text:
ALBUM STREAM PREMIERE: "LIVED" by PLACEHOLDERS
eastof8th / December 11, 2015
East Nashville-by-way-of Cape Girardeau, Missouri alt-rock trio Placeholders will release their debut LP, LIVED, on December 18th. The project was inspired by the move to Nashville, after frontman Jordan Thurman and singing drummer Sonya Thurman decided it was time for a change.
"We'd gone through grad school, didn't have jobs or prospects, and had nothing to lose. I'd been visiting Nashville for most of my life, and always loved it. we had a strange first couple of months, and slowly started to find out place here," recalls Sonya. "The lost, uncertain feeling we had is what really shaped this project."
Recorded entirely in the living room of their tiny one-bedroom apartment, the album is being released just on the cusp of their first anniversary as locals. "I think those feelings of melancholy and wondering whether or not we'd made a mistake are apparent on this album–you know, being too far into your own head and getting mentally isolated," explains Jordan.
LIVED rides a carefully-crafted rollercoaster of sounds and styles–the first track morphs from simple folk with an acoustic guitar into a dark, dreamy synth and electric guitar-fueld flight through deep space, landing the listener on a planet in the midst of a low-key (but successful) house party where the band is playing a catchy number, using found objects as percussion for most of they set. Moody, honest lyrics narrate the story of dealing with change and the let-downs and frustration that come along with it–a story to which we can all relate.
The band will celebrate the release of the album at 7pm on December 19th at Nashville's live music institution The Basement, with special guests Justin and the Cosmics and Shane Scheib. Tickets for the 21+ show are $5 and available at the door.
Until then, East of 8th is proud to exclusively present the stream for LIVED:
Website|Facebook|Twitter|Instagram
December 11, 2015 in Uncategorized.
ALBUM PREMIERE: "GATHERING THE GOOD" EP by DEVON HEATH
PREVIEW: THE VERVE PIPE at CITY WINERY on 4/22/18
FREE WILD MOCCASINS VINYL GIVEAWAY!
← AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW with JOHN FATUM
NASHVILLE BOOGIE TICKETS ARE ON SALE! →


text:
package gov.hhs.fha.nhinc.admindistribution.entity;

import org.apache.log4j.Logger;

import gov.hhs.fha.nhinc.admindistribution.orchestration.OrchestrationContextFactory;
import gov.hhs.fha.nhinc.nhinclib.NhincConstants;
import gov.hhs.fha.nhinc.orchestration.Orchestratable;
import gov.hhs.fha.nhinc.orchestration.OrchestrationContextBuilder;
import gov.hhs.fha.nhinc.orchestration.OutboundDelegate;
import gov.hhs.fha.nhinc.orchestration.OutboundOrchestratable;

/**
 *
 * @author nnguyen
 */
public class OutboundAdminDistributionDelegate implements OutboundDelegate {

    private static final Logger LOG = Logger.getLogger(OutboundAdminDistributionDelegate.class);

    @Override
    public Orchestratable process(Orchestratable message) {
        if (message instanceof OutboundAdminDistributionOrchestratable) {
            return process((OutboundOrchestratable) message);
        }
        return null;
    }

    // @Overrides
    @Override
    public OutboundOrchestratable process(OutboundOrchestratable message) {
        LOG.debug("begin process");
        if (message instanceof OutboundAdminDistributionOrchestratable) {
            LOG.debug("processing AD orchectratable ");
            OutboundAdminDistributionOrchestratable adMessage = (OutboundAdminDistributionOrchestratable) message;

            OrchestrationContextBuilder contextBuilder = OrchestrationContextFactory.getInstance().getBuilder(
                    adMessage.getTarget().getHomeCommunity(),
                    NhincConstants.NHIN_SERVICE_NAMES.ADMINISTRATIVE_DISTRIBUTION);

            if (contextBuilder instanceof OutboundAdminDistributionOrchestrationContextBuilder_g0) {
                ((OutboundAdminDistributionOrchestrationContextBuilder_g0) contextBuilder).init(message);
            } else if (contextBuilder instanceof OutboundAdminDistributionOrchestrationContextBuilder_g1) {
                ((OutboundAdminDistributionOrchestrationContextBuilder_g1) contextBuilder).init(message);
            } else {
                return null;
            }
            return (OutboundOrchestratable) contextBuilder.build().execute();
        }
        LOG.error("message is not an instance of NhinAdminDistributionOrchestratable!");
        return null;
    }

    /*
     * (non-Javadoc)
     *
     * @see gov.hhs.fha.nhinc.orchestration.OutboundDelegate#createErrorResponse(gov.hhs.fha.nhinc.orchestration.
     * OutboundOrchestratable, java.lang.String)
     */
    @Override
    public void createErrorResponse(OutboundOrchestratable message, String error) {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub

    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Trinseo (NYSE: TSE) a global materials solutions provider and manufacturer of plastics, latex binders and synthetic rubber, will introduce four new series of thermoplastic elastomers (TPEs) at Detroit's SPE Automotive TPO Conference on October 7-10, 2018. The four new TPE series include 16 new overmolding grades specifically developed for automotive applications, offering improved adhesion to Trinseo's MAGNUMTM ABS and PULSETM PC/ABS product range.
Trinseo has a long heritage in performance plastics with over 30 years of experience in the development of rigid plastic materials for use in automotive applications. Since the acquisition of API in 2017, the company has gained unique expertise in both the formulation technology and compounding processes of TPE solutions. The introduction of these new TPEs marks a milestone in the integration process as Trinseo works to further expand the synergies between its rigid- and soft-touch product portfolios.
The automotive industry's demand for TPEs enabling premium aesthetics and haptics is growing. For many engineers, the increasing demands on function and surface design can best be met with TPE overmolding solutions. Trinseo's new TPE series provides a broad range of hardness, melt flows, and finishes for excellent aesthetics and processability in injection molded and extruded applications.
Tony Samurkas, Trinseo's TS&D Director North America, will present the company's new TPE series on Wednesday, October 10, 2018 at 10 a.m. ET.
All TPE grades are produced at Trinseo's manufacturing site in Mussolente, Italy. The high-tech plant also contains a state-of-the-art Specialized Overmolding Center (SOC), designed to measure the adhesion between substrates in accordance with VDI 2019 standards.


text:
Q: Safely uninstall a package in Gentoo I wanted to uninstall a specific package in Gentoo and browsed through the emerge man page. I found the --unmerge option:

WARNING:  This action can remove important packages! Removes all
  matching packages.  This does no checking of dependencies, so it may
  remove packages necessary for the proper operation of your system.Its
  arguments can be atoms or ebuilds. For a dependency aware version of
  --unmerge, use --depclean or --prune.

However, I'd like emerge to check whether the package I want to uninstall is required by any other installed package in the system. --depclean and --prune don't provide that functionality:

*

*--depclean removes packages that were installed as dependencies, but are not needed anymore

*--prune "removes all but the highest installed version of a package from your system"

Is there no dependency-checking version of --unmerge?

A: Another way to achieve the same result (although it's not a command that unmerges with dependency checking): emerge --deselect package, which removes the package from the world file. Now, running emerge --depclean will remove that package iff it's not required by any other package.

A: gentoolkit comes to help:
equery d <atom>

You can check dependencies first, then proceed to remove the package after inspecting its dependencies.

A: I don't think depclean works the way you described. Without any arguments it does, but if you pass it a package name it works like unmerge with an additional dependency check. From emerge(1):

Depclean serves as a dependency aware version of --unmerge. When given one or more atoms, it will unmerge matched packages that have no reverse dependencies. Use --depclean together with --verbose to show reverse dependencies.

I always use --depclean (-c) to unmerge individual packages; it works fine

A: Sometimes, emerge --unmerge gives this warning message:
 * This action can remove important packages! In order to be safer, use
 * `emerge -pv --depclean <atom>` to check for reverse dependencies before
 * removing packages.

It seems that this is the recommended way to do dependency checking before unmerging a package. I still hope, though, that there is a better, more automated, way to achieve this.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Life at the crossroads. The role of the indpendent life & pensions broker in the '90s and beyond"
This thesis examines the environment in which independent life & pensions brokers operate in Ireland, and how recent and potential future developments will affect these brokers in the marketplace to the year 2000 and beyond. The legislative and regulative environment in which Irish brokers operate has undergone significant recent change, as has the competitive nature of the life and pensions industry. The opportunities and threats which they currently encounter, and which they may encounter in the near future include the entrance of the banks to the industry and the creation of a single European insurance market, as well as the changing attitudes of the consumer.


text:
South Korea beat China at FIBA Asia/Oceania Women's Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournament
By Liam Morgan
South Korea edged out Asia Cup runners-up China on the opening day of the International Basketball Federation Women's Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournament for Asia and Oceania.
The South Korean side scored the deciding points in the dying seconds of the match to earn an 81-80 win in the Group A clash at the Trusts Arena in Auckland.
Victory for South Korea saw them get their pursuit of a place at the FIBA Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournaments (WOQT) in February 2020 off to the perfect start.
It also ended their long losing run against China, beaten by Japan in the final of the Asia Cup in September.
Group hosts New Zealand also began with a win as they beat the Philippines 111-54.
Day 1 results at the FIBA Women's Olympics 2020 African Pre-Qualifying Tournament! #FIBAOQT
🇳🇬 @nbbfonline
🇸🇳 @FSBBOFFICIEL
➡ https://t.co/8qp86ICXlj pic.twitter.com/zU0kigJVHu
— FIBA (@FIBA) November 14, 2019
In Group B, Asia Cup winners Japan thrashed India 120-29 at the MABA Stadium in Kuala Lumpur.
Australia defeated Chinese Taipei 84-51 in the other match in the group.
At the African tournament in Maputo in Mozambique, Nigeria were awarded a walkover in their Group A clash with the Democratic Republic of Congo after their opponents failed to show up.
Senegal claimed a narrow 75-71 win over Angola in Group B at the Pavilhão do Maxaquene.
Four teams from the Asia-Oceania event will qualify for the WOQT, while the winners of the two semi-finals in the African competition will also book a place in the next round.
More follows
November 2019: Trio of FIBA Women's Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournaments set to begin
November 2019: Bjelica sets sights on finally gracing Olympic stage at Tokyo 2020
October 2019: Argentina and Canada to host FIBA Americas Pre-Olympic Qualifiers
September 2019: Spain and Argentina win big at FIBA World Cup as Iran and Nigeria earn Tokyo 2020 places
August 2019: Japan's women win but men beaten as Tokyo 2020 basketball test event concludes
Liam Morgan Senior chief reporter
Follow @LMorgan21
Since joining insidethegames.biz, in 2015 Liam Morgan has covered a variety of international multi-sport events and conferences, including the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics, the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games and the Lillehammer 2016 Winter Youth Olympics. He also reported from the 2017 IOC Session in Lima and three editions of the FIFA Congress. He graduated from Southampton Solent University in 2014 with a BA First Class honours degree in Sports Journalism.
Contact Liam
Read more of Liam's articles
Follow @LMorgan21 on Twitter
FIBA Women's Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournament Tokyo 2020 Basketball
Keirin Autorace Foundation appointed official contributor of Tokyo 2020 to help maintain controversial velodrome

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Thanks to Jessica for bringing me this Air Freshener from Comic Con!
Saturday night I went to see the latest Seth Rogan/Judd Apatow creation "Pineapple Express." I went with Jessica, Joe, Rob and my brother. Judging from the loud spontaneous laughter from each of the individuals within my party, I would say we all enjoyed it.
I'll start with the title. Pineapple Express is the name of a strain of marijuana in the movie named after a meteorological phenomenon. When Saul (James Franco) explains this in the movie, I thought it was a joke…Wikipedia tells us its not!


text:
HomeWorld NewsWashington Post World News
NDTV World News
MEXICO CITY — Mexican immigration authorities said they found 57 Guatemalan adolescents in a trailer on a highway near the US border on Thursday.The National Immigration Institute said the 43 boys and 14 girls were crammed into the truck's trailer along with eight...
Ukraine faces logistical hurdles ahead of tank deliveries
Comment on this storyRemarkBERLIN — Nearly a year after the war in Ukraine, Western allies finally agreed to send Kiev the battle tanks it says it desperately needs.The first battalion will have about 40 tanks, including newer German Leopard 2A6s, and could arrive...
Ukraine Live Briefing: Deadly Russian Strikes Hit Ukraine; US calls Wagner Group a 'transnational criminal' entity
KYIV, Ukraine — Officials across the country reported several Russian strikes, including in the capital and the regions of Vinnytsia and Odessa, which left at least 11 dead and 11 injured, according to emergency services spokesman Oleksandr Khorunzhyi. Washington Post correspondents in...
Spain: Police raid the house of suspect of machete attacks in church
Comment on this storyRemarkALGECIRAS, Spain — Spanish police on Thursday raided the home of a young Moroccan man detained the previous night over the machete attacks on two Catholic churches that killed a church officer and injured a priest in the southern city...
Palestinians cut security ties with Israel after deadly raid
Comment on this storyRemarkJENIN REFUGE CAMP, West Bank - The Palestinian Authority on Thursday said it will end security cooperation that has tightened the authority's grip on the West Bank following the Israeli military incursion into the occupied territory that left nine Palestinians...
North Koreans, who were already struggling, are now facing a cold snap, covid
Comment on this storyRemarkSEOUL - Winter in North Korea's northern reaches, the inhospitable areas where those deemed "hostile" to the ruling Kim regime are left to fend for themselves, is hard at the best of times.Right now, in the two weeks in the...


No matter who we are, what we do or where we live, I believe we all have one thing in common: We all want to live longer, healthier and happier lives.
Probably the single greatest factor determining how long each of us lives and how well each of us lives is our own behavior. It's about what we eat, how we work and how we play. No one is perfect, and most of us have had some bad habits in the past, and some might still do today. But rather than fretting over bad choices made in the past (or even bad choices made last night or earlier this morning!), consider making some changes starting this moment, because you can positively affect your health and longevity starting right now!
Healthy rituals are crucial for a long and satisfying life, so it's important to engage in activities that keep you body supple, your mind clear and your spirit content. Try starting the day with slow stretches or yoga, take five-minute breaks to refresh yourself, and make time for daily walks and breathing exercises. Your body will not only feel rejuvenated, but you'll be able to think and perform at your best, and live your life to the very fullest.
The current obesity crisis is a clear representation of the amount of people who live to eat. We need to change this mentality and bad eating habits, and eat to live. This means, eating less more frequently, enjoying fresh fruit and vegetables on a daily basis, cutting down on your sugar intake, and making smart swaps like replacing processed carbs for whole grains.
It is also important to exercise your brain on a regular basis. Having a stimulating job helps, but you can also increase mental activity by reading a book, doing a crossword puzzle or even learning a new language. By keeping yourself mentally engaged, you are helping to guard against degenerative diseases and increasing your chances of longevity.
Between racing from home to work, and back again, you begin to forget what it feels like to experience the overwhelming calm of being outside with the sun gently shining on you and the trees gracefully swaying in the breeze. If this sounds like you, stop what you're doing and take five minutes outdoors! Breathe in the fresh air, find beauty in the leaves, and listen to the birds sing. Drift off to that happy place where you feel safe and relaxed, and be at one with nature. Your inner peace will thank you for it!
Look on the bright side, and count your blessings – give yourself a few minutes to feel thanks and gratitude for what you have, rather than allowing your mind to focus on what you don't have or what you need to do. This will truly help you to overcome obstacles that stand in your way. Not only will genuine positivity create happiness, but it will also help you to live longer! Optimists have a lower chance of getting heart disease, which is reason enough to smile!
The most important thing to remember when making a conscious choice to live a longer, healthier and happier life is to remain consistent with your good habits. Change will not come overnight but each day you will reap the benefits of treating your mind, body and soul with the respect and nourishment it truly deserves to live a great, long life!
Readers – Do you regularly practice any of these tips? If not, do you plan to start any of them? What are YOUR happiness and longevity tips? Let us know by leaving a comment below.


text:
Echoing the Sound > All the Sin > How to destroy angels_ > Welcome Oblivion: In the aftermath of Year Zero?
View Full Version : Welcome Oblivion: In the aftermath of Year Zero?
thepresence0
I know everyone here probably tries to connect anything Trent does at this point back to Year Zero, however...
From An Omen, the song Speaking in Tongues:
"Speaking in tongues, this has begun, I am the end of it all. We have become zeroes and one, I am the end of it all."
That was my first clue. And then I began listening to the full album.
Perhaps it's just my imagination, but every time I listen to Welcome Oblivion, I get a vibe that its set a hundred years or after Year Zero. There is also no denying that the artwork for Welcome Oblivion feels incredibly related. I was just curious if anyone else had any thoughts about this.
sheepdean
Or maybe ...
it's not.
Leviathant
It's not. It's not even the same band.
So no Stephen King-esque loose sort of continuity is possible? No, they aren't the same band, but these are all NIN collaborators (save MQ). Welcome Oblivion seems awfully drenched in a post-apocalyptic nightmare of sorts. I'm not saying there is an absolute or direct connection. But some of the scenery in the video for The Loop Closes, many of the song lyrics, and general aesthetic approach just seem too similar.
As a foursome they've created some music that works together and may not even be a concept album (half the songs are about relationships imo). Why would the three non-NIN members happily let Trent take over and steer the project towards a plotline that he's been working on televising?
And hell, who's to say it's not a sequel to The Book of Eli? Post-apocalyptic wastelands were a big thing in that and Atticus did the music.
I don't think it's actually very far fetched. From the outside looking in, it seems HTDA exists as an outlet separate from NIN where Trent and others feel a bit more free to try whatever they want. I think of HTDA as Deep Space Nine to NIN's Next Generation. I'm sure Atticus Ross will contribute to some degree on the next NIN album, Rob Sheridan will be back doing the art direction, and hell, I could even imagine MQ making a guest appearance.
I'm not saying Trent just makes decisions and everyone follows, but more that these are four people who mutually respect and understand each other. And if Trent at some point said "you know, this is almost starting to feel like it's loosely connected to world we set up in Year Zero", I doubt there would be huge objection from anyone. And again, I personally don't even think it's so heavy handed. More akin to the example I gave of Stephen King's books taking place in roughly the same universe, despite many works being very different entities.
I agree that the album seems primarily to be about relationships, but I also think there is still this post-apocalyptic vibe to it. What does love mean at the end of everything? (moving on, death, or Oblivion) And once more, particularly the lyrics of Speaking in Tongues from An Omen are what lead me to think there might be some loose connection. Along with some eerily similar imagery showing up in the video for The Loop Closes.
gorast
I think you're just grasping at straws trying to make a connection. If you look hard enough, you can see connections in everything Trent's done since YZ, but that doesn't mean there are actual connections.
I also think it would be more than a little insulting to the rest of the band if Trent was like "Hey guys, let's connect this supposedly-independent-from-NIN project to that ARG Rob and I came up with five years ago that no one is able to let go of even though a direct sequel is in the works as a TV series." It would do even more damage to the idea of HTDA as a separate entity, an idea that I feel like Trent has been trying to impress on us the past few years.
So, no thoughts on the lyrics to Speaking in Tongues? It's nearly impossible to me that the lyric (whoever wrote it, I'm assuming Trent definitely had input on this one) "We have become zeroes and one, I am the end of it all" was written without someone saying "Hey, we are making this really post-apocalyptic sounding record and these lyrics definitely tread Year Zero territory"
I also don't agree that the notion would necessarily be insulting to the other band members. For all we know, Year Zero was a pet idea incepted by both Rob and Trent.
ItsJustDave
You guys are slow. The keys to the puzzle start in halo01.
Also, try synchronizing sigils to their matching halos.
fwiw, this is what Rob Sheridan has to say:
[/URL] (https://twitter.com/rob_sheridan/status/308351592749465600)
[url]https://twitter.com/rob_sheridan/status/308351592749465600 (https://twitter.com/rob_sheridan/status/308351592749465600)
Similarly, I don't agree that the band would then jump to "Well, let's bring this album into the fold, then." If we're assuming Mariqueen wrote that particular lyric (and, as the primary lyricist, she probably did), then perhaps Trent might've said "Oh hey, that reminds me of Zero-Sum." Perhaps Q would've then gone "Oh hey yeah, me too." Then they recorded it and continued about their business.
Keeping in mind that, while HTDA's lyrics are not written solely or even more than a little bit by Trent, lyrical overlap is a thing in NIN's body of work. (http://www.ninwiki.com/Recurring_lyrics) Considering Mariqueen is Trent's wife, and has presumably listened to Trent's pre-HTDA music, is it not so crazy to think she might've just made the reference in passing, with no intention of tying her lyrics into Trent's world of Year Zero?
EDIT: Conceptual connections doesn't mean an addition to the Year Zero canon. The Downward Spiral and The Fragile have definite conceptual connections as well. Are they two stories about the same character?
I would use examples in Mariqueen's previous work to support my arguments but I have zero knowledge of any of it so I cannot.
Yes, but you seem to believe I am arguing there is a heavy handed connection. I'm not :)
I'm arguing that seem to be some loose connections, and they seem to be at least somewhat on purpose as opposed to just happening to match up. But you could be absolutely right. Maybe Mariqueen just decided to tread on similar ground to NIN's prior work.
Fair enough. Agree to disagree.
BRoswell
I think there's a loose connection in terms of both albums having apocalyptic themes, but Year Zero is much more political. Welcome Oblivion is more personal in its view of an apocalypse.
I think that's a great way to put it.
Certainly they are still hitting on a theme of a grim future where mankind is headed. But there's a lot of different directions just that basic theme could head.
I think the term that may be most apt is "Spiritual successor"
SM Rollinger
From a musical (and not lyrical) standpoint, Welcome Oblivion reminds me ALOT of Vessel. Sounds like they used the Virus pad again, and the overal tempo of the track, IMO are similar.
This album has that feel to it like it was written on a laptop. I dont think that was intentional, i doubt it was. But alot of the programming arangements do have that same "cut and paste" feel to em that YZ did (since it was mostly done while on tour for WT. for those who dint know)
They said the same thing about Ghosts I-IV.
r_z
They're saying a lot of things if it adds to the mystique.
So here's my conclusion about this:
The two albums can probably be considered spiritual cousins. Any lyrical or visual ties to Year Zero may or may not be intentional (who really knows. if there is an answer, I would almost prefer they never told us). If I had to guess, at least on Rob's part, the visual similarities are less on purpose and more the inevitable result of the band choosing to delve into similar thematic territory.
As was pointed out earlier, Year Zero is more of a bombastic exploration of the political / religious drama that engulfs our world. Welcome Oblivion is more of a meditation on what it means to be human when technology is moving faster than humans can keep up with. These are two sides of the same coin.
I just love that Welcome Oblivion exists. It's creeping up on being one of my three or four favorite things Trent has been involved with.
LexTron6K
I've had a feeling that HTDA is somehow very purposefully and tangibley connected to the Year Zero universe and mythology. This feeling grows stronger each time HTDA reveals something new (song, video, artwork, album, etc). If I remember correctly there was some band from our very near future that was imprisoned or something and kind of acted as a catalyst for the Art Is Resistance movement. . . Perhaps HTDA is this band that was spoken about by the future-citizens.
I'm digging through the Year Zero archives to find some mention of a band from our near future. Haven't been able to find it yet, but I love your theory :)
Let me know if you manage to dig up a source on that.
thefragile_jake
I kind of thought this with the whole "the beginning is the end and it keeps coming around again" refrain...but I'm not too sure on if it's a real continuation of sorts.
For the hell of it... Let's open this discussion up a bit. Let's assume for the sake of argument that elements of HTDA have ties to Year Zero.
Who's perspective are the lyrics to Speaking in Tongues from?
I am made of magic and wires
And I am everything at the end of it all
I am moving from the messiah
And I am everything and nothing at all
I am speaking order from within
I am aberration by design
Still I'm here as I have always been
I am nature, perfect by design
Feeding on the apple in the sea
You have done exactly as you're told
Filling us with everything we need
Turn the blackened metal into gold
And all my arms will stretch across the sky
And you will see the glory of it all
Watching from a very different night
You will see the glory of it all
This is the place, this is the time I am the end of it all
We have become zeroes and ones, I am the end of it all
"I am made of magic and wires" and the line "We have become zeroes and ones, I am the end of it all"
These lines indicate to me some sort of Deus Ex Machina. Perhaps "The Presence" is an artificial intelligence of sorts? Interestingly the sixth page of the Welcome Oblivion PDF has a Terminator-like robot hand. Is this some sort of hint?
The Loop Closes video also seems to feature the same desert where "The Presence" hand came down in Year Zero.
Perhaps the live shows will shed some light on any connections. Today in their AMA they mentioned a few odd things, including the fact that they don't currently and might never have more dates booked beyond the 10 or so that they've got now. They also mentioned that they'd been working on the love show for over a year, and that they're once again working in conjunction with the team that they realized the LITS stage show with. And then there's this, from Rob:
Also, regarding the comparison to NIN's Lights in the Sky: The HTDA show will be a very visual experience, and all of the creative team from Lights in the Sky is working on this. BUT, please do not go in expecting Lights in the Sky, because this is a very very different presentation from NIN. This is going to be more of a statement, more of an audio/visual installation than a rock concert. Probably a lot of people aren't going to "get" it, but hopefully they'll walk away saying "I'm not sure what the hell I just watched, but it was pretty cool."
That last line, coupled with the lack of any future shows makes me think this is going to be much more than just music plus visuals, and perhaps something much more theatrical in nature. That in turn makes me think about the one-off ARG show that NIN did where they threw everybody in a bus and surprised them with a show at a secret location, only to stage a fake police/military raid.
Trent has been a very iteritive artist throughout his career. Just look at how Fragility evolved into LITS. Perhaps the YZ ideas have simply been in gestation until the time is right. And maybe this all has something to do with why HTDA signed to a major. Maybe they needed the financial backing and resources of a major to pull off whatever this (maybe) is going towards.
or maybe not
NOTE: I've also tried to dig up that band reference in YZ that I mentioned, but this far I haven't had any luck. I'm positive that it's out there though.
I'm very curious what comes of the live shows as well. Regardless of whether this album is connected to the YZ-verse or not, I can't shake the feeling that there is a story of sorts built around these songs / media material.
The PDF's images are very interesting. Are they meant to evoke abstract emotion, or are they clues to something?
butter_hole
$50 it's just flickering, static-y images of a TV screen. Like the artwork.
zecho
The band you're thinking of is NIN. Trent is who's put in prison. In fact, he and the band are detained in the Survivalism video, and the entire archive of websites sent back in time are being used as evidence of his crimes. They aren't going to do a show anything like the ARG one-off, as the footage from Coachella is supposed to serve as an example of their shows, and you can't do that kind of stuff at a festival. The similarities between this and YZ are there because they both include an apocalyptic theme. The borrowed "zeroes and ones" line is used because it fits the idea of technology being a part of humanities downfall too perfectly not to be used. "I am made of magic and wires" and the line "We have become zeroes and ones, I am the end of it all" are relating to transhumanism either literally or metaphorically to illustrate technology's role in the extinction of the human race. That's all this is about. No Presence, no YZ timeline connections, just a technology-induced apocalyptic setting. If I seem a bit blunt and absolute, it's because I view the constant searching for connections to a pre-established narrative arc exclusive to NIN is somewhat insulting to the band, and demeaning to the concept that Welcome oblivion is trying to establish.
Rob Sheridan just gave me a pretty great response re: the Terminator arm.
https://twitter.com/rob_sheridan/status/309110775996358656 (https://twitter.com/rob_sheridan/status/309110775996358656)
[URL]https://twitter.com/rob_sheridan/status/309111202120871939
"It's more symbolic, really. The album's loose concept is about anxiety of information overload as humanity and technology converge"
"…and presenting technological singularity and post-humanism as both a terrifying and transformative moment for mankind and nature."
sentient02970
https://twitter.com/rob_sheridan/status/308351592749465600
This doesn't at all surprise me coming from Sheridan as he's able to resurrect his analog glitch style of art that was used all over Year Zero. As for concept as a whole, sure the concepts have places of overlap but the projects are completely separate and have very different meanings to me. Trent in Year Zero considered a future based on present decisions or non-decisions, Welcome Oblivion seems to study a more internal reflection on what it means to be human.
fwiw, I'm not arguing anything very hard here. Just playing with ideas and exploring possibilities. It's meant in good fun, and not meant to say there are any absolute connections to YZ. From what I can tell, there are no direct connections. And Rob Sheridan's responses to me indicate as much.
I just noticed a few interesting parallels and decided it would be cool to discuss them. To me the albums work as neat companions to one another, largely because again... they are exploring similar conceptual territory, and the artwork/sound is coming from (largely) the same individuals who made Year Zero.
he expounded on that on today's Reddit AMA:
[Rob] "The visual direction of this album came about first from the concept of the record. Trying to express the anxiety of information overload, the end of mankind as both terrifying and transformative, apocalypse and evolution, etc."
Of course, that last bit harkens to the end of yz, yeah?
I think it does harken back to YZ, conceptually. I'm quite jealous of anyone who is going to have a chance to go to the live show. Really hoping they come to Seattle, and if not... Hoping they release footage of one of the concerts. I have a feeling it's going to be something pretty special.
BrokenSpiral
So your loose connections to YZ are some recycled lyrics? Trent has never done that before...
If you read through the whole thread, there's a bit more than recycled lyrics.
And I want to address something that I find strange:
Many of you seem to feel it is "insulting" to insinuate any connection whatsoever between NIN and HTDA, or a NIN album and an HTDA album. Loose or direct. I find this perplexing and flat out weird. Rob himself said on yesterdays AMA:
RE: HTDA rising out of NIN's shadow and comparisons to NIN...
[Rob] "It's not something that really annoys us - it's fairly inevitable. I do find it funny that the NIN fans who don't like HTDA equally cite that it either is too much like NIN or not enough like NIN. What's weird to me is that these people focus so much on the comparison one way or another, and aren't able to just judge HTDA on its own. Do you think it's not enough like NIN? That's why it's called something different. Do you think it's too much like NIN? The band is made up of Trent, two guys he's been working closely with for 10+ years, and his wife - of COURSE it's going to have similarities. How much it was or wasn't like NIN was never a goal or concern for us in creating HTDA. It's simply what we wanted it to be, and we're extremely proud of it."
Doesn't sound to me like they find comparisons insulting. So why do people on this board? Also, I am not taking any of this all that seriously. I just think it's fun/interesting to discuss the areas of overlap and potential connections, purposeful or not, direct or loose.
Now I am new here. Maybe some of the reaction here is due to people in the past attempting to string *everything* back to Year Zero in an annoying or argumentative way. If that's the case, I can I understand why I'm getting a "Oh good, another one." vibe from some of you. :)
brotha52
Can someone help me out here. "Too late, all gone", What NIN track is the opening loop from? I was looking on Year Zero and couldn't find it.
None of them
It's not from any NIN track that I am aware of.
Mataxia
I was trying to figure that out too, I thought it sounded really familiar. It's 35 Ghosts/A Familiar Taste from TSN. It's not the same pattern but similar sound.
It's the same instrument probably, played by the same people. Same comment was made about Fur-Lined remember?
Warped_Savant
The Greater Good.
Ah yeah, it sounds like a hybrid of The Greater Good and A Familiar Taste.
Never really thought of "Welcome Oblivion" as a clear-cut sequel to Year Zero, but how could there not be similarities? Trent political, ecological and spiritual views probably didn't die as soon as he'd churned out Year Zero and hey, guess what? Humanity is still dragging the whole planet towards the gutter. If you're an artist who cares about that, there's a lot more left to say.
That, and post-apocalyptic scenarios are quite fascinating. I can't blame HTDA for exploring these, and I actually find it more than a little refreshing that we're not just getting "You know me - I hate everyone"-songs from these guys.
This, thank you. Forgot to check TSN soundtrack.
Right, well said. And on top of that, Trent and MQ are laying in bed together at night...presumably spending all of their time together...of course they are going to share some of the same viewpoints, which will be expressed, consciously or not, in the art they create together.
OF COURSE it's related to year zero thematically...listen to the lyrics for christ's sake. i really don't understand how this is an argument.
Now is it year zero part two or set in the year zero "verse?" I don't think so, and sincerely hope not. this isn't a fucking comic book or star trek spin-off, it's a ROCK BAND.


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Nine Social Media Marketing Stats You Can Use
According to Google Trends, social media marketing as a topic if search interest recently turned nine years old (or is about to turn 11 years old, depending on when you place its origin). Facebook was opened up to the public in 2006. Twitter emerged at the SXSW conference in March 2007.
The phase "social media marketing" first appeared in searches back in March 2007, but the first spike in interest came in January 2009, when search volume more than doubled from the previous month.
We're now long past the days of having to "sell" business executives on the value of social media for marketing. As noted below, the practice is now ubiquitous, with almost 90% of businesses engaged social media marketing.
The questions today are more around how to evolve practices (in both content amplification and follower-building) for the maturing social media landscape, and how to best monitor results to support continuous improvement.
Filed Under: Marketing Research, Social Media Marketing Tagged With: eMarketer, Google Trends, HubSpot, MarketingSherpa, MediaPost, social media marketing budgets, social media marketing facts, social media marketing in 2018, social media marketing statistics
21 Spectacular SEO and Search Marketing Stats and Facts
June 23, 2015 by Tom Pick
Social may be sexy, but search still pays the bills.
As reported below, organic search drives 51% of all visitors to both B2B and and B2C Web sites, while paid-search drives 10% (and social 5%, on average). 89% of customers begin their buying process with a search engine.
How can marketers get the most out of search? The search marketing stats and facts below provide some helpful guidance. Here are four key takeaways from this research:
• Do feed the gorilla. Search doesn't only mean Google, but the elephant in the room can't be ignored either. While everyone knows Google is the big dog, the magnitude of its dominance still amazes. Google accounted for nearly 40% of all U.S. digital ad spending last year, while Facebook's share was about 8%; and Google's advertising revenue is larger than that of the entire U.S. print industry.
• Be like Avis. As the company's iconic slogan went, "When you're number two, you try harder." Or rather in the case of organic search, you need to try harder. While it's great to be #1—the top result still generates nearly one-third of all organic search clicks—the share garnered by results two through four has increased significantly in the last decade. No matter the slot though, the key to getting clicks from any rank below #1 is to craft top-notch meta titles and page descriptions.
• Get creative. The top challenges in organic SEO are link building (easy-to-get links no longer have much value) and keyword research (the low-hanging fruit is long gone). To rank well today, use a web presence optimization (WPO) approach in order to earn high-quality links from online publications and industry influencers, and write to "be the best answer" to search queries rather than stuffing content with repetitive phrases.
• Open your wallet. Marketers spend a lot of money online; overall, U.S. marketers will spend more than $103 billion on search, display, social media, and email marketing by 2019—but search will remain the largest share of interactive spend (about 44%). And in PPC search ads, 86% of all ad impressions accrue to the top four spots.
For more insights, check out these 21 SEO and search engine marketing stats from top experts including Caroline Nicander Mohr, Laurie Sullivan, Berrie Pelser, Rob Petersen, Melissa Hoffmann, and John A. Lee.
3 General Search and Google Stats and Facts
1. Google estimates that the Internet now contains roughly five million terabytes of data – but the search giant has indexed only 0.04% of it all. (The Wonder of Tech)
2. Integrating PPC and organic SEO efforts results on average in a 25% increase in clicks and a 27% increase in profits over isolated or disconnected efforts. (Digital Marketing Philippines)
3. Google accounted for nearly 40% of all U.S. digital ad spending last year. Facebook's share was about 8%. (eMarketer)
9 Organic SEO Stats and Facts
4. Lead generation (cited by 61% of corporate marketers) and Web site traffic (57%) are the top SEO objectives for marketers at enterprise companies in 2015. 54% want to improve traffic conversion rates. Just 24% cited attributing sales and revenue to SEO as a top goal. (MediaPost)
5. Organic search drives 51% of all visitors to business-to-business and business-to-consumer Web sites, whereas paid-search drives 10% and social 5%. (MediaPost)
6. Having video on the landing page of your site makes it 53% more likely to show up on page 1 of Google. (41 Stories)
7. A URL's number of Google +1s is more highly correlated with search rankings than any other factor. (Ber|Art)
8. Ranking near the top of search results is great, but if you want the click, your title and description better be top-notch also. In 2005, searchers spent just under 2 seconds, on average, viewing each listing; in 2014 that has dropped to 1.17 seconds. (MarketingProfs)
9. The top organic result still captures about the same amount of click activity (32.8%) as it did in 2005. However, organic results that are positioned in the 2nd through 4th slots now receive a significantly higher share of clicks than in 2005–63% vs. 48%. (MarketingProfs)
10. 89% of customers begin their buying process with a search engine. (Biznology)
11. 72% of marketers from enterprises rate search engine optimization (SEO) as successful in achieving marketing objectives like lead generation and increased Web traffic. (MediaPost)
12. The top challenges in SEO are link building (cited by 41% of corporate marketers) and keyword research (39%). (MediaPost)
9 Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Facts and Statistics
13. Google's advertising revenue is larger than that of the entire U.S. print industry. (The Wonder of Tech)
14. 30% of companies outsource their paid search advertising, and 28% do so for display advertising. (MediaPost)
15. Total internet advertising spending is growing 16% per year. Mobile accounts for 11% of the total. (TechCrunch)
16. 61% of CMOs say search engines are an effective marketing channel. (AdWeek)
17. Nearly half of digital marketing budgets are spent on search, with 31% on paid search and 18% on SEO. (MarketingProfs)
18. In PPC search ads, 86% of all ad impressions accrue to the top four spots. (ClickZ)
19. Overall, U.S. marketers will spend more than $103 billion on search, display, social media, and email marketing by 2019 — growing at a 12% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) — but search will remain the largest share of interactive spend. (MediaPost)
20. U.S. spending on search marketing will reach $31.6 billion in 2015. (MediaPost)
21. U.S. spending on paid search and organic optimization will top $45 billion by 2019. (MediaPost)
This was post #3 of Marketing Stats Summer (#statssummer) on Webbiquity.
#1: Welcome to Marketing Stats Summer!
#2: 34 Compelling Content Marketing Stats and Facts
#3: 21 Spectacular SEO and Search Marketing Stats and Facts
Filed Under: Marketing Research, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Tagged With: 41 Stories, Berrie Pelser, Caroline Nicander Mohr, digital marketing budgets, eMarketer, Google advertising revenue, John A. Lee, Laurie Sullivan, MarketingProfs, MediaPost, Melissa Hoffmann, paid search advertising, Rob Petersen, SEM stats, SEO link building, SEO statistics, top challenges in SEO are link building, total internet advertising spending
87 More Vital Social Media Marketing Facts and Stats for 2012
October 16, 2012 by Tom Pick
Though social media marketing is now used in about 90% of companies, techniques, platforms and best practices continue to evolve. Should you include Pinterest in your mix? Increase use of video marketing? Is blogging coming back or trailing off? What will likely be the hot trends in social media over the next couple of years?
Marketers have questions, this post has answers: 87 vital social media and online marketing statistics covering everything from how executives and large companies are using social media for marketing, customer service and recruiting to fresh stats on the leading social media platforms to search, email, content and mobile marketing trends.
The recent 72 Fascinating Social Media Stats post on JeffBullas.com was one of my post popular guest posts ever, so here is an entirely new set of social media stats, facts and research findings.
Social Media Stats and Demographics
1. Social media accounts for only 16% of customer engagement today, but is expected to increase to 57%—the second-most used channel, behind only face to face interaction—within five years. (Marketing Pilgrim)
2. 30% of the world's entire population is now online, and social networking is the most popular and time consuming online activity—with users spending more than one fifth (22%) of their time engaging on social media channels. This means that more than 250 million tweets and 800 million Facebook status updates are now published every single day. (MindJumpers)
3. Brazilians have the highest number of online friends of any country, averaging 481 friends per user, while the Japanese average only 29 friends. (MindJumpers)
4. 56% of Americans have a profile on at least one social networking site. And it's not just millenials; 55% of those aged 45-54 have at least one social network profile. (Convince & Convert)
5. Social networks and blogs In the U.S reach nearly 80% of active U.S. Internet users and represent the majority of Americans' time online. (MediaPost)
6. 60% of people who use three or more digital means of research for product purchases learned about a specific brand or retailer from a social networking site. 48% of these consumers responded to a retailer's offer posted on Facebook or Twitter. (MediaPost)
7. 90% of marketers now use social networks in their marketing efforts, but growth has plateaued; the figure was 89% in 2011. (eMarketer)
8. Half of all social media users are between 25 and 44 years old, but the age distribution varies widely across social networks. Reddit and Tumblr are among the "youngest" networks, with half or more of users under 35 years old. Twitter is about in the middle (55% of users age 35 or older) while 65% of Facebook users are over 35 (didn't this start with college students?) and LinkedIn is the "oldest" network, with 79% of users age 35 and older. (Pingdom)
9. Women tend to be somewhat more present and active on social media than men, though the shares vary widely by site. Men tend to dominate on technical sites (e.g., Slashdot is almost 90% guys); LinkedIn is close to a 50-50 split; Twitter and Facebook are both about 40% male / 60% female; and women account for almost 90% of Pinterest users. (Pingdom)
10. Social media and blogs reach 80% of all U.S. Internet users. 91% of experienced social marketers see improved website traffic due to social media and 79% are generating more quality leads. (Business2Community)
11. 90% of companies with 100 or more employees use social media in their marketing mix. 83% use Facebook and 53% are on Twitter, though that gap is expected to narrow by 2014 due to rapid growth in Twitter use. (eMarketer)
Social Media in the Enterprise
12. Just 23% of Fortune 500 companies maintain an active blog, vs. 37% of Inc. 500 firms. (V3 Integrated Marketing)
13. 35% of the top 100 Fortune 500 companies have a corporate blog compared to 14 percent of those Fortune 500 companies in the bottom 300-500 of the category, i.e., top companies devote more attention to their corporate blogs than those in the bottom of the pack. (V3 Integrated Marketing)
14. 62% of Fortune 500 companies have an active Twitter account, while 58% maintain a corporate Facebook page. (V3 Integrated Marketing)
15. Looking at five leading social networks (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Google+ and Pinterest), Fortune 100 company names are mentioned more than 10 million times per month. (Digital Buzz Blog)
16. The average Fortune 100 company is mentioned nearly 56,000 times per month On Twitter. (Digital Buzz Blog)
17. 87 of the Fortune 100 companies are now active on at least one social network. 82 use Twitter, 75 have a Facebook page, 50 are on Google+ and 25% use Pinterest. (Digital Buzz Blog)
18. To accommodate different product lines, business units and geographies, the average Fortune 100 company now maintains 10 official corporate Twitter accounts, 10 Facebook pages and eight YouTube channels. (Digital Buzz Blog)
19. Fortune 500 companies tend to be antisocial. Less than half of Fortune 500 businesses provide a link to their Facebook profile or Twitter handle on the Contact Us page of their Web sites. About 27% of consumer-facing Fortune 500 corporations do not list social media channels on their Web site home page, 89% do not list an e-mail address on their site, and 13% don't list a phone number on their Contact Us page. (MediaPost)
Social Media Use in the C-Suite
20. 71% of consumers say that CEO participation in social media leads to improved brand image. (41 Stories)
21. Only 3.2% of Fortune 500 (largest companies) CEOs have a Twitter account compared with 17% of Inc. 500 (fastest-growing companies) CEOs. (41 Stories)
22. 52% of CEOs who are active in social media say that it helps their companies rise in search rankings, and 48% say that social media has generated qualified sales leads. (41 Stories)
23. Though 94% of corporations use social media in some way and 58% of executives acknowledge that social media is useful for lead generation and developing brand loyalty, 70% of CEOs have no presence on any social network. 26% are on LinkedIn, 8% have a Facebook page and just 4% use Twitter. (Business Insider)
24. This is the case even though 82% of buyers say they are more likely to trust a company whose top executive is active on social media, and 81% of employees believe that social CEOs are better leaders. (Business Insider)
Social Media and Human Resources
25. 40% of organizations have a formal social media policy, and 56% of those policies include a statement regarding the organization's right to monitor social media usage. More than a third (39%) of companies monitor their employees social media use on company-owned computers and handheld devices. (Resume Bear)
26. 92% of recruiters use social media to find new candidates, up from 82% in 2010. And 73% now say they have successfully hired through social media, up significantly from just 58% two years ago. (Ragan.com)
27. Not surprisingly, LinkedIn is the most popular social network among recruiters, with 93% using it. 66% use Facebook while 54% utilize Twitter. More dramatically, 89% of recruiters say that LinkedIn has produced at least one successful hire for them, compared to 25% who say the same of Facebook and just 15% who've had recruiting success with Twitter. (Ragan.com)
28. 20% of all pageviews on the web are on Facebook. (Jeff Bullas)
29. Half of all Facebook users use it on mobile devices, at least occasionally. (Jeff Bullas)
30. More than 500 million people log in to Facebook each day, and they collectively post 3.2 billion likes and comments. (Jeff Bullas)
31. Social media fatigue? Though 20% of Facebook users say they check in on the social network once or twice per day, 52% plan to spend less time there in the future. (SodaHead)
32. 73% of users believe that another social network will eclipse Facebook. (SodaHead)
Twitter Facts
33. Twitter attracts one million new users per day. (Jeff Bullas)
34. Of Twitter's 165 million users, half access Twitter on mobile devices at least occasionally. (HubSpot)
35. 53% of Twitter users have been a member for less than a year, compared to just 19% for Facebook. (Convince & Convert)
36. 76% of Twitter users are active tweeters, up from 47% in 2010. (Convince & Convert)
37. Want to get retweeted more often? Research shows that keywords which increase the likelihood of retweeting include "please," "thank you," "Twitter," "social media" and "you." Words to avoid include "lol," gonna," "hey," "tired," "work" and "bored." (iMedia Connection)
38. Twitter users now post 340 million tweets per day, or roughly a billion tweets every three days. (Digital Buzz Blog)
LinkedIn Statistics
39. Two news users join LinkedIn every second. (Jeff Bullas)
40. 75 of the Fortune 100 companies use LinkedIn in their corporate hiring process. (HubSpot)
YouTube and Video Marketing Trends
41. YouTube is the third-most-visited site on the web, with two billion views per day. (Jeff Bullas)
42. YouTube use accounts for 10% of all traffic on the Internet. (Jeff Bullas)
43. 76% of marketers said they planned to increase use of video and YouTube in 2012. (HubSpot)
44. There are 1.5 million business-related searches on YouTube each day, and 75% of senior executives say they watch work-related videos at least weekly. (Earnest B2B)
Blogging Stats
45. Companies that blog have 434% more indexed pages. And companies with more indexed pages generate far more leads from search. (Search Engine Journal)
46. The very first blogs appeared in 1998, and Blogger.com was launched in 1999. By 2006, there were more than 50 million blogs in existence. (HubSpot)
47. Today, there are more than 158 million blogs (though only about 70 million are active). (Spin Sucks)
48. B2C companies who blog regularly see an 88% increase in median monthly leads and B2B companies who blog see a 67% increase in leads. (V3 Integrated Marketing)
49. Roughly 60% of business blogs are updated at least twice per week. (Marketing Charts)
50. Another study found that while 60% of businesses have a blog, only 35% of those (i.e., 21% of all businesses) actively maintain them. (New Media Expo Blog)
51. The two most popular blogging platforms are WordPress (used for 43% of all blogs) and Blogger (35%). Surprised it's that close. (New Media Expo Blog)
Content Marketing Findings
52. The most popular forms of content marketing for B2B companies are social media excluding blogs (79%) and article posting (78%). 51% maintain blogs, 42% conduct webinars and webcasts, and 41% produce videos. Just 11% use mobile content and only 9% create eBooks. (Earnest B2B)
53. However, 71% of B2B marketers view in-person events as effective while only 31% say the same about social media excluding blogs. (Earnest B2B)
54. Relevance is critical is content marketing. 45% of consumers have unsubscribed from emails due to irrelevant content, and on the B2B side, IT buyers say that 58% of vendor content is not relevant to them, and that this lack of relevance reduces the chance of closing a sale by 45%. (MarketingSherpa)
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Facts
55. 70% of the links search users click on are organic. (This is an overall average, however, and the share of clicks on paid results is considerably higher for many commercially oriented searches.) (Search Engine Journal)
56. 46% of all searches are for information about products or services. (HubSpot)
57. 75% of searchers never scroll past the first page of results (which also means of course that 25% do). (Search Engine Journal)
58. 93% of online experiences (including b2b and considered purchases) begin with a search engine. (Search Engine Journal)
59. Half of all local searches are performed on mobile devices. (HubSpot)
60. 66% of new customers use search and online research to find local businesses. (HubSpot)
61. 21% of all time spent online is spent on web searches. (MindJumpers)
62. It's probably no surprise that the big three search engines (Google, Bing and Yahoo!) are among the five most-visited sites on the Internet. But consider that AOL is #7 and Ask is #10, meaning that…five of the top 10 most-visited sites on the web are search engines. (MindJumpers)
63. B2B companies that maintain active content (e.g., bloogging) and SEO programs increased their total website traffic, on average, by 25% in the past year, while those who neglected SEO (either never did it or did SEO only as a one-time effort at site launch) experienced an average 15% decline in overall visits. (Webbiquity)
64. How big is the SEO industry? Well, there are 863 million websites globally that mention "SEO." There are 9.1 million searches conducted including the acronym each month, with the top two phrases being "SEO services" and "SEO company." More than 60,000 Twitter users include "SEO" in their bios, there have been 13 million blog posts published that include "SEO" in the title, and Amazon.com carries almost 2,700 different books about SEO. (Search Engine Journal)
65. While it's vital for marketers to integrate search and social in terms of their strategies, it turns out consumers don't like the two actually mixed in search results. 62% say they do not want social results included on search engine result pages (SERPs), while just 19% do. (Search Engine Watch)
66. If social results are going to be included on SERPs, consumers prefer Bing's layout (social off to the right side) rather than Google's layout (social mixed with organic results), 63% to 37%. However, by a 5-to-3 margin, consumers preferred Google's display of universal search results. (Search Engine Watch)
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Online Advertising
67. Every marketer knows that click-through rates on banner ads are very low. Why? 31% of users say they are worried if they click on an ad that their behavior will be tracked, while 57% fear they will receive spam from advertisers. (Get Elastic)
68. The average person is more likely to apply and be accepted by Harvard or be dealt a full house in poker than to click on a banner ad. (Get Elastic)
69. There are more tweets each month that include "PPC" (282,000) than there are that include "SEO" (248,000), though there are most searches on and blog posts written about SEO. (Search Engine Journal)
70. Click-through rates (CTR) on search ads for keyword phrases with "high commercial intent' are up to 600 times greater than average CTR for ads on a typical Facebook page. (e-Strategy Trends)
71. There are about four billion mobile phones in use. Of those, 27% (1.08 billion) are smartphones. (HubSpot)
72. 50% of all smartphone users use their devices to search the web, and 49% use them for social networking. (HubSpot)
73. 8% of web hits worldwide are from mobile phones. In the US, 25% of mobile Web users are mobile-only. Further, 80% of this traffic will leave if your website isn't optimized for mobile–a good case for having a mobile-friendly website. (Heidi Cohen)
74. Do some research and consider carefully before investing in design and creation of a mobile app for your business. A quarter of all mobile apps are used only once. (Heidi Cohen)
75. 74% of Americans are unfamiliar with the concept of checking in to a location via mobile device, and only 3% have ever checked in. (Convince & Convert)
76. One in four employees use personal smartphones at work. (Earnest B2B)
77. Almost 40% of social media users access social media content from their mobile phone at least occasionally. (MediaPost)
78. Mobile and video are the two hottest growth areas in marketing. 17% of marketers say they've been using mobile marketing for less than a year, while another 17% plan to start using it in the coming year. The figures are 14% and 10%, respectively, for video marketing. (eMarketer)
79. In a July 2012 survey, 26% of respondents said they were interested in the iPhone5, while 74% said they were "over it"–just not that intrigued by another new Apple device. (SodaHead)
Email Marketing Facts
80. Nearly one billion Internet users are on Facebook. But 3.1 billion use email. (HubSpot)
81. Less than one out of five email marketers include social sharing links in their emails. Of those, 91% include a Facebook link while nearly half include Twitter. (HubSpot)
82. 19% of all time spent online is spent on reading and responding to emails. (MindJumpers)
Other Social and Marketing Stats
83. Instagram tripled its user base from 10 million in September 2011 to 30 million by April 2012. Its Android app had one million downloads on the day it was released. (Jeff Bullas)
84. 97% of Pinterest's Facebook "likes" are from women. (Jeff Bullas)
85. Google+ adds 625,000 new users each day. (Jeff Bullas)
86. 67% of Google+ users are male. (Jeff Bullas)
87. A majority of marketers worldwide say that less than half of all the analytics data they collect is actually useful for decision-making, and 34% say analytics are not integrated at all with their business plans. (eMarketer)
Filed Under: Marketing Research, Social Media Marketing Tagged With: 41 Stories, CEO participation in social media, Content Marketing, Earnest B2B, eMarketer, Gini Dietrich, Heidi Cohen, how big is the SEO industry, how large companies are using social media, HubSpot, Instagram, Jay Baer, Jeff Bullas, leading social networks, Marketing Pilgrim, MarketingSherpa, MindJumpers, mobile content, mobile marketing statistics, mobile marketing trends, Pingdom, Pinterest, Shelly Kramer, social media marketing statistics, Twitter facts
The Social Media ROI Debate
August 23, 2010 by Tom Pick
Can the financial return on expenditures for social media business activities– in marketing, PR, customer support, HR, product development or other areas — be accurately measured? Can social media costs be justified on the P&L, so that as belts get ever tighter in this stagnant economy, these projects and tasks can be spared the budget axe?
Among social media pundits, the debate rages on. The "yes" crowd argues that of course social media can be measured, and must be in order to demonstrate value to the business. You wouldn't buy a new machine tool or enterprise software application without an ROI analysis, so why should social media be any different? Executives don't care about shiny sparkly things or the latest fads or buzzwords; you'd better know what you want to accomplish, be able to quantify both expenses and revenue, and have the analytics in place to track results before even murmuring the words "social media" in the presence of C-level types.
The "no" group will counter that the metrics and tools haven't yet matured, or that social media is too amorphous to even be measurable, or that it is rapidly becoming simply part of the plumbing or wiring of a modern organization, making ROI immaterial.
My own thoughts (for what they're worth) on the matter are that:
• It's challenging to measure the true ROI of social media activities with any precision because social media is as much (if not more) about influence than direct action. For example, if John Doe clicks through to your website from a tweet and buys something, that's easy to measure. But if John Doe is influenced to buy from you based a tweet—but completes the purchase through another unrelated channel—there's no way to assign the value of that sale to Twitter.
• That said, there are many aspects of social media that can and should be measured, both to show results and to help guide future activities (e.g. determining which topics generate the highest traffic and comment activity on a company blog, what time of day is most productive for tweeting, etc.). In other words, the statement "ROI is challenging to measure accurately" shouldn't be confused with "don't bother trying measure anything."
• Metrics can be useful to help determine what to do more of, less of, or differently, but should not as the basis for whether or not to engage in social media. At this point, the adoption of social media tools is so widespread as to constitute just another communication channel. It makes no more sense for a business to shun social media until ROI can be demonstrated than it does to demand an ROI analysis for installing phone lines or email.
So much for my thoughts. What do other pundits have to say? Below are summaries of a variety of posts on the topic of social media ROI measurement from luminaries such as Danny Brown, Brian Solis, Erik Qualman, Michelle Golden and Sharlyn Lauby divided into their respective camps: yes, no, and maybe.
Is social media ROI measurable? Yes.
The Real Cost of Social Media by Danny Brown
This isn't strictly speaking an ROI article, but Danny does dive into the "I" part of that measure, detailing the true costs (investment) of social media participation.
20 Metrics To Effectively Track Social Media Campaigns by Search Engine Land
Chris Bennett lays out the list of metrics he uses to analyze, track and "prove ROI' from social media marketing. Compelling piece except for his use of the phrase social media campaign (argh).
Social Media ROI – How 3 B2B Technology Companies Are Achieving Revenue Results by MarCom Ink
Kim Cornwall Malseed summarizes the social media wisdom and ROI results gleaned from a panel of b2b marketing pros including Holger Schulze of SafeNet, Frank Strong of Vocus and Susan Cato of CompTIA. She reports on the revenue achieved, social media strategies used and measurement systems employed for tracking.
ROI: How to Measure Return on Investment in Social Media by Social Media Today
In this long but worthwhile post, Brian Solis reviews the evolution of social media measurement forms (e.g. "return on engagement"), the disconnect between social media marketers (most of whom can't measure ROI) and CMOs (most of whom expect it), then offers his recommendations for improving the measurement of business objectives from social media.
Sexy Numbers: Measuring ROI in Social Media Campaigns by ReveNews
While acknowledging that tight precision is impossible because the same measures from different tools rarely match exactly (and multiple tools are still needed to end-to-end social media tracking), Angel Djambazov nevertheless makes a strong case for developing ROI metrics for social media campaigns. Quoting Brian Solis and others, Angel points out that particularly in this economy, even great ideas without a hard-number rationale are likely to get slashed; ROI measurements are needed because CMOs demand them. The post also includes some strategies, tactics and tools to assist in social media measurement.
Social Media Monitoring Techniques by WebFadds
Scott Frangos presents a concise but clear outline of basic social media ROI measurement objectives, tools and analytics.
Counterpoint: Why you can calculate an ROI in social media – and why you should do it by iMedia Connection
Uwe Hook responds to the post from Ben Cathers (in the "No" section below) on why social media ROI can't be measured, laying out a roadmap using metrics such as frequency, yield, sentiment analysis, NetPromoter score and customer lifetime value.
Socialnomics: What Social Media Success Looks Like by Fuel Lines
Michael Gass shares a social media ROI argument in video format. "Socialnomics: Social Media ROI showcases what social media success looks like. Social Media ROI: Socialnomics is by Socialnomics: How Social Media Transforms the Way We Live and Do Business author Erik Qualman. This video highlights several Social Media ROI examples along with other effective Social Media Strategies." Though a few of the examples are vague or misleading, most are compelling. However, after showcasing companies that have achieved remarkable, quantifiable results through social media, Qualman provocatively asks, "Why are we trying to measure social media like a traditional channel anyway? Social media touches every facet of business and more an extension of good business ethics…When I'm asked about the ROI of Social Media sometimes the appropriate response is…What's the ROI of your phone?" He seems to suggest that while ROI is measurable, it's immaterial. Hmm. You can find more of Eric's insights on his Socialnomics blog.
Making sense of social-media ROI with Olivier Blanchard by SmartBlog on Social Media
Rob Birgfeld talks with Olivier Blanchard, introduced as "perhaps the most sought-after expert for those looking to connect the dots between social media and return-on-investment." Perhaps. Blanchard contends that most self-proclaimed social media "experts" have difficulty articulating ROI because they have no business management background (agreed, I've seen these types — which is why our agency has an MBA who helps clients with social media). With that background, he argues that "the question can be answered in about three minutes. All it takes is someone on the social-media side of the table who understands how to plug new communications into a business from the C-suite's perspective." He also makes the case that being able to prove social media ROI is essential. The post just doesn't specify how to do this.
Social Media ROI — No.
Social media (finally) returns value by The Communicator
Peter Schram doesn't come right out and say that social media ROI can't be measured, but rather that organizations should "focus on five key areas where social media will create actual value" that aren't strictly about sales ROI, including corporate reputation, employee engagement and customer service.
"What's the ROI of Social Media?" Is the Wrong Question by Golden Practices Blog
Michelle Golden makes a compelling argument that ROI calculations apply only to discrete projects with a beginning, middle and end, such as a direct mail campaign. Social media is a tool, not an event, so such calculations don't apply.
5 Problems With Measuring Social Marketing by Web Worker Daily
Aliza Sherman articulates some of the frustrations with any social media measurement, much less something as precise as ROI, including the fact that the term "social media" is nebulous and that many traditional marketing concepts (e.g., "reach," "promotions" and "campaigns") simply don't apply to social media –and the industry hasn't yet developed widely accepted new measures (though Daniel Flamberg attempted to answer this last challenge in 4 Social Media Mining Metrics).
Why you can't calculate an ROI in social media – and that's okay by iMedia Connection
Ben Cathers argues that, because the advanced analytics tools that would be required for such measurement have not yet been developed, "In many forms of digital media, you can spend 1 dollar knowing you will earn 1.30…Unfortunately, you cannot do the same in social media, just yet." He suggests instead that marketers estimate the payback on social media by assigning a value to metrics they can track, such as each follower, each retweet, each "like" of an item, etc.
CEOs Love Pie: The B2B Social Media Case Study, Part 2 by iMedia Connection
In this follow-up post to Conversations that Aren't about Mel Gibson: the B2B Social Media Case Study, Part 1, Eric Anderson writes that "today you can't throw a virtual rock without hitting five blog posts about how we all need to simmer down about ROI," and places himself firmly in the "simmer down" camp. He recommends instead serving them pie, as in pie charts showing measures like "the proportion of their paid impressions that can be replaced or augmented with free impressions. PR agencies have long been selling the value of this pie as earned media or 'ad equivalency value,' so CEOs are used to seeing it. They get it. Once you've done your social media market analysis, it's relatively easy to project how big that social media pie wedge will be."
Social Media ROI…Maybe.
Quantifying Social Results by eMarketer
eMarketer reports that while marketing pros generally agree that quantifying the benefit of social media marketing is important, they are split on whether it is possible. Measuring certain types of activity or behavior is easy; translating those measures into ROI, not so much. As this article notes, "There is a leap, however, between finding appropriate metrics and monitoring them on the one hand, and quantifying results on the other. Marketers must tie the social metrics they settle on directly to business goals, such as increased sales and leads, before social media return on investment can be quantified."
A call for more accountable social media marketing by iMedia Connection
After acknowledging that "ROI is difficult, if not impossible, to measure with social media. An astounding majority of professionals do not even try to take it into account. According to a survey late last year from Bazaarvoice and the CMO Club, 72 percent of CMOs did not attach revenue assumptions to social media in 2009," Jerry McLaughlin goes on to say that marketers must do it anyway. For example, one of his recommendations is to "reach specific social media goals with a tangible ROI, such as tracked discounts or coupons." While that's certainly not a bad suggestion, it covers only one very limited aspect of what social media marketing can do.
5 Ways To Set Goals & Measure Social Media Marketing Success by Smart Insights
Danyl Bosomworth summarizes a Jason Falls presentation on various ways to measure social media outcomes. While the post seems to suggest that measuring ROI is easy (measurement #5 casually includes "generation of sales and leads from blog visitors and from social interactions"), it also points out several other benefits that unquestionably have value (e.g., product innovation, branding and awareness, links for SEO benefit), though that value may be difficult to quantify. The message seems to be that if you can directly measure sales and leads then by all means do so, but recognize that social media can provide many other important though less quantifiable rewards.
Marketers Use Varying ROI for Social Media by Marketing Charts
According to a new study from King Fish Media, Hubspot and Junta 42 summarized in this post, most marketers perform some type of social media measurement (e.g., website visits from social media referral sites, new fans/followers, number of links shared, etc.). However, nearly half (43%) admit that they aren't even trying to measure ROI. And only 29% say "they will have to show positive ROI to continue their social media programs."
How CEOs are Using Social Media for Real Results by Mashable
Though Sharlyn Lauby shares numbers here from two CEOs able to correlate hard sales data with their social media efforts, she also points out that "even when there might not be data supporting a direct relationship between social media activity and sales, sometimes other metrics point to the connection" such as exposure, branding, customer satisfaction, recommendations, even employee recruiting. The conclusion seems to be that ROI may or may not be measurable, depending on a company's specific circumstances — or at least that not all of the benefits of social media can be captured in precise sales and ROI figures.
Filed Under: Social Media Marketing Tagged With: Aliza Sherman, Angle Djambazov, b2b social media, Ben Cathers, Brian Solis, Chris Bennett, Danny Brown, Danyl Bosomworth, eMarketer, Eric Anderson, Erik Qualman, Frank Strong, Holger Schulze, HubSpot, Jerry McGlaughlin, Junta 42, Kim Cornwall Malseed, Marketing Charts, Mashable, Mel Gibson, Michael Gass, Michelle Golden, NetPromoter score, Olivier Blandchard, Peter Schram, Rob Birgfeld, SafeNet, Scott Frangos, Search Engine Land, Sharlyn Lauby, Social Media Marketing, social media metrics, social media monitoring, social media ROI, Socialnomics, SompTIA, Susan Cato, Uwe Hook, Vocus, Web Worker Daily


WHITTIER – It's been several years since the state required public schools to provide 200 minutes of physical education every 10 days – but it never suggested how districts might be able to do it.
This week, the state Board of Education approved a P.E. Framework for California Public Schools, a comprehensive grade-by-grade guideline that not only outlines physical education standards for students, but includes specific examples to plan, teach and assess activities.
The new guidelines give "real world" examples of a high-quality, standards-based physical education program for districts and schools looking to improve their programs, officials said.
They include information on overcoming cultural, religious or language factors that interfere with physical education, such as children not being able to wear more revealing clothing; shorts or short-sleeved shirts.
To that end, the district has applied and received a state grant that pays for full-time, roving physical education teachers. It also has partnered with the fledgling Excellence Through Exercise Foundation, which will hold a fundraiser this weekend to benefit East Whittier's physical education programs.
Franklin said the new physical education framework is only a guideline for schools, not a mandate. Currently, the state conducts physical-fitness testing only for students in fifth, seventh and ninth grades.
Officials at Little Lake City School District in Santa Fe Springs have already revamped their food offerings and built new fitness centers for middle school physical education classes.
They also trained elementary school teachers in a new program last year that uses only a few pieces of equipment: Hula Hoops, jump ropes, cones and balls, to keep youths moving and entertained.


Well here I am, sitting in my lovely room (seriously lovely. what a treat to be in this nice of a hotel...). Since my post yesterday I have decided to stay the entire week and not drive back Friday, just to turn around and come back Sunday. Turns out that Nick will be home until at least Tuesday, and all that driving just seems crazy, especially if I will see him when I get back. This does mean that I have settled in for a full week. All of a sudden this really seems like a long trip!
I showed up in the main lab, which is an hour and a half from my lab,to pick up my coworker Megan. To my horror, she seemed to have fit an entire weeks work of clothes into the small size suitcase. That's right people. The carry-on. I myself brought the large suitcase, the briefcase with the laptop, the additional large tote full of bathroom stuff...you know, the bare essentials for a week away from home. I tried to explain to her that I needed all that room because I needed big clothes due to the cold weather up here. This held little water seeing as how were heading to the same location...I also added that I had a DVD player, and lots of DVD's in there, along with two books, my Nintindo DS, my ipod dock...you know... still sticking with essentials...but this maybe didn't really help me either. She may think I am a touch odd...Oh well.
Once we went to the lab and got our basic plans for the week worked out, we went to our rooms to get settled. The we went out to dinner with a couple of people from lab at a perfect little deep dish pizza place...one of those places you could only find in Chicago. This heavenly little place called Uno's. What? What's that? I can't hear you. It was one of a kind damn it. ONE OF A KIND!!
Anyway, that is it for the night. We are actually a little outside the city, so I haven't seen the big lights yet. I will be taking the train in tomorrow after work to have dinner with my friend Nancy. Then I might actually have so interesting stories and pictures. For now, I will leave you with this lovely self portrait... Now don't I look warm? I had plans to take lots of pictures today for this post. This is the one right before I left town. It is the only one on the camera thus far...my bad.
1. Glad you are having a good time. It's nice to get away, even if it's just for work.
2. "My bad" is still OK?? I just wrote a blog post about my students hazing me for using that expression!!


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Best Buy's Diamond as Big as the Ritz
By Denny Hatch
Is Touchy-Feely Customer Research the Way to Go?
March 23, 2006: Vol. 2, Issue No. 23
Best Buy thinks outside the big box
In several concept stores located in the Midwest, Best Buy is gathering data about consumer behavior in retail outlets that are quite different from the "big box" stores normally associated with America's largest consumer electronics retailer. The new stores, with names like Eq-life, Studio d and Escape, are helping Best Buy understand how to improve the shopping experience of a new class of technology buyers.
—Tom Krazit, C/Netnews.com, March 21, 2006
Brad Anderson is CEO of Best Buy, the $28 billion consumer electronics and appliance behemoth with more than 700 big box retail stores.
At a Columbia University Retailing Leadership class, Anderson was asked how he viewed the threat of a smaller competitor, such as Tweeter, cutting into his share of market.
"With abject fear," Anderson said.
Anderson said that retailing was unlike a pharmaceutical company that owns patents and can operate under that protection. Retailers do nothing that cannot be copied, which means they have to continuously change and improve to keep ahead of the competition.
Brad Anderson is personally hot-wired to the academic and experimental community. In the Oct. 18, 2005, edition of this publication, I described how Anderson hired as a consultant Columbia Business School professor, Larry Seldon, author of "Angel Customers and Demon Customers: Discover Which Is Which and Turbo-Charge Your Stock."
Using Seldon's philosophy, Anderson trashed the lower quintile of his customer base. This is the legion of unprofitable shopaholics who buy only the loss leaders and resell them on eBay and/or buy merchandise to collect the rebates and then return the merchandise—the chiselers and shysters with time on their hands, who professor Seldon refers to as "devils."
Alan Wolf
Caroline Kennedy
David Mann
Ed Schlossberg
Larry Seldon
Matthew Moore
Olufsen
E T Denny Hatch Author's page
Denny Hatch is the author of six books on marketing and four novels, and is a direct marketing writer, designer and consultant. His latest book is "Write Everything Right!" Visit him at dennyhatch.com.


Tri - fan barrage firing thick comets into the sky, with huge Crossette bursts. A true Pro-effect firework.
Browse these categories as well: Category 3 Fireworks, Celtic Fireworks, Midi Barrages ( £19 - £49.00 ), Lower Noise Fireworks NO BANGS..!


Nokia could launch a smartphone with 5 ZEISS cameras?
Home / leaks / mobile / nokia / Nokia could launch a smartphone with 5 ZEISS cameras?
Based on a new report from China, an alleged upcoming Nokia flagship smartphone with a total of five (5) cameras was photographed.
The image showed that it has a TA-1094 model number. According to rumors, it could be the Nokia 9 or Nokia 10.
It has a pretty weird camera setup at the back which reminds us of the Light smartphone prototype with multiple cameras.
Anyway, the Nokia phone with the TA-1094 model number has a total of five ZEISS branded cameras. It also has a dual-tone LED flash at left and an unknown autofocus system at right.
We do not know the functions of those five cameras yet though. But, we can expect some of those lenses to have different functions like telephoto for zoom, monochrome for black and white images, color sensor, depth (background blur), wide-angle, and multiple aperture.
We can also expect them to simultaneously work and then stitch images into one big photo.
Recently, HMD Global acquired PureView, a known camera tech which could improve the camera performance of upcoming Nokia devices.


As a golfer, the tradition of staying at The Lodge while overlooking the most famous finishing hole in the game is a proud rite of passage. And as a relaxed guest, the striking scenery is only rivaled by our sincere dedication to service, and our commitment to making your trip a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Start planning a trip youll never forget today.


During the fourth year, there are multiple class sessions to discuss the application process. Also, there's a great deal of information posted here on our website to guide you. Remember that there are several types of application and match services. The systems you will use are determined by the specialty to which you are applying. You might have to use more than one type of application or match system.
Get links to the application services you'll need starting in the summer of the M4 year.
Learn about application requirements, including the Medical Student Performance Evaluation, letters of recommendation and medical school transcripts and photographs.
Learn more about "matching programs," register for a service and review previous match results.
Find answers to common questions about the residency process.
The Association of American Medical Colleges has produced a new, comprehensive guide for applicants to U.S. residency programs. "Roadmap to Residency: From Application to the Match and Beyond" describes the policies, procedures and practices associated with residency application and is useful for both U.S. and non-U.S. medical school students and graduates.


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Advanced Journalistic Writing
Peter Tarr
Exactly half a century ago, a well respected British scientist who was also a man of letters gave a lecture that still reverberates. C. P. Snow's "The Two Cultures" evoked a dangerous split between scientific and literary cultures. At the height of the Cold War, this spectacular failure to communicate seemed to Snow to threaten Western preeminence. Two decades after communism's collapse, the "two cultures" thesis remains pertinent, albeit in dramatically new contexts. An entirely new era of biomedicine and biotechnology has dawned, but not, by any accounting, an equally new biopolitics or bioethics. Personalized genomes, stem cell research, synthetic life forms, biomimetics, and a host of other technologies place the state of the art far out ahead of popular understanding, and its ethical implications have not been adequately explored either by scientists or those who hold political power. In other realms, the science/society point of intersection is no better charted: the impact of digitization on reading habits and the future of libraries and "old media" (newspapers and magazines); implications of devoting food crops to biofuels; the role of expertise in the adjudication of policy debates on global warming; "geoengineering" and the management of planetary resources in a world still riven by nationalism.
In our writing workshop, we will focus on producing an extended journalistic work of publication quality that probes some aspect of the often uneasy interface between science or scientific ideas and social and political issues. As in the companion version of the course given in the Spring, this section will devote considerable attention to the problem lay writers face in building relationships with scientists. Each student will be responsible for devising a realistic strategy for reporting a story of their own choosing whose writing will occupy about half the term.


Luxury Chamber Orlando and guests enjoyed a fine evening of networking and fundraising at Morton's The Steakhouse. Notables at the event included: Khalilah Camacho-Ali, Angela McCloskey, Donna Lorman, Matt Barrett, Gregg Foxx, Philomena Tengzelius, Sonia Narvaez, Sotheby's Managing Broker Paul Fedynich, Hudson's Luxury Interior's Kimberly Mexicotte, Valerie K. Fairchild and Dr. Phillips Chamber President Maggie Rosario. Guests enjoyed complimentary Lamborghini Champagne courtesy of Luxury Chamber member Ron Goldberg as well as some quality signature bar bite hors d'oeuvres.
The event marks many firsts for Luxury Chamber Orlando: The second event yet the first with a cover charge and Gary Bonacci goes down in history as the first to ever purchase a ticket to one of our events. Member Angela McCloskey was the first to become a member, Hunter Vision was the founding charity and they had a table at the event and will be sponsoring more events in the future, ASGO - Autism Society of Greater Orlando was the first ever charity benefactor and we look forward to working together with them on future projects including ASGO 2nd Annual Au-Some Awards Ceremony on September 12th 2018 at Mercedes Benz of Orlando-Maitland.


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Federal Courts/
U.S. Fifth Circuit/
ERISA Death Benefits Denied Lowe's Employee Due to 'Work Trip'
By Brett Snider, Esq. on September 26, 2013 | Last updated on March 21, 2019
A Lowe's employee was properly denied ERISA benefits on her death because of an insurance administrator's interpretation of her plan's coverage of work trips.
In a very sad case before the Fifth Circuit, Elizabeth Porter died in 2008 when a car hit hers head-on, killing herself and her unborn child. Porter had insurance benefits through her employer, Lowe's, but the company refused to pay those benefits to her husband because Porter had died while going to and from work.
The Fifth Circuit sided with the insurance administrator in Porter v. Lowe's Companies, finding that despite the gruesome facts, the decision was reasonable enough.
Porter's Employee Insurance Policy
Porter's policy in question was the Business Travel Accident Insurance Plan ("Plan"), one that covered employees like Porter for injury or death when on business for Lowe's during a "bonafide trip." The policy also explicitly notes that injuries during "travel to and from work" are not included.
Here's where the case gets tricky: Porter was technically on her way back to Lowe's, but she wasn't "going to work." She was responding to a security alarm that went off at the store. She was actually headed home, then turned around to respond to the alarm when she was hit and killed by a reckless driver.
The admin for the Plan resolved this ambiguity by deciding that the terms excluded Porter's death, which prompted Porter's husband to sue in federal district court under the Employment Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).
The district court ruled that the denial of benefits was an abuse of discretion, and the Fifth Circuit reviewed the case under the same standard.
Denial Not Abuse of Discretion
The Plan administrator's decision was based on the evidence that Porter's conduct leading up to the accident didn't qualify her dependents for coverage. The Fifth Circuit reviewed that decision for abuse of discretion.
Meeting this standard is a fairly low bar, and the Fifth Circuit agreed that this decision was not arbitrary or capricious and was based on substantial evidence.
There was a 1975 case on point, involving someone killed while picking up a coworker for company business. But the Fifth Circuit brushed aside this case as non-instructive because the policy language was different.
With no other compelling evidence or case law opposing the Plan administrator's decision, the Porter court was free to sidestep any determination of the coverage decision's legal merits and determine it was not an abuse of discretion.
While denying a widower benefits is always a bummer, the policy's language did allow for a less-than-generous interpretation of coverage. Choosing the less crowd-pleasing option, in the Fifth Circuit's opinion, was not an abuse of discretion.
Equitable Rules Cannot Override Clear Terms of ERISA Plan (FindLaw's In House)
Stock Drop and Roll: Citigroup, McGraw-Hill Defeat ERISA Claims (FindLaw's U.S. Second Circuit Blog)
Federal Rules of Procedure Trump Justice in ERISA Appeal (FindLaw's U.S. Fifth Circuit Blog)
Estate May Sue ERISA 401(k) Beneficiary for Proceeds (FindLaw's U.S. Third Circuit Blog)


The EuroPython conference was in my home town, Vilnius, this year. The conference is over now, but the sprints will continue until Saturday.
Sadly, none of them have the slides available for download yet.
The lightning talks were also very interesting and entertaining (have you seen the Grok trailer?).