's share price in ten years based on the assumption that the earnings are retained and the share count remains the same.
Our assumption of 3 percent growth in normalized earnings power implicitly assumes that Berkshire will not find attractive places to invest the significant cash generated by businesses owned today. Instead, the assumption, which is arguably unrealistic, is that cash languishes on Berkshire's balance sheet rather than being distributed to shareholders or invested in new businesses.
If these assumptions hold, book value per share in ten years would approximately double from today's level to $204,000. We assign a price/book ratio of 1.4 at the end of the ten year period to arrive at a price projection of approximately $286,000. This is below the average price/book ratio that has prevailed since 2000 but above the typical price/book ratio since the financial crisis. If we instead assume that the price/book ratio will remain unchanged at today's level of 1.2, the price projection would be approximately $245,000.
From today's stock price of $120,000, Jane might expect annualized returns of between 7 to 9 percent using the assumptions provided above and depending on the terminal price/book ratio that is used. Keeping in mind the fact that the assumptions used here "bake in" the lack of meaningful reinvestment opportunities, book value could very well be materially higher that our estimate in ten years. For example, if Berkshire achieves the same 10.2 percent annualized rate of increase over the next ten years that it achieved over the past ten years, book value would be $264,000 in ten years and a price/book ratio of 1.4 would yield a stock price of $370,000 which would represent a 11.9 percent annualized return from the current stock price.
With the benefit of perfect hindsight, Jane would have been wise to avoid paying nearly twice book value for Berkshire shares at the end of 2001, a valuation level that has not been achieved since that time. As a result of buying at a high valuation, Jane's results have significantly trailed Berkshire's business results over her period of ownership. However, this is "water under the bridge" and all that matters today is whether Berkshire's performance going forward justifies continued ownership of the shares.
It appears that Berkshire's book value progress over the next decade is likely to be very satisfactory even if it does not match the results of the past ten years. Furthermore, if Warren Buffett's assessment of Berkshire's current undervaluation is correct, Jane may expect to see expansion in the price/book ratio over the next decade which would further enhance returns. As a final consideration, Jane can benefit from continued deferral of the tax liability on her capital gains if she holds Berkshire rather than selling and looking for a new investment.
If the assumptions in the table above prove to be in the ballpark, Jane might conservatively expect to own Berkshire shares worth $2.8 million in a decade which would represent a 6.8 percent annualized rate of return from her $756,000 purchase ten years ago. This would trail Berkshire's progress in book value unless Berkshire trades at the unlikely valuation of 2 times book value in the future. However, very long holding periods tend to lessen the pain of mistakes provided that the business in question is compounding intrinsic value at a satisfactory rate. In the case of Berkshire, the overwhelming evidence is that this will be the case going forward.
Disclosure: Individuals associated with The Rational Walk LLC own shares of Berkshire Hathaway. This article is not investment advice and involves a fictional character rather than a real individual.


Your automatic watches are a significant investment. Shouldn't you protect that investment with a product that has been designed with the same attention to detail as the watches themselves?
We think that once you've seen all the benefits offered by this system, you'll agree that, whether you have one fine automatic timepiece or 100, they all deserve the protection of the Underwood Modular Winding System.
Winding systems designed to accommodate any automatic watch. This is a system that allows you to remove one or more modules for travel and storage.


Our next show will be "Love Sick", a bracing antidote to Valentine's Day. Writers' Bloc's Andrew C Ferguson, Andrew J Wilson and Morag Edward will be the guests of the talented Napier University Creative Writing folk, who will include Jennifer Bryce, Ever Dundas, Sian Bevan, Matthew Nadelhaft, Sean Martin, Ariadne Cass-Maran and Barbara Melville.
Hello, my pretties. Do you think Valentine's Day is squishy (in a bad way)? Forget the evening of shoplifting you had planned. Instead, come join us on Sunday 13th February for a FREE night of anti-Valentine stories, including guest performances from spoken word group Writers' Bloc. We kick off at 8pm, and promise tales of historical romance, sexual perversions, and… well, more sexual perversions. After that, you can stay around for a drink and some other 'stuff'. Don't forget the safe word, darling.
"Love Sick" will be held in the Speakeasy at Cabaret Voltaire, 36-38 Blair Street, on Sunday 13th February from 8pm to 11:00 pm. And it's free!
That picture is one of the coolest things I've ever seen!
Can I add to my previous email please? I used an old email that doesn't appear to be working now. Please use this one instead to contact me if anyone would be interested in appearing/reading/workshopping etc at a sci fi/fact festival later this year in West Lothian.


Even a shallow applicant pool couldn't stop HealthcareSource Senior LivingSM from helping this facility fill their open positions.
Skilled nursing facilities and other senior care organizations in rural communities don't have the same hiring problems as the ones in larger cities. We've all heard about how hard it can be to find the best caregivers in a sea of job applicants — the ones who are dedicated both to their care community and to the residents they serve. But in a rural community, it's not that simple. It's not about finding the needle in the haystack; it's about finding enough hay to make a stack in the first place.
Located in southern Indiana, Maple Manor Christian Home came to HealthcareSource with the same problem facing many rural communities. According to Facility Administrator Steve Cunningham, they had not been fully staffed in three years. Not only were they not getting enough applicants for their open positions, but the applicants they were getting weren't the caliber they needed. Enter HealthcareSource and its hiring software specially designed for senior care providers.
It was a problem Maple Manor had been having for three years. Senor Living solved it in one month.
Once Maple Manor signed up with HealthcareSource, it didn't take long to start seeing results. Less than three weeks later, they were live on Senior Living and accepting applications. Within a month, Steve was happy to report that Maple Manor had filled all of their open positions for the first time in three years!
We've been saying it for a while now: Higher quantity often leads to higher quality. To get the quality of applicants you want for your job openings, you have to increase your applicant pool by maximizing your reach. And that's exactly what Senior Living can do for your care community, no matter where you're located. Don't let a shallow applicant pool keep you from finding the best for your residents. You do have a choice.
Higher quantity often leads to higher quality. To get the quality of applicants you want for your job openings, you have to increase your applicant pool by maximizing your reach. And that's exactly what Senior Living can do for your care community, no matter where you're located.


text:
Jayna from NY Asked Note: This answer was provided prior to the change to planDisney and may still contain references to Disney Parks Moms Panel. "
I know a lot of things are still up in the air, but do you know if pin trading with cast members will resume as things open back up (like at Disney Springs on May 20th) or will that be an activity that will be reintroduced in a later phase of reopening?"
Hello Jayna! It is always nice to chat with a fellow collector/trader of Walt Disney World Resort pins! My sons and I really enjoy seeing all of the newest pins during our visits! For our family, pins have become the best way to commemorate our visits to the Walt Disney World Resort. Deciding which pins to collect has become part of the fun of our vacations!
Like you, the Disney Parks Moms Panel is thrilled to hear about the phased reopening of Disney Springs beginning on May 20th! The health and safety of Guests and Cast Members is a top priority, so interactions with Cast Members, for activities such as pin-trading, will be limited or not included at all during the phased reopening.
Jayna, while we excitedly wait for activities such as pin-trading to resume, you can always visit shopdisney.com and do a search for "pins" to browse some of the newest collectible pins available from Disney Parks!
Hakuna Matata! Jonathan G.
Meet the Panelist: Jonathan, Pennsylvania
Hi, everyone! My name is Jonathan. I am a Disney-adoring husband, dad of three sons, and elementary school principal from Pennsylvania. If you're visiting planDisney with questions about the Most Magical Place on Earth, then Hakuna Matata because you've come to the right group of people! I'm happy to use my past Disney-travel experiences and knowledge to help you enjoy every moment of your vacation to the Walt Disney World Resort! Learn More About Jonathan
Must-Dos at Disney Springs
Walt Disney World Activities
On 5/5/2020 Leslie from PA Asked: I haven't seen a 2020 Mother's Day pin Will there be one released?
On 4/13/2020 William from CA Asked: Are there fortune tellers at Disney World like they have a Disneyland? Do they give free fortunes in the app?
On 3/26/2020 Amy from PA Asked: We are avid pin traders, but have only traded for pins that we like. Now that our daughter is older, we are ready to learn more about collectibles and secret tips. Where can I go to learn more...


text:
Q: After I externally trigger the airflow dag using experimental api it keeps on running and not executing the dag Airflow Dag:
def print_hello(**kwargs):
    task_params = kwargs['dag_run'].conf['task_payload']
    print('Hello world a with {}'.format(task_params))

def hello_world():
    args = {
        "start_date": datetime(2022, 5, 1),
        "retries": 1,
        "sla": timedelta(hours=3)
    }

    dag_name = 'hello_world_a'
    dag = dag_utils.create_dag(dag_name, args=args, schedule_interval=None)

    test = PythonOperator(
        task_id='hello_world_printer',
        python_callable=print_hello,
        provide_context=True,
        dag=dag)

    with_done_check((test),
                    date_format="{{ ds }}",
                    run_mode=get_mode())

    return dag

Api
curl --location --request POST 'http://loclahost:8080/api/experimental/dags/hello_world_a/dag_runs'
--header 'Content-Type: application/json'
--header 'Cache-Control: no-cache'
--data-raw '{"conf":"{"mesage":"test"}"}'
Please let me know why my dag is in running state, but not getting excuted

A: Try switching the month and day values in start_date. datetime.datetime() is in year/month/day format. Airflow is most likely waiting for May 1.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Cauca is a Department of Colombia. Located in the south-western part of the country, facing the Pacific Ocean to the west, the Valle del Cauca Department to the north, Tolima Department to the northeast, Huila Department to the east and the Nariño Department to the south, Putumayo and Caqueta Departments are located and bordering the southeast portion of Cauca Department as well. covering a total area of 29,308 km², the 13th largest in Colombia. Its capital is the city of Popayán. The offshore island of Malpelo belongs to the department. It is located in the southwest of the country near the Andean (between 00°58'54"N and 03°19'04"N latitude, 75°47'36"W and 77°57'05"W longitude). The area includes 2.56% of the country.
Cauca department is divided into 38 municipalities, 99 districts, 474 police posts and numerous villages and populated places. The municipalities are grouped into 27 circles and 29 notaries notary, a circle-based registration in Popayán and eight sectional offices based in Bolívar, Caloto, Puerto Tejada, Santander de Quilichao, Patia, Guapi and Silvia, makes up the judicial district, Popayán, with 8 seats judicial circuit in Popayán, Bolívar, Caloto, Guapi, Patia, Puerto Tejada, Santander de Quilichao and Silvia. The department makes up the constituency of Cauca.
Cauca Department was one of the departments of Gran Colombia.


I have wanted to make this bun for quite a while and since I had already prepared the red bean paste it was a good opportunity for me to try it. I also had a lot of green tea (matcha) powder, so I used it to make Green Tea Buns with red bean filling. This recipe was adapted from Christine's Recipe.
Set it aside to rise for 45 to 60 minutes or till double in size.
Transfer dough to a clean floured surface.
Deflate and divide the dough into 12 equal portions. Knead into ball shapes.
Divide the red bean paste into 12 equal parts (about 35g each). Knead each part into small balls.
Roll out each small dough ball with a rolling pin and flatten into a disc. Place a small red bean ball in the middle. Enclose and knead into a ball shape with the seal facing down. Repeat this step of rolling and wrapping fillings with the rest of your dough. Place onto a baking tray lined with baking paper (2 inches apart from each bun), covered with cling wrap and a wet towel. Leave for the 2nd round of proofing, about 45 to 60 minutes, until double in size.
Brush the bun with egg wash and sprinkle with sesame seeds. This is optional.
Bake in a pre-heated 170C oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until brown. Transfer onto a wire rack and let cool completely.
The original recipe from Christine's Recipe suggested baking for 35 minutes at 160C. I found that this resulted in bun that may be over baked.
You may have noticed that the red beans paste looks a little dry. This is because I reduced sugar and oil.
Hi! Is this bread method (using tangzhong) softer than the japanese bread/bun recipe? I would really like to make either one, and want the softer one hahaha. I'm a beginner in bread making though, which one do you recommend me making? Thankyou so much!
Thank you for dropping by. The Tangzhong method is softer. However, I would like to inform you that buns will usually turn out a bit dry if compare with loaf by using the same recipe. Please do not over bake your bun, otherwise the buns will dry.


Interrobang?! Improv is an improvisational comedy group that has performed in Seattle since 2010. Comprised of members of Jet City Improv, ComedySportz, TheatreSports, and independent improvisers, they're known for their physicality, emotional honesty, and embrace of experimentation. They create a new format on a monthly basis at The Pocket Theater, as well as occasional appearances elsewhere.
This page was last modified on 16 April 2015, at 16:08.


text:
Scans log files and sends unexpected activity and alerts to a sysadmin via email.

If you're familiar with log monitoring tools such as [Logcheck](http://logcheck.org/)
then you already know what Logalert does. The premise of these tools is simple.
In short, you have Cron run the tool periodically and it will email
unusual/unexpected log activity to a sysadmin. Log entries that should be
considered unusual activity are defined by regular expressions (or the lack thereof).

Features
---
* Log activity emails are formatted in HTML
* Logs are scanned using only two sets of regular expressions -
  ignore patterns and alert patterns
* Logs are scanned for alerts after ignore patterns are filtered
* Log files with common rule sets are grouped together by directory (and called a log group)
* Email is sent per log group, separate emails are sent for alerts
  and unusual activity
* Log activity is formatted as HTML with awk for easy customization
* Rules files are processed with awk to allow for user defined tag extensions
* Can use the same regular expressions as Logcheck for ignore and alert patterns

Requirements
---

* [BASH 2.05 or later](http://www.gnu.org/software/bash/)
* [Awk 3.0 or later](http://www.gnu.org/software/gawk/)
* A log tail tool such as those in the [Logcheck](http://logcheck.org/) package;
  the default configuration references logtail2 which is a Perl script

Installation
---
Download the archive and extract into a folder. Then, to install the package:

	make install

This installs scripts to `/usr/sbin`, configuration files to `/etc/logalert` and
man pages to `/usr/share/man`. You can also stage the installation with:

	make DESTDIR=/stage/path install

You can undo the install with:

	make uninstall

A script is provided to configure Cron to run logalert at boot time and every 5 minutes:

	cp sample/logalert.cron /etc/cron.d/logalert

### Installing logtail2 from Logcheck package

The easiest way to get a log tail tool is to download and install the
[Logcheck](http://logcheck.org/) package. If you want to only install logtail2 itself,
download the tarball and add a "logtail" target to the Makefile.

	cat sample/logtail.makefile.target >> /path/to/logcheck/source/Makefile
	cd /path/to/logcheck/source
	make logtail

Usage
---

	logalert [OPTION]...

Run the command with `--help` argument or view the logalert(8) man page to see available OPTIONS.

Getting Started
---

The only configuration necessary is to create at least one log group directory (see next
section). Runtime configuration can be customized through a configuration file
and command line options. Configuration file variables are listed in a following section.

Log Groups
---
The rules defining each group of log files to scan are saved in a directory.
Each directory is called a log group. By default, these log group directories should be
subdirectories of `/etc/logalert/logs.d/`. Each log group directory contains a set of
files which define the log files to scan for the group, what log activity is to be
ignored or trigger alerts, and how log activity is formatted as HTML.

* `*.logfiles` - These files contain full paths of log files to scan. Log activity
  for all log files listed is combined and scanned together. Results are sent in a
  single email per group. <i>This is the only file required for scanning logs.</i>
* `*.ignore` - These files contain regular expressions of log activity to ignore.
  All .ignore patterns apply to all log files in the group. If no .ignore files
  exist, all log activity will be emailed. Patterns here should be as specific
  as possible!
* `*.alert` - These files contain regular expressions of log activity that should
  trigger an ALERT email. All .alert patterns apply to all log files in the group.
  Patterns listed in .ignore files will not trigger alerts.
* `format.awk` - Log activity is converted to HTML by awk. Since log formats
  vary greatly (especially the date format) it is common for log groups to override
  the default format script. The default format script is `default.format.awk`
  in the conf directory.
* `format.styles` - HTML content created by `format.awk` can reference custom HTML styles.
  In this case you need to override the default styles.
  The default styles are defined in `default.format.styles` in the conf directory.
  Note that some mail readers prefer inline styles (and Gmail requires it).
* `rules.awk` - The log rules files .logfiles, .ignore and .alert can contain special tags
  (see below). Each log group can override the default to customize the rules language.
  The default rules processing script is `default.rules.awk` in the conf directory.

A few sample log groups are in `sample/logs.d/`.

Special rules file tags
---
The log rules files .logfiles, .ignore and .alert can contain special tags.
You can create your own tags by customizing `default.rules.awk` or creating
`rules.awk` within a specific log group.

* `[logalert:regex:prefix=STRING]` - STRING is prepended to each line following in the file,
  or until the next prefix is defined.

Configuration file
---
Runtime configuration can be customized through a configuration file.
The default configuration file path is `/etc/logalert/logalert.conf..
This path can be changed using the `-c` or `-C` command line options.
The file is a simple script that assigns a value to each configuration variable.
All variables are optional. Available variables with (command line override) and [default value]:

* CONFDIR - Directory containing configuration files (-C) [/etc/logalert]
* STATEDIR - Directory where scan information is retained (-S) [/var/logalert]
* LOGGROUPDIR - Directory containing log groups to scan (-r) [$CONFDIR/logs.d]
* SUBJECTHOSTNAME - Hostname to use in the subject of email messages (-H) [$(hostname)]
* SUBJECTPREPEND - Text to prepend to subject of email messages (-e) []
* SUBJECTAPPEND - Text to append to subject of email messages (-E) []
* SYSADMINFROM - Email address of the sender of email messages [$(id)@$(hostname)]
* SYSADMINTO - Email address of the recipient of email messages (-m) [$(id)@$(hostname)]
* FORMATAWKPATH - Path to default Awk script used to format logs as HTML (-f) [$CONFDIR/default.format.awk]
* RULESAWKPATH - Path to default Awk script used to process rules [$CONFDIR/default.rules.awk]
* STYLESPATH - Path to default < style > definitions included in email messages (-s) [$CONFDIR/default.format.styles]
* INTROPATH - Path to HTML file to insert into body before log activity [$CONFDIR/intro.html]
* FOOTERPATH - Path to HTML file to insert into body after log activity [$CONFDIR/footer.html]
* LOGTAILCMD - Command used to monitor log activity [logtail2]
* GREPCMD - Command used to grep ignore and alert patterns [egrep]
* MAILCMD - Command used to send mail [sendmail -ti]
* AWKCMD - Command used to run Awk [awk --re-interval -f]
* FORMATCMD - Command used to format log messages as HTML [$AWKCMD]

A sample configuration file is `sample/logalert.conf`.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Beloretsk (; , Beloret) is a town in the Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia, located on the Belaya River,  from Ufa. Population:

History

Town-factories were a peculiar phenomenon in the town-planning in Russia in the 18th and 19th centuries. Beloretsk Iron Factory was built in 1762-1767 by merchants I. B. Tverdyshev and I. S. Myasnikov, who bought 170,041 desiatinas of land from Bashkirs of Belokatayskaya Volost. Builders and first workers of the factory were purchased serfs from Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Penza, and Ryazan Governorates. Beloretsk itself was founded as a factory settlement in 1762.

A Bulletin of 1776 says that the Beloretsk Iron Factory was built in 1762 and had two blast furnaces and fourteen sledge-hammers. However, the first fusion of cast iron was recorded as being done in 1767. In 1777, the factory produced more iron than any other factory in Russia. Productive capacity of the factory was 122,500 poods (~2,000 metric tons) of cast iron and 80,000 poods (~1,300 metric tons) of iron per year. There were 840 male workers at the factory.

The village of Lomovka was founded in the vicinity of Beloretsk. The name of the village came from the name of the profession of the people who lived there. They all were draymen who supplied raw materials for the factory. Factory peasants also lived in the village of Arskaya, situated  from their work place.

One of the memorable events in the history of Beloretsk was the participation of the factory workers in the 1773-1774 rebellion under the leadership of Yemelyan Pugachev. In 1774, rebel peasants took the factory by storm and reduced it to ashes to prevent recommencement work there. The villages of Lomovka and Arskaya were also burned down. The factory was inactive for three years after that.

In 1784, Beloretsk Iron Factory was inherited by D. I. Pashkova, who in 1803 started construction of the Tirlyan Iron Factory (Tirlyan was a village  away from Beloretsk).

In the beginning of the 19th century, Beloretsk Iron Factory had two blast-furnaces and eleven Catalan forges. The factory achieved much success in the production of metal. Cast iron produced by the factory was the cheapest in the South Urals and the iron produced was known for its ductility in the cold state. In 1874, the firm "Vogau and Co." became the new owner of the factory. By the end of the 19th century, the factory received the highest award at the Russian Countrywide Exhibition at Nizhny Novgorod.

By the end of the 19th century the population of Beloretsk was 15,000. At the time, Beloretsk was a part of Orenburg Governorate. Factory workers were active participants of the revolutionary movement in the South Urals. In 1917, Beloretsk became a part of the Bashkir ASSR.

In July 1918, the Beloretsk Socialistic Regiment was formed consisting of the factory workers. The Regiment formed a part of the Urals Partisan Army under the command of Vasily Blyukher and performed a raid against the White Guard.

In 1923, Beloretsk was granted town status. By then, the population of the town, including the villages of Tirlyan and Lomovka, was 28,830. In 1930, Beloretsky District was established. At the same time, modernization of the Beloretsk Factory was started. In 1940, Beloretsk Cast Iron Melting Factory, Beloretsk Iron Factory, Tirlyan Cast Iron Melting Factory, and Tirlyan Iron Factory were merged under the name of Beloretsk Metallurgical Complex.

During World War II, thousands of people from Beloretsk participated in the battles against the Nazis. For their courage and bravery many of them received orders and medals; thirteen were awarded the title of Heroes of the Soviet Union.

In the second half of 1941, there was a problem with the production of copper wire. The only factory that could carry out military orders was Beloretsk Copper Wire and Rope Factory. Due to the wide industrial expertise, material resources and presence of Beloretsk Iron Factory, it supplied all necessary sorts of steel, and that was most important—due to the extremely intensive hard work of thousands of half-starved local people, the factory had been successfully managing its task during World War II.

After the war, Beloretsk Iron Factory was modernized, automated, and expanded. The factory then began to produce new kinds of products. In 1966, Beloretsk Iron Factory was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.

In the 1960s–1970s, residential and industrial construction was carried out on a substantial scale. A large number of social buildings consisting of more than 400 residential and industrial constructions were built in those decades. On the ground floors of the multi-storey buildings cafes, shops, libraries, social and community centers were opened. New schools and a hospital were also built.

The dissolution of the Soviet Union led to the drastic recession of industry in the 1990s. Dozens of enterprises were closed and hundreds of workers were laid off.

In 1996, Beloretsk Metallurgical Complex was re-organized as an open joint-stock company and is now known as Beloretsk Metallurgical Plant.

Administrative and municipal status
Within the framework of administrative divisions, Beloretsk serves as the administrative center of Beloretsky District, even though it is not a part of it. As an administrative division, it is incorporated separately as the town of republic significance of Beloretsk—an administrative unit with the status equal to that of the districts. As a municipal division, the town of republic significance of Beloretsk is incorporated within Beloretsky Municipal District as Beloretsk Urban Settlement.

Religion
Several religious denominations are active in Beloretsk. The biggest community of believers is the Orthodox Christians, with the Muslim community being the second largest.

Politics
Covered by the Beloretsk constituency for elections to the State Duma.

References

Notes

Sources

External links
Official website of Beloretsk
Beloretsk Business Directory

Cities and towns in Bashkortostan
Populated places established in 1762

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee have obtained an internal Department of Homeland Security draft final regulation that would lift a 20 year ban on Libyans coming to the US to work in sensitive fields.
The document — highlighted Thursday by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte of Virginia and Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz — shows that DHS is working to amend its regulations to eliminate the restrictions on Libyan nationals and foreign nationals acting on behalf of Libyan entities from coming to the United States to work in aviation maintenance, flight operations, or to study nuclear-related fields.
"We still haven't gotten to the bottom of the Benghazi terrorist attacks and continue to face additional terrorist threats from Libya, yet the Obama Administration is preparing to lift a longstanding ban that protects Americans and our interests," he added.
The document justifies rescinding the ban with the idea that the U.S. government and the Libyan government have "normalized" their relationship and that most of the sanctions imposed by the U.S. and U.N on Libya have been lifted.
According to Goodlatte and Chaffetz, however, threats from Libya remain, especially given the September 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya.


How to Choose a Mentor: When searching for a Mentor, it is a good idea to first take assessment of yourself and your professional career. What do you need? Seek out a mentor who is SUCCESSFUL and ACCOMPLISHED. Realize that your Mentor does not have to be in your same industry; however, they should not be a stranger to you. You will want to look for a professional who is 5 to 10 steps ahead of your current career position. Do not be afraid to ask more than one person to Mentor you.
Set Goals: Decide what you want to achieve from the mentorship - for example - leadership skills, industry knowledge, networking contacts, or coaching? Drill down on those goals so that you understand what progression and success will look like within the mentorship. Define your short and long term goals and set timelines. This is information you will want to share with your Mentor so that they can provide accountability and structure for you.
Design your relationship: Accomplished and successful business professionals are VERY busy people, so you will need to respect their time. Design a proposed mentorship arrangement that does not require a heavy time commitment by the Mentor. For example, a 10 minute phone call once a week, a 15 minutes skype meeting twice a month, or if they are willing, a 20-30 minute coffee meeting. Determine your 'initial' timeline - suggest 6 months or a year at the beginning. You can always ask to extend later once you have developed the relationship.
Be Ready to Hear 'No': Committing to a mentorship can seem like just another 'thing to do' on a long list of responsibilities for a busy executive. Help them to understand the value of the relationship for them. Often this is done through social media by following their work, commenting on their posts, or even asking how you can be of help to them within the mentorship. Reiterate that it will be a minimal time commitment at their convenience. Mentorships are often career enhancers for the Mentor as well, especially when it comes to performance evaluations. Relay that this is a temporary arrangement, and that you have specific goals you are trying to accomplish.
Enjoy your mentorship: Learning is one of the prominent steps before 'doing'. Remain excited with the time you are devoting to the mentorship. Continue to research new things that you want to learn about from your Mentor. Make sure to provide feedback and share your progress, successes, and 'plans for the future' with your Mentor.
Pay it Forward: One day, someone, much like you, may ask you to be their Mentor. What will you say?
Our personalized service makes the difference.


Business Writing for Non Native English Speakers training provides best practices to write clear, successful, professional business and technical documents, including SOPs, one-pagers, proposals, promo-docs, wikis, etc.
This course aims to improve your Business English writing skills by developing your use of vocabulary, grammar, style, and communication skills within a business context, and your ability to write professional business and technical documents, software and system specifications for specific purposes.
You will learn a systematic technique for writing and leads your audience through the content. Business Writing for Non Native English Speakers Training delivers fundamental styles and methods for facing any form of writing task. The training help you in interacting with your audience about what they really need to know, including methods to evaluate your business and technical writing and establish goals to enhance the quality and effectiveness of their written material.
Participants (including Engineers, SDEs/Software Development Engineers, PM, marketing and sales professionals) can bring their own projects or they can use the real-world project samples provided by Tonex instructors. Participants will experience what they are taught via group activities and hands-on workshops.
Business Writing For Non Native Speakers of English Training is a 2-day course designed for business individuals at all levels who are interested in a fast and easy way to effective business writing and required to explain complex ideas in simple, easy-to-understand language. Engineers, SDEs/Software Development Engineers, PM, marketing and sales professionals.


For Gtk-3.14. Available in Green, Blue, NC(grey), Purple, Yellow, and Red; as well as all colors without patterned background(NP). Ten themes in all. You can use Unity Tweak Tool, Gnome-tweak-tool or Ubuntu-Tweak to change themes. Icons used in screenshots can be found here.


In this paper, we propose an audio-visual approach to video genre categorization. Audio information is extracted at block-level, which has the advantage of capturing local temporal information. At temporal structural level, we asses action contents with respect to human perception. Further, color perception is quantified with statistics of color distribution, elementary hues, color properties and relationship of color. The last category of descriptors determines statistics of contour geometry. An extensive evaluation of this multi-modal approach based on on more than 91 hours of video footage is presented. We obtain average precision and recall ratios within [87% − 100%] and [77% − 100%], respectively, while average correct classification is up to 97%. Additionally, movies displayed according to feature-based coordinates in a virtual 3D browsing environment tend to regroup with respect to genre, which has potential application with real content-based browsing systems.


text:
What is difference between it's and its? [duplicate]
"Its" and "it's" - how to remember? (7 answers)
I have find so many words between that but unable to understand when actually used it's and when its. Please explain with example.
indian-english spoken-english
Ajit Kumar DubeyAjit Kumar Dubey
In the simplest possible terms:
It's is a contraction of "It is" or (less often) "It has".
Examples: "It's been hot out all week." (Contraction of 'it has'). "It's good to see you again." (Contraction of 'it is')
Its is a possessive, meaning "belonging to it".
Examples: "The company announced its new product today." (The product belongs to the company.) "The government taxes its citizens." (The citizens 'belong to' the government.)
If you're not sure which one to use, try substituting "it is" in the same place. If that makes sense, use "it's". Otherwise, use "its".
Vlammuh
MrTheWalrusMrTheWalrus
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0%107°78°Partly cloudy with a high of 108 °F (42.2 °C). Winds variable at 2 to 9 mph (3.2 to 14.5 kph).Night - Partly cloudy. Winds from E to ESE at 5 to 9 mph (8.0 to 14.5 kph). The overnight low will be 82 °F (27.8 °C).
0%107°80°Mostly cloudy today with a high of 107 °F (41.7 °C) and a low of 80 °F (26.7 °C).
0%104°78°Cloudy today with a high of 104 °F (40.0 °C) and a low of 78 °F (25.6 °C).
20%91°79°Scattered thunderstorms today with a high of 91 °F (32.8 °C) and a low of 79 °F (26.1 °C).
Today - Partly cloudy with a high of 108 °F (42.2 °C). Winds variable at 2 to 9 mph (3.2 to 14.5 kph).
Tonight - Partly cloudy. Winds from E to ESE at 5 to 9 mph (8.0 to 14.5 kph). The overnight low will be 82 °F (27.8 °C).


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For a game similar to 'The Wolf Among Us' ...
2013 adventure -
The Wolf Among Us is an episodic interactive drama graphic adventure video game based on Bill Willingham's Fables comic book series. It is developed and published by Telltale Games, makers of the hit game The Walking Dead, and distributed by Vertigo ... more on Wikipedia
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Among the Sleep
2014 Survival horror, adventure -
Among the Sleep is a first-person horror adventure video game developed by Krillbite Studio for Microsoft Windows, OS X, PlayStation 4 and Linux. It was released on 29 May 2014 in North America and Europe. ... more on Wikipedia
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Dracula 2: The Last Sanctuary
Dracula 2: The Last Sanctuary (originally released as Dracula: The Last Sanctuary) is a 2000 horror point-and-click adventure video game developed by Wanadoo and Canal+ Multimedia, and published by DreamCatcher Interactive for Microsoft Windows and M ... more on Wikipedia
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Samorost 2
Samorost 2 is a puzzle point-and-click adventure game developed by Amanita Design. Released for Microsoft Windows, OS X and Linux on 8 December 2005, the game is the second video game title in the Samorost series and the sequel to Samorost. ... more on Wikipedia
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The Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer
The Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer is a video game and sequel to the animated film The Incredibles. It features Mr. Incredible and Frozone fighting The Underminer's legion of robot minions. The game features appearances by the rest of the Incred ... more on Wikipedia
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Mystery Case Files: Dire Grove is an interactive movie puzzle adventure game developed by Big Fish Studios, and distributed by Big Fish Games. It is the sixth installment in the Mystery Case Files series. The game is available exclusively at Big Fish ... more on Wikipedia
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Super Mario War is an open source platform-adventure video game released on December 16, 2006 for PC. The game centers on players fighting each other by one player jumping on the other player's head, or by making use of items which can be picked up d ... more on Wikipedia
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A Golden Wake
A Golden Wake is a 2014 retro-style adventure game set in the Roaring Twenties. Developed by Grundislav Games and published by Wadjet Eye Games, the game was released on 9th October 2014. ... more on Wikipedia
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Broken Sword II: The Smoking Mirror
Broken Sword II: The Smoking Mirror is a point-and-click adventure video game originally released on Microsoft Windows and PlayStation in 1997. It was re-released on Microsoft Windows, OS X and iOS as a remastered edition in 2010 and on Android in 20 ... more on Wikipedia
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Dracula: Resurrection
Dracula: Resurrection is a 2000 horror point-and-click adventure video game developed by Index+, France Telecom Multimedia and Canal+ Multimedia, and published by DreamCatcher Interactive for Microsoft Windows and Mac. In 2001, it was ported to PlayS ... more on Wikipedia
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The Secret of Monkey Island
1990 adventure - Sega Mega-CD
The Secret of Monkey Island is a 1990 point-and-click graphic adventure game developed and published by Lucasfilm Games. It takes place in a fantastic version of the Caribbean during the age of piracy. The player assumes the role of Guybrush Threepwo ... more on Wikipedia
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2013 adventure - Xbox One
2005 adventure, Platform -
Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones is an action-adventure video game developed and published by Ubisoft Montreal. It was released in December, 2005 in North America for the Xbox, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, and the Nintendo GameCube. It was port ... more on Wikipedia
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The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth is a remake of The Binding of Isaac developed by Nicalis and designed by Edmund McMillen. The game was released on November 4, 2014, and is available on Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation Vita ... more on Wikipedia
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Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga
2007 adventure - - multiplayer
Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga is a video game based on the Star Wars-themed toy line by the Lego Group. It is a combination of the game Lego Star Wars: The Video Game and its sequel Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy, which includes all epis ... more on Wikipedia
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J.U.L.I.A. Among the Stars
J.U.L.I.A. Among the Stars is a 2014 video game by CBE Software. It is a remake of J.U.L.I.A., featuring improved graphics, a different gameplay and an expanded story. ... more on Wikipedia
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Marko Polo Hotel is a delightful four star hotel overlooking the Adriatic Sea with a remarkable location on the shores of Korčula Island. Just a 10 minute walk from the island's beautiful town centre, the Marko Polo Hotel is perfectly placed for the full experience of island life in Croatia. Perched on a hill overlooking the sea and natural beaches, views from this hotel are truly sensational. The Marko Polo Hotel features a buffet and à la carte restaurant, as well as an outdoor and indoor pool, wellness centre and sports facilities for the whole family to enjoy.
There are 103 rooms at this hotel. Standard rooms will include the following features; WiFi, air conditioning, TV with satellite channels, mini-bar and safe.


This is the first time we've driven the Mazda 5 in the UK, and the first time we've sampled the finished example of the new 2.0-litre petrol motor, driven through a six-speed manual gearbox and with the start-stop tech from the 3. Mazda wanted to make the 5 entertaining to drive, and within the parameters that the laws of physics set for big, tall cars, it is.
There's plenty of grip, progressive and accurate steering and a balanced chassis that responds well to spirited driving.
The risk with focusing on making an MPV entertaining is the compromise it can bring in terms of comfort, but Mazda has struck a good balance between body control and ride quality. On UK roads there is some slight fidgeting over broken surfaces, but the big-bump absorption is pliant and effective, particularly at low speeds, and in general it does a fair job of isolating occupants from the road surface.
Cabin refinement is a strong point with this 5, which is a necessary bonus, given that a 2.0-litre petrol engine such as this has few merits these days beyond its relative lack of noise. As well as being very hushed, the Mazda benefits from a quick-reacting stop-start system, a slick gearshift and a light clutch that make it a compelling urban tool.
For all its attributes, the 5 is still a niche choice. It falls short on the passenger space, cabin flexibility and residual strength offered by its rivals, such as the Peugeot 5008. The diesel unit due next year could solve some of these problems, but until then the Mazda 5 is a car that is likeable, if a little hard to justify.
What's wrong with the cabin flexibility? The rearmost seats fold completely flat with one small tug on a handle - 50/50 split. The middle row slide forward and tilt to get in to the back, there are sliding doors which beats most "mini-mpvs" in a car park, the middle row slide backwards and forwards and recline, or fold completely flat with one hand and two small movements. Compare that to the fixed bench in a Zafira you have to slide forwards to pull out the rearmost seats which have a much heavier action - if you remember the Topgear episode and how they struggled - I had exactly the same the first time I rented a Zafira. No sliding doors as well.
In terms of looks I think they've ruined the back end, front end and the side... Step backwards!
At least cabin refinement is better - I find my current 5 has too much road noise, though it handles and rides well and the engine's decent.


text:
package com.konkerlabs.platform.registry.api.config;

import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.Map;

import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.EnableAutoConfiguration;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;

import com.typesafe.config.Config;
import com.typesafe.config.ConfigFactory;

import lombok.Data;

@Configuration
@EnableAutoConfiguration
@Data
public class PubServerInternalConfig {

	private String url;

	public PubServerInternalConfig() {
		Map<String, Object> defaultMap = new HashMap<>();
		defaultMap.put("pubServerInternal.url", "http://localhost:8085/registry-data-processor/{0}/{1}/pub");
		Config defaultConf = ConfigFactory.parseMap(defaultMap);

		Config config = ConfigFactory.load().withFallback(defaultConf);
		setUrl(config.getString("pubServerInternal.url"));
	}
}


text:
The text below is an edited excerpt from MPP/MARN founder Kat Albrecht's book DOG DETECTIVES: Train Your Dog to Find Lost Pets. How Long Can Scent Survive? There are many opinions and claims regarding just how long a scent trail can last. Missing Animal Response Network posts this information because some pet owners are hiring pet detectives who claim that their dogs can track a scent trail that is several months old and even up to a year old. Kat Albrecht has spent over 20 plus years training and working search dogs, observing other search dogs in training, and learning from search dog authorities across the country. She's familiar with aged trail experiments performed by experienced Bloodhound trainers. Based on her knowledge of what other credible Bloodhound handlers have experienced, her training through the National Police Bloodhound Association (NPBA), and her personal experience in working successful cases with search dogs that she has personally trained and/or worked with, she is comfortable in estimating that in optimal scent conditions (cool, damp areas with heavy vegetation and no wind) a trained trailing dog is probably capable of following a scent trail that is up to two weeks old.
Understand Scent and How Conditions Will Affect It
Keep in mind, however, that even if the scent trail is too old for a search dog to track, a MAR Technician can POTENTIALLY HELP YOU find your lost pet using other methods, including using his or her dog to track a fresher scent trail from a viable sighting.
"The ideal working scent conditions for a trailing dog are cool, moist days with no wind. Scent will pool, cling, and survive in shady areas and areas with lush vegetation. The moisture provided by lush green grass, the shade of a front porch, or the damp surface of a gutter are all examples of places where residual scent could be present several days after the source of the scent has passed through an area. Scent survives longer in the cooler conditions found in the evening or early morning hours because lower temperatures will tend to bring the scent back down to ground level.
Hot and dry conditions have a negative impact on scent survival. In these conditions, scent is more easily dispersed and destroyed. Direct sunlight will dry out and quickly destroy scent vapors. In addition to the physical toll that it can take on a trailing dog, heat can also cause scent to rise above the level of where the dog is working. The key to working a search dog in hot temperatures is to avoid it if you can.
Wind can disperse scent great distances, minimizing a scent trail and making trailing difficult. In a case where a lost person walked down a sidewalk four days prior to a trailing dog starting to search, the trailing dog might very well work by dipping down into the driveways, up to front porches of homes rather than the spot where the person walked on the sidewalk four days before. If there is grass directly next to the sidewalk, then the trailing dog might work on the grass. The chances of any scent remaining directly on the pavement of the sidewalk are slim after a four-day period. But the chance of scent surviving by clinging to the moisture provided on the grass and in the shady areas is very likely. Scent needs moisture to survive which rain provides. Rain does not make scent mysteriously disappear. Rain will not destroy scent, but a heavy downpour on pavement can disperse it, making it difficult to follow a trail. In those cases, the scent will cling in gutters and puddles instead of being dispersed along a consistent path like a sidewalk.
So How Long Can Scent Survive?
The odor of decomposition has been known to change the composition of soil and can be detected by search dogs many years after the body decomposes down to skeletal remains. For obvious reasons, the longer you wait to have a search dog track a scent trail, the less likely that dog will be able to work the scent trail successfully. The longer you wait, the more likely the lost dog will have moved or been transported a great distance. Thus, the fact that the scent of the missing dog might still be present after seven days is sometimes a moot point if the dog has already traveled 20 miles and you aren't able to catch up to him or her. This is why Missing Animal Response Network is pushing for community-based lost pet services. Ultimately, we want to see the rapid response of MAR trailing dogs who can respond within hours or a few days to search for lost dogs in their own community.
Keep in mind that a two-week-old scent trail laid in a residential area that is highly contaminated with other animal scents and dispersed with vehicular traffic is much more difficult to work than a two-week-old scent trail laid in the depths of a cool, damp forest thick with vegetation. Scent has a better chance of surviving in shady, damp, and cool areas than it does in open ground or pavement where it is easily moved by wind currents, swirled around by passing cars, and ultimately dried out and destroyed by direct sunlight. Although no one knows exactly how many days a scent trail will be viable, we can make estimates based on prior successes of cases worked by police Bloodhounds and search-and-rescue trailing dogs who have made actual walk-up finds. The majority of successful scent trails where these dogs actually found the lost person or criminal were basically hours or a few days old.
The Oldest Documented Scent Trail
The oldest documented scent trail that we could uncover in our research is detailed in the book The Complete Bloodhound by Catherine Brey and Lena Reed. The authors write about how "a new record in mantrailing was established" when a Bloodhound handler named Norman Wilson and his three Bloodhounds (Doc Holiday, Queen Guinevere, and Big Nose Kate) successfully tracked a scent trail of three missing people lost in the "wet, dense forests of Western Oregon." By the time Wilson worked his hounds, the scent trail was 322 hours (thirteen days) old. His hounds led Wilson to the bodies of the missing hikers.
We've heard of tracking authorities who believe that a scent trail vanishes once a person walks on pavement and others who believe that a scent trail dissipates after eight hours. At the other end of the spectrum, there are currently a few pet detectives who claim their search dogs can track a lost pet scent trail that is several (five) months old. There is even a pet detective who claims that a specific trailing dog can track a lost pet scent trail that is up to a year old! For decades trailing dogs handled by volunteers and law enforcement officers have only been capable of following scent trails that are less than two weeks old and yet suddenly, people charging a fee for their pet tracking services are miraculously able to train dogs who can track scent trails that are months old. While making such claims opens the door for more business revenue (it enables them to respond on searches where the lost dog has been missing for months), these types of seemingly exaggerated claims put MAR work and the pet detective industry in jeopardy of being dismissed as "a scam" by scent dog industry professionals who understand the fragile nature of scent.
If you still have questions, please feel free to contact us through our Contact Page and a Lost Pet Professional will respond to your question.
Interested is Training Your Dog?
Visit our MAR Search K9 Training to learn more about how you can give your dog a job searching for missing or lost pets. All MAR K9 Courses require you to first take our MAR Field Course before moving on to the K9 courses.
Register For Your Missing Animal Response Training Course Today!


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Top 10 Oden Ingredients Japanese People Love
Marina Tsuji
When winter sets in, one of the first things that people in Japan crave is oden, a dish made by cooking various ingredients in a special broth. Oden ingredients come in many different variations that range from the classic to the unusual, so you might find it difficult to choose which ingredient to eat when faced with oden. With that, here are the 10 most popular oden ingredients in Japan that you should definitely try!
2. Hard-boiled Egg
3. Konjac
4. Atsuage
5. Mochi-iri Kinchaku
6. Hanpen
7. Satsuma-age
8. Tsumire
9. Gyusuji
10. Cabbage Roll
The first thing that almost always comes to any Japanese person's mind when talking about oden is daikon, a variety of large radish. Daikon is in season from November to February, which is conveniently right around the time when people in the country want to eat oden. It is very sweet and juicy, so it is already delicious when eaten as is. However, if you put it in oden, it will absorb the broth and the delicious flavor of the broth will spread in your mouth when you eat the daikon. The broth of oden has different flavors depending on region and restaurant, so make sure to eat the daikon first in order to get a good sense of the broth. It is perfect with Japanese mustard, miso, yuzu, chili pepper sauce, and other condiments! There's no doubt that one bite will get you hooked!
Unexpected and Surprising! Five Surprising Facts About Japanese Food
Similar to daikon, egg is also popular as a staple oden ingredient. Eggs are superfoods that contain virtually all nutrients, including protein and vitamins. When boiled together with other ingredients, dietary fiber that is inherently lacking in eggs will seep into the egg, thereby further boosting its nutritional value. Many people eat the mildly flavored egg by putting miso paste on it and eating it that way. Another option is to cut the egg in half and then let the fully-cooked yolk slowly dissolve into the broth.
Perfect for the Cold Winter! Five Select Steaming Hot Gourmet Foods to Have in Osaka
It may be simple, but konjac is an essential part of any oden pot. It is one of the regular favorites of people in their oden, together with daikon radish and egg. Konjac is 50% water, rich in dietary fiber and low in calorie content, so it is very good for your body. There are various kinds of konjac that are put in oden, such as the ita-konnyaku that is a block of gray konjac, and the ito-konnyaku, a cluster of white konnyaku shaped like noodles. With the ita-konnyaku, putting a small incision on the surface will allow the broth to seep inside, so you will enjoy the delicious flavors of the broth and the chewy texture of the konjac.
Next page: 4. Atsuage
Atsuage is an entire tofu square that has been deep-fried. The tofu inside is still raw, so it is also called "nama-age" ("nama" means "raw" in Japanese, while "age" means "fried"). Atsuage may have a little higher calorie content than normal tofu, but it has less carbohydrates, about two times more protein, around four times more calcium, and about three times more iron content than the regular tofu, so it has an extremely high nutritional value. A little amount of atsuage will already make you feel full, so it is recommended for those who are on a diet. It is often put in oden all around Japan, but it is especially popular as a staple oden ingredient in the Kansai and Kyushu regions. Take a bite and enjoy the aroma from being fried in oil and the delicious flavors of the broth!
Mochi-iri kinchaku is a pouch-shaped ingredient that is made by wrapping fried mochi (rice cake) inside a pouch made of fried tofu and then tying up the mouth of the pouch with kanpyo (strip of dried gourd). It looks like a kinchaku (a pouch or bag for small items that has long been used in Japan) on the outside, so this ingredient came to be called "mochi-iri kinchaku" (which literally means "kinchaku with mochi inside"). With a distinct stickiness and elasticity, mochi is a traditional ingredient that has been eaten in Japan since ancient times. The fried tofu part of this ingredient absorbs a lot of broth, so one bite and your mouth will be flooded with the delicious flavors of the oden. Be careful when you take that first bite, though, because it is quite hot so you might get burned. Mochi-iri kinchaku is a satsifying ingredient with a chewy texture and the delicious flavors of the broth.
Hanpen is a fish-paste product that is made by adding egg white, yam and seasonings to minced white fish. Characterized by its fluffy texture similar to pancake, the white hanpen that is put in oden is called uki-hanpen ("uki" means "floating" in Japanese) because it is floating in the soup. It is easy to digest and absorb, and is high in protein and low in calorie content, so it is safe to eat for those who are conscious about their diet. Uki-hanpen is a famous ingredient in the Kanto region, especially Tokyo, and oden is a beloved representative home-cooked dish that uses hanpen. It is a popular oden ingredient from Hokkaido to the Kanto area, alongside daikon radish, egg and konjac.
Similar to hanpen, satsuma-age is a fish-paste product that is made by mixing seasonings with minced fish. During ancient times when people were unable to refrigerate and preserve fish, they would preserve large hauls of fish by turning the beautiful white fish meat into kamaboko (steamed seasoned fish paste) and gathering the remaining fish meat from the skin and bones and then frying it in oil. That was apparently the origin of satsuma-age. Today, there are various types of satsuma-age that are based on two or more types of fish and incorporate burdock, vegetables, small fish, and many other ingredients. The color and shape vary depending on the region, so it would be a great idea to taste and compare satsuma-age from different areas. The taste of fish goes really well with oden!
Tsumire is a fish-paste product that is made with minced red-flesh fish such as sardine, mackerel and horse mackerel. In ancient times, it was made by pinching or picking ("tsumi-ire" in Japanese) the minced fish paste with the fingers, so it came to be called "tsumire". There is no specific fish that must be used for tsumire, as it is made using any fresh fish caught in the region. It is loaded with fish nutrients such as EPA, which puts blood in a smooth state, and DHA, which improves brain functions. The taste of this highly nutritious fish seeps into the broth to make it even more delicious.
Next page: 9. Gyusuji
Gyusuji (beef sinew) may be one of the most disliked types of meat among beef products due to its unique smell and hardness, but if you boil it for a long time, the smell will disappear and it will transform into a tender beef. People also think it has a lot of fat and is high in calorie content, but the jell-like part of gyusuji is actually collagen, which is loved for contributing to beautiful skin! Gyusuji is also rich in nutrients, such as protein, which builds muscle, and Vitamin B12, which helps produce blood. In oden, bite-sized pieces of gyusuji are usually put on a skewer to make it easier to eat.
Cabbage roll (or stuffed cabbage) is a Western-style dish that is cooked in consommé soup or tomato soup and has long been loved by children.T he sweetness and meat juice from the cabbage that is boiled down until it is soft and tender is perfect when paired with the Japanese-style broth of oden. Mystery surrounds the time and reason behind the incorporation of cabbage roll into oden, but it has now gone past the stage of being unusual to become a staple oden ingredient. People either love it or hate it, but if you happen to be curious, then why not give it a try for yourself?
This article featured 10 oden ingredients that are extremely popular in Japan, including daikon radish, egg, and konjac. So, enjoy winter in Japan while warming your body with a bowl of piping hot oden!
#Oden | Japanese Winter Stew
#What to Do During Winter in Japan
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