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Home » St. Vincent: All-Star Dropout
more... Artists • Guitarists • Indie-Rock • November 2011 • St. Vincent
St. Vincent: All-Star Dropout
Shawn Hammond
Annie Clark at the September 13, 2011, record-release party for Strange
Mercy in Hollywood. Photo by Danny Duarte
It's pretty rare for a bona fide guitar-nut—we're talking Berklee College of Music-level guitar-a-holic—to rack up interviews on NPR, rave reviews from indie music mags like NME and Pitchfork, and guest appearances on the IFC's hit comedy Portlandia. But Annie Clark, the singer/guitarist who performs under the name St. Vincent, isn't your typical guitar geek. In fact, she's sort of a guitar hero for people who hate the whole idea of guitar-hero worship.
If that last statement—as well as the revelation that Clark dropped out of Berklee in her third year—inspires you to roll your eyes and start skipping to the next feature faster than you can mutter, "Oh, she's one of those artsy 'indie' guitarists," you owe it to yourself to visit YouTube and check out her harmonically captivating and ultra-badass playing first. Go ahead—we'll wait.
Back? Okay, now that you've witnessed Ms. Clark and her vintage Harmony Bobkat conjuring mesmerizing hammer-on riffs and corpulent 6-string glory, let's delve into the delicious details. Like how her uncle, Tuck Andress (from the jazz duo Tuck & Patti), inspired her to consider a career in music. Or how the multi-instrumentalist's love of harmony, Steely Dan, and Iron Maiden culminated in the rich compositional tapestry that has made this 29-year-old from Dallas, Texas, one of the most talked-about renaissance women in modern music. Or how her new album, Strange Mercy, was at No. 19 on the US charts at press time.
We recently spoke to Clark about all these things, as well as her reasons for quitting music school, her complex-yet-liberating MIDI-controlled pedalboard, and her thoughts on guitardom's gender issues.
What first got you into playing guitar?
I was obsessed with it from a pretty young age. I was, like, 5 years old and saw La Bamba—the Ritchie Valens story—and I was captivated by that, and then I just started playing when I was 12. My uncle is an amazing guitar player, and we had some of his old guitars around. I was big into classic rock—Jethro Tull and these more guitar-y bands—and I thought, "I want to do that—I want to know how they're getting those sounds."
You probably get questions about Tuck all the time, but how instrumental was he in you getting hooked on guitar?
They were on tour forever—from, like, '88 to '96. So, he was this distant figure who I didn't see very often but who was a famous musician. I'd see him maybe once every two years, but I think even just having his spectral presence around was really powerful, because I saw him and thought, "Oh, I could do that."
Who were some of the first guitarists that you remember really getting into?
Probably the really obvious ones—Hendrix … the Doors … I really liked Jethro Tull … I really, really, really loved Steely Dan. To have that kind of harmony in your ears from a really young age—I mean, Steely Dan was my favorite band from age 8 until … well, I just saw them two nights ago here in New York!
Were you more into the bands as a whole or the guitar playing?
I was into the bands as a whole. I was really into lyrics and melodies. But some of the solos on the Steely Dan records are rock-solid. Denny Dias and Larry Carlton…that stuff is great.
Premier Guitar editorial director Shawn Hammond oversees planning, management, and execution of all PG articles, videos, audio, and social-media activity. He has a degree in journalism from Brigham Young University, and a long history in guitar journalism predating his tenure at PG.
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North Korea told UN agencies on Tuesday it plans to launch a satellite as early as next week, a move that could advance its long-range missile technology.
SEOUL / WASHINGTON — North Korea told UN agencies on Tuesday it plans to launch a satellite as early as next week, a move that could advance the country's long-range missile technology after its fourth nuclear test on Jan. 6.
Pyongyang has said it has a sovereign right to pursue a space program by launching rockets, although the United States and other governments worry that such launches are missile tests in disguise.
"We have received information from DPRK regarding the launch of earth observation satellite 'Kwangmyongsong' between 8-25 February," a spokeswoman for the International Maritime Organization, a UN agency, told Reuters by email.
The International Telecommunication Union, another UN agency, told Reuters North Korea had informed it on Tuesday of plans to launch a satellite with a functional duration of four years, in a non-geostationary orbit.
It said the information provided by North Korea, whose official name is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, was incomplete, and that it was seeking more details.
US officials said last week that North Korea was believed to be making preparations for a test launch of a long-range rocket, after activity at its test site was observed by satellite.
The White House said on Tuesday that any satellite launch by North Korea would be viewed as "another destabilizing provocation." US Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Russel, the senior US diplomat for East Asia, told reporters it "argues even more strongly" for tougher UN sanctions.
Russel said a launch, "using ballistic missile technology," would be an "egregious violation" of North Korea's international obligations.
"Our diplomats are in deep discussion in New York about how to tighten sanctions, how to respond to violations," he said.
Earlier on Tuesday, China's envoy for the North Korean nuclear issue arrived in the capital Pyongyang, the North's KCNA news agency reported.
North Korea last launched a long-range rocket in December 2012, sending an object it described as a communications satellite into orbit.
Western and Asian experts have said that launch was part of an effort to build an intercontinental ballistic missile.
North Korea has shown off two versions of a ballistic missile resembling a type that could reach the US West Coast, but there is no evidence the missiles have been tested.
Pyongyang is also seen to be working to miniaturize a nuclear warhead to mount on a missile, but many experts say it is some time away from perfecting such technology.
North Korea said it successfully tested a hydrogen bomb last month but this was met with skepticism by US and South Korean officials and nuclear experts. They said the blast was too small for it to have been a full-fledged hydrogen bomb.


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Una aleta és qualsevol dels apèndixs membranosos mitjançant els quals es mouen dins l'aigua els peixos i altres animals aquàtics. N'hi ha de diferents tipus, i varien en morfologia segons l'animal o la zona d'aquest en què es trobin. Poden ser imparelles o parelles; les primeres se situen en el pla sagital del cos (l'aleta dorsal, l'anal i la caudal o cua), i les segones són soldades a les cintures escapular i pelviana (aletes pectorals i pelvianes).

Tot i això, són estructures anàlogues en els animals aquàtics (tenen la mateixa funció), i la majoria homòlogues (tenen el mateix origen embrionari), encara que aquesta afirmació necessitaria un aprofundiment, perquè cada espècie té les seves característiques particulars, que poden ser excepcions dins la regla general.

En els peixos ossis, la majoria de les aletes poden tenir espines o radis. Aquests són l'estructura que els dona suport, i poden ser rígids o espinosos (com en bona part de les aletes dorsals), formats per uns sola peça, o bé tous (com en la major part de les aletes anals), formats per petits segments. Les espines, al seu torn, tenen una varietat de funcions; mentre en els siluriformes s'utilitzen com a forma de defensa i molts d'aquests animals tenen la capacitat de dirigir les seves espines enfora, en els balístids, en canvi, les espines són utilitzades per quedar-se travats en esquerdes i evitar ser trets.

Galeria d'imatges

Referències

Anatomia dels peixos

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Our local Renaissance Faire was this past July. I didn't really sew anything for it this year, aside from adding some buttonholes to a jerkin and making our guild favors. You see, I made the mistake of poopooing the favors in progress. In return the task became mine.
What is a Favor, you ask? It's a little bit of frippery, a token of affection, participation, award or just-because decoration to wear on your costume. Usually they have a pin stitched to the back or a boutonnière pin is used to secure it to your bodice, jerkin or hat. They're often made of bits of ribbon, beads, buttons, bone, metal charms, feathers, leather, etc. Usually anything natural.
In the end I made something like 20-22 favors using wired ribbon, silky ribbon, grosgrain ribbon, ribbon woven with a Celtic knotwork pattern, fancy multicolored ribbon, brass and other metal charms, vintage buttons, and pin backings.
The outer ones are the fancy ones for the Order of the Nail (build crew). Metal charms, fancy ribbon and grosgrain ribbon. I think they look like steampunk military medals. The center is the basic favor, which I made about a dozen of for those who put in the work. Wired edge ribbon pleated in small groups with a vintage metal button.
It's a little blurry, but this one is my favorite. It's a special one for the Order of the Thimble (sewing group), for a young man who decided to learn to sew his own costume. And he did. It's brass and sorta heavy, so that's a brass lobster clasp at the top. Not very Renaissance, definitely more steampunk.
Thread Stitching the seams of a bodice with tabs.


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Few companies are able to bring this kind of rapid breakthrough innovation from concept to market success. But Stanley Black & Decker has consistently developed winning products for years, and has been doing so while spending its R&D dollars more efficiently than its industry peers. In this year's Global Innovation 1000 study — our annual analysis of the 1,000 publicly held companies that spend the most on research and development (R&D) — we look at a subset of companies like Stanley that we call "high-leverage innovators." These are companies that outperformed their industry groups on seven key measures of financial success for the previous five years, while at the same time spending less on R&D as a percentage of sales.
Achieving high performance is difficult in any given year, and remarkably difficult to sustain. But the success of these high-leverage innovators reaffirms a finding of our study that has held true over time: There is no long-term correlation between the amount of money a company spends on its innovation efforts and its overall financial performance. Instead, what matters is how companies use that money and other resources to create products and services that connect with their customers. Also important is the quality of companies' talent, processes, and decision making.
Who Are the Top Innovators?
Note: The high-leverage innovator analysis was performed for the periods of 2002–07, 2007–12, and 2012–17. Recent events or a change in financial status can impact the ratings.
R&D spending among the Global Innovation 1000 overall increased 11.4 percent in 2018, to a record high of $782 billion, reflecting R&D spending increases in all regions and nearly all industries (see "Profiling the Global Innovation 1000"). If we carve out the high-leverage innovators, we see that the 88 companies that earned that classification in 2017 had sales growth 2.6 times as high as other companies on the Global Innovation 1000 list from 2012 to 2017 and growth in market capitalization 2.9 times as high, while their R&D intensity (R&D expenditures as a percentage of sales) was lower than their industry median. These high-leverage innovators can be found in all regions and industries. They include household brands such as Apple, Adidas, and Stanley Black & Decker, and companies that may be less familiar to readers, such as Amadeus IT Group, a global provider of travel solutions and software based in Spain, and DIC Corporation, a Japan-based specialty chemicals company.
The companies in the Global Innovation 1000 spent US$782 billion on R&D in 2018. This represented record-high spending, and an increase of 11.4 percent over 2017. Year-on-year growth in 2018 was nearly four times as high as growth between 2016 and 2017, when spending increased by 3.2 percent. Revenues for the Global Innovation 1000 also increased by 11.4 percent, leaving R&D intensity, or innovation spending as a percentage of revenue, unchanged from 2017 (at 4.5 percent) and maintaining the 14-year high (see "R&D and Revenue").
Total R&D spending by the top 20 companies was $214.5 billion, or 27.4 percent of the total spending by the Global Innovation 1000. For the second year in a row, Amazon led the top 20 list, with spending of $22.6 billion — up a massive 40.6 percent from 2017. It was followed, as was also the case last year, by Alphabet, with R&D expenditures of $16.2 billion (see "The Top 20 R&D Spenders"). Facebook posted the biggest climb on the top 20 list, up six places from its 2017 position to number 14. Sanofi and Siemens rejoined the list this year, after falling outside the top 20 in 2016 and 2012, respectively. Four industries — software and Internet, auto, healthcare, and computing and electronics — accounted for more than 97 percent of the top 20's R&D spending.
Taking a broad look at industry spending, with the exception of aerospace and defense and chemicals and energy, all industries increased their R&D spending in 2018. R&D spending rose in the four industries that accounted for 76 percent of total R&D spending — computing and electronics, healthcare, auto, and software and Internet, the same four that dominate the top 20. But the spending growth trajectories for these industries have shifted.
Spending had been flat for more than five years in the computing and electronics industry up to 2017, and we predicted in last year's study that healthcare would likely take the number one spot in 2018. Instead, a $13 billion R&D spending surge in computing and electronics — almost a third of which was attributable to increased spending at Samsung and Apple — kept computing and electronics companies on top, despite continued growth in healthcare.
Software and Internet companies, whose research and development spending has been rising sharply for several years, similarly seemed poised to surpass auto companies' spending in 2018. Instead, R&D spending in the auto sector, likely focused on electronics, software, and autonomous vehicles, jumped $16 billion. That was a 15.2 percent year-over-year increase, and it kept auto in third place. The growth trajectory of software and Internet companies, however, continues to suggest they will rise higher on the list (see "R&D Spending by Industry").
Companies headquartered in all regions increased their R&D spending in 2018 (see "R&D Spending by Region"), but the most vibrant innovation investment was in China and Europe. Chinese companies led in R&D spending increases by a wide margin, up 34.4 percent. They also registered the biggest increase (16 percent) in the number of companies on the Global Innovation 1000 list (see "China's R&D Success Story"). European companies were second in both R&D spending growth (14 percent) and gains in the number of entries in the Global Innovation 1000 (7 percent).
North American, Japanese, and "rest of world" companies all had R&D spending growth in the single digits, and all three regions saw declines in the number of companies on the list. North America did retain the lead in the number of innovators in several sectors, including software and Internet companies (61 percent), healthcare (49 percent), aerospace and defense (47 percent), and computing and electronics (38 percent) (see "The Global Sector Spending Breakdown").
R&D spending among the Global Innovation 1000 overall increased 11.4 percent in 2018, to a record high of $782 billion.
We tailored our analysis this year to determine what sets high-leverage innovators apart from their competitors, interviewing innovation leaders and studying the innovation programs at a number of companies on the list. We also surveyed a sample of leaders and managers — 869 in all — to gain insights about where they are focusing their innovation efforts, how their innovation approaches are changing, what different innovation models they are pursuing, and how well they are succeeding. We separated out those companies that reported they were outperforming their competitors in terms of growth and profitability, and noted how their innovation practices contrasted with those that reported growth similar to or slower than that of their peers.
Our analysis reveals that both the high-leverage innovators and the larger universe of companies that report relative high performance have six key characteristics. The first five are widely understood, though executed to varying degrees. The sixth is something that only the best innovators accomplish.
1. They closely align innovation strategy with business strategy.
2. They create company-wide cultural support for innovation.
3. Their top leadership is highly involved with the innovation program.
4. They base innovation on direct insights from end-users.
5. They rigorously control project selection early in the innovation process.
6. They excel at each of these first five characteristics and have been able to integrate them to create unique customer experiences that can transform their market.
For companies looking to improve the reach and results of their R&D investment, examining the strategies of those that consistently perform at the top of their game offers invaluable insight.
We first conducted the high-leverage innovator analysis in 2006, finding 94 companies that fit the criteria, and then created the list again in 2007, identifying 118. For this year's study (when we found 88 such companies), we compared the list across three years — 2007, 2012, and 2017 — to provide a 15-year performance window (each list draws on the previous five years of data). Only two companies qualified as high-leverage innovators in all three years: Stanley Black & Decker and Apple — Silicon Valley's poster child for innovation excellence and the perennial leader of our "10 Most Innovative Companies" list.
After ceding its lead position to Alphabet in 2017, Apple was once again selected by our Global Innovation 1000 survey respondents as the most innovative company in 2018 (see "The 10 Most Innovative Companies"). Apple also became the first publicly listed U.S. company in history to achieve a US$1 trillion market capitalization in 2018. We would argue that it's not a coincidence: What's driven Apple's commercial and financial success, after all, is its ability to design and develop distinctive new products and services and bring them to market successfully.
Amazon — which in September 2018 became the second U.S. company to cross the trillion-dollar value mark — was first voted onto the list by respondents to our 2012 survey, appearing in 10th place. It has climbed ever higher by dominating the booming e-commerce sector and developing its successful cloud computing business, Amazon Web Services. The company, which was ranked the second-most innovative company in 2018, also led the list of the biggest R&D spenders this year, with innovation outlays of $22.6 billion — a year-over-year increase of 40.6 percent. Alphabet, number three on this year's 10 Most Innovative Companies list, was second in spending, with outlays of $16.2 billion.
But innovation, as we've long argued, is not primarily a reflection of how much you spend. Apple spent less in 2018 on R&D as a percentage of sales than eight of the other nine companies selected by respondents as the most innovative — a mere 5.1 percent of sales, compared with 20.9 percent for Intel, 19.1 percent for Facebook, 14.6 percent for Alphabet, and 12.7 percent for Amazon. (General Electric had the lowest R&D intensity, at 4.0 percent.) Apple was also the only company from the 2017 high-leverage innovator list to be selected by survey respondents as being among the most innovative. Adidas, another 2017 high-leverage innovator, fell just outside the top 10 (number 11).
Comparing financial metrics, the 10 most innovative companies outperformed the 10 biggest R&D spenders on revenue growth, gross margin, and market cap growth (see "Innovating vs. Spending").
One of the notable changes to the high-leverage innovator list since its earlier iterations has been the dramatic rise of companies headquartered in China, from 3 percent of the total in 2007 to 17 percent in 2017 — a net increase of more than 400 percent (see "China's R&D Success Story"). The number of high-leverage innovators in Europe also increased significantly, from representing 18 percent of the total number in 2007 to representing 30 percent in 2017. Meanwhile, the number of high-leverage innovators fell 45 percent for North American companies, 8 percent for Japanese companies, and 23 percent for the "rest of world" countries.
When we first published the Global Innovation 1000 study in 2005, only eight companies on the list were headquartered in China, accounting for a negligible amount of R&D spending. In 2018, 145 Chinese companies were among the top 1,000 spenders, and their innovation spending increased 34.4 percent over 2017 — or nearly three times the overall rate of increase among the Global Innovation 1000 between 2017 and 2018. R&D spending by Chinese companies is concentrated (representing 86 percent of total spending) in industrials — where China has a larger share of Global Innovation 1000 companies than any other region — software and Internet, auto, and computing and electronics.
Chinese companies also carved out a sizable stake of the high-leverage innovator list, making up 17 percent of this group in 2017, compared with 3 percent in 2007 — a net increase of more than 400 percent. Notably, Europe was the only other region for which the number of high-leverage innovators increased; North America, Japan, and the "rest of world" category all saw declines (see "2017 High-Leverage Innovators").
One reason for China's rise as an R&D leader is simply the vibrancy of the country's economy in the 21st century. China's GDP has expanded at rates not seen in most other regions for many decades. The Chinese government has also consistently made R&D a top agenda item for the five-year plans that set the economy's direction. Business sectors singled out for innovation investment and incentives in China's current five-year plan include new-energy automotive, high-end robotics, next-generation information technology, and advanced medical equipment. Recently, trade tensions with the U.S. have led the Chinese government to spur innovation in semiconductors — making multibillion-dollar investments in startups to ensure that China's technology companies are not dependent on U.S. suppliers.
Another critical factor underlying China's R&D rise reflects Chinese companies' focus on some of the innovation success factors that this year's study identifies. In our 2018 survey, Chinese companies reported an alignment of innovation and business strategy that was better than those in other regions: For example, 78 percent of Chinese companies said their strategies were highly or closely aligned, as compared with 62 percent for North American companies (see "Strategy Alignment by Region"). Companies headquartered in China lead other regions by similar margins on indicators such as their executive team's involvement in innovation strategy and company-wide cultural support for innovation programs.
We also found that the need seeker strategy is a more prevalent innovation model in China than in other regions (44 percent among companies headquartered in China, versus 34 percent for all companies in our survey). The need seeker model — which previous research found was also most prevalent among Silicon Valley innovators (pdf) — is the most common model followed by companies that report higher revenue growth and profitability than their industry peers.
Patrick Hui is a partner with PwC China, based in Shenzhen and Hong Kong. He works with multinational corporations and public organizations to conduct large-scale operations transformations, improve their supply chain operations, and enhance their product innovation capabilities.
Among industries, the number of high-leverage innovators rose between 2007 and 2017 in telecommunications, consumer goods, healthcare, industrials, autos, and aerospace and defense, while the numbers fell in chemicals and energy, computing and electronics, and software and Internet. Looking at all three years, in 2007 the industry with the largest presence on the list was computing and electronics, in 2012 it was computing and electronics and healthcare (tied), and in 2017 it was healthcare.
High-leverage innovators had operating and gross margins similar to those of other Global Innovation 1000 companies for the five years ending in 2017, but significantly outperformed them on five other financial metrics, including gross profit growth (which for high-leverage innovators was 2.1 times as high as that of other companies) and market capitalization growth (2.9 times as high) (see "High-Leverage Innovator Performance Index").
During the three five-year periods ending in 2007, 2012, and 2017, high-leverage innovators' relative outperformance decreased on two key measures — gross profit growth and operating income growth — although relative total shareholder returns increased slightly. This likely reflects a general improvement in the overall performance of the Global Innovation 1000 companies over time. But the data also reveals a startling fact: The high-leverage innovators vastly outperformed other companies in the 2007–12 period, which spans the last major business downturn and the first years of the current expansion. This suggests that during the Great Recession, high-leverage innovators recovered more quickly and robustly. In fact, they blew the doors off the competition in gross profit growth (which was 6.6 times as high as that of other companies), operating income growth (7.0 times as high), and total shareholder returns, which were 13.4 times those of the rest of the companies in the Global Innovation 1000 (see "High-Leverage Innovator Performance, 2007–17").
In analyzing our survey respondents' answers to questions about innovation practices and strategies, we found sharp differences between companies reporting fast revenue growth (43 percent of respondents) and those reporting similar or less success than their peers (48 percent said they were growing at the same rate as their peers and 9 percent said they were growing more slowly). Moreover, survey respondents who reported that their companies were outperforming their competitors have many of the same approaches and attitudes toward innovation that the high-leverage innovators exemplify.
Strategic alignment. Respondents who reported that their companies were outperforming their industry groups were far more likely to report strategic alignment. Of that group, 77 percent said their innovation strategies were highly or closely aligned with their business strategies, compared with 54 percent of respondents who reported growth typical of their peers, and 32 percent of respondents who reported slower growth. Similar differences hold true for companies that reported higher profitability.
We also found differences when it came to strategic alignment among the three innovation models into which we have segmented companies over the past 11 years: Need Seekers, Market Readers, and Technology Drivers. In our survey this year, need seekers made up 34 percent of total respondents. (Note: Figures have been rounded.) These companies engage customers directly to generate new ideas, then develop original products and services and get them to market first. Market readers, accounting for 23 percent of our respondents, are fast followers. They typically generate ideas by closely monitoring their markets, customers, and competitors, focusing largely on creating value through incremental innovations to current products. Technology drivers, 44 percent of our respondents, depend heavily on their internal technological expertise to develop new products and services, driving both breakthrough innovation and incremental change, in hopes of meeting the known and unknown needs of their customers via new technology.
It is helpful to consider the breakdown of responses by innovation model, given need seekers' own perception of relative success: 65 percent of need seekers report they have higher profitability than their peers, as compared with 38 percent of market readers and 43 percent of technology drivers. And need seekers also report higher revenue growth (59 percent) than market readers (35 percent) and technology drivers (36 percent). It is significant, then, that 84 percent of need seekers say their innovation and business strategies are closely aligned, whereas this is true for only 48 percent of market readers and 53 percent of technology drivers (see "Need Seekers Embrace Strategic Alignment").
At DIC, a Japan-based global manufacturer of printing inks, organic pigments, and synthetic resins, top management has also moved in recent years to align the company's R&D activities more closely with its business strategies. DIC splits R&D operations into two divisions. The direct-to-customer technology division, which focuses on incremental innovation, is always in sync with the business strategy and works closely with the business units. "The organization of these activities is quite closely linked," says Kiyotaka Kawashima, executive officer and general manager of R&D. "The budget control and administration are both done by the business units, and they approve the themes of technology and R&D." A separate division, which focuses on basic innovation, has also been more closely aligned with the business strategy in recent years, but has more leeway in deciding which projects to pursue.
Cultural support. Seventy-one percent of respondents who reported that their company's revenues were growing faster than competitors' revenues said their corporate culture was highly or very aligned with their innovation strategy, compared with 53 percent of companies that reported the same growth as competitors, and 33 percent for companies that reported slower growth. The differentials on cultural alignment were similar for companies that reported higher profitability.
We also found differences in cultural support by innovation model. Need seekers are far better at turning their corporate culture to their advantage: 82 percent said their organization's culture was highly supportive of the innovation strategy, compared with 48 percent for market readers and 47 percent for tech drivers.
Amadeus IT is focused on building cultural support across its 45 locations worldwide (the company's main R&D hubs are in France, Germany, India, the U.K., and the U.S.). "We are made up of people who have a great appetite for new things, for exciting technology, and for new opportunities," says Mesnage. Innovation teams are very multicultural, she adds, "which creates a great ground for creativity and for exchanging different perspectives." One of the practices Amadeus has adopted is creating a system of innovation champions within its R&D and business units, whose role is to promote and foster the company's innovation approach at their site, and to encourage people to submit ideas — and then collect those ideas to make sure they're visible to the rest of the organization.
Executive involvement. Survey respondents reporting higher revenue growth than competitors were much more likely to say their company's executive team was closely involved with the R&D program — 78 percent said their executive team was highly or closely aligned with R&D investment and strategy, compared with 62 percent for same-growth companies, and 53 percent for slower-growth companies.
Among innovation models, most need seekers reported that their leadership teams were plugged into their innovation programs: 84 percent of need seekers reported that their executive team was highly involved in decision making regarding R&D investment and strategy, compared with 63 percent of market readers and 57 percent of tech drivers.
All the high-leverage innovators we interviewed or analyzed said their executive teams were highly aligned with their innovation programs. Stanley Black & Decker is a case in point.
At Apple, innovation has always been a top executive-team agenda item. It helps to start with a visionary founder (the late Steve Jobs), but Apple has also elevated innovation — and specifically, design — within the organization. Jony Ive, for example, who has run Apple's design studio since 1996, was named chief design officer in 2015. He reports directly to the CEO, and his responsibilities include the look and feel of Apple hardware, user interface, packaging, and major architectural projects such as Apple Park and Apple's retail stores, as well as new ideas and future initiatives.
Focus on customer insights. All of our survey respondents — those who reported their growth as faster, slower, or the same as that of their peers — value deep customer and consumer insights in their innovation programs. They ranked consumer and client insights as the most important capability during the ideation stage. However, interestingly, respondents who reported revenue growth that was the same as or slower than that of their peers believe they are most competent in this capability, whereas those who reported faster revenue growth ranked it as a capability in which they have the second-most competence. This may seem counter-intuitive, but actually makes a good deal of sense. Those who reported slow or similar growth compared with their peers' growth seem to think that they have done enough in this area. Those who reported fast growth see further opportunities for improvement.
Looking at the innovation models, need seekers — which rely heavily on customer insights — also chose customer insights as their second-best competency. But market readers and tech drivers chose it as their top competency. Overall, the top innovators seem to recognize that when it comes to gathering customer insights, no company is ever done learning.
DIC has focused on gaining direct customer insights into some of its most successful innovations. One of the company's main businesses is producing components and materials for the color filters of liquid crystal displays used in TVs, computers, and other devices — especially the red, blue, and green pigments they utilize. Technology in this field has advanced rapidly over the last 10 years, according to R&D general manager Kawashima, and typically a long supply chain distances the end-users from the process and materials providers such as DIC. The innovation team sought end-user feedback at a very early stage of development for its latest color filter innovations, and was able to incorporate the insights and utilize its production know-how to create pigments superior to its competitors' offerings. Today, DIC's market share for green pigment is 80 percent, and it is 50 percent for blue.
Direct end-user input played a major role in the turnaround of Adidas that began in the 1990s (see "How Adidas Found Its Second Wind," s+b, Aug. 24, 2015). A new management team set out to recapture the innovation mojo that had characterized the athletic footwear company during the leadership of the founder, Adi Dassler, who died in 1978. Dassler had started the company with a simple approach: He observed athletes, talked to them about their needs, and then experimented with novel ways of solving their problems. The new team renewed Dassler's approach, focused on performance-related design and industrial craftsmanship, and rebuilt Adidas's product line.
Adidas is now focusing on open source innovation and co-creation with customers to develop new ideas. Says CEO Kasper Rørsted: "We look at all kinds of collaborative creation as valuable — not only within our company, but with external partners as well. We are clear about the borders of our brand, because the brand is sacred to us. But we also recognize that if we have only the inspiration and creativity of people within our own organization, we miss a lot of what's going on in the marketplace. We articulate this point by saying that we need to be consumer-obsessed and to create the best product for the consumer. If that is your endgame, then you have to be able to confront sacred cows, and open yourself up to ideas that you might not have been open to in the past." Adidas's innovation approach has been key to its return to the ranks of top innovators and financial performers — and its ranking as one of our high-leverage innovators for the 2012–17 period.
Focus on project selection. When asked which stage of the innovation process — ideation, project selection, product development, or commercialization — was most important, 35 percent of our survey respondents chose project selection, followed by 31 percent for ideation. This "front end" of the innovation process is indeed critical to success. For one thing, most of the long-term costs of product development — as much as 70 percent, in our experience — are locked in at the ideation and project selection phases. And even great operational capabilities and business management cannot overcome poor decisions about which ideas to move into development and production.
Companies reporting relatively faster growth said they were most competent at the ideation and project selection stages, but they were more likely than those reporting slower growth to see even more potential improvement in their project selection capabilities: 42 percent of the fast-growth companies saw project selection as the stage with the most opportunity for improvement in their company, compared with 30 percent of same-growth companies and 31 percent of slower-growth companies.
Need seekers are also more eager to improve the project selection phase of the innovation process — 42 percent said this is the innovation stage where most improvement is needed, compared with 29 percent of market readers and 33 percent of tech drivers — while they put less emphasis on improving product development.
Amadeus IT has a similar focus. Innovation leaders track the portfolio precisely and have explicit criteria for project selection. "It's not like we create something and then commercialize it," says Mesnage, head of research. "It's all about making sure that we have a problem–solution fit — that we've really found a problem worth solving, that we have a solution in mind that can solve it, and that there is a business appetite, so that we know there are enough people willing to pay for the solution we are proposing." One recent product innovation that grew out of the company's revamped innovation approach is Amadeus Video Solutions, an interactive video player that enables travel providers to show consumers videos about travel destinations and pause the video at any time to see the location on a map; check and price travel, lodging, and activity options nearby; and make purchases without leaving the platform.
Not long ago, companies that aimed for innovation excellence might have felt it was sufficient to be good at most of the five characteristics discussed above, and best-in-class at one or two. But the standard for innovation excellence has been rising as businesses have become more competitive in the 21st century — which the Global Innovation 1000 studies have shown for many years. Companies that aspire to the highest level of innovation leadership today need to excel at every aspect of innovation. And they need to make them converge in a way that pushes the boundaries of market expectations and transforms the customer experience. Here we can revisit the two companies that made the high-leverage innovator list throughout the entire 15-year performance window of our analysis.
As noted earlier, Apple emphasizes the importance of cross-functional collaboration. When the company built its new $5 billion headquarters (completed in 2018), which has been likened to a spaceship, the architecture and building design revolved around encouraging creativity and innovation, in much the same way that some of the icons of innovation architecture — the mid-20th-century Bell Labs model of collaborative workspace and MIT Media Lab's technology research hub — were designed to encourage interdisciplinary interaction.
The consistent success of Apple, Stanley, and the other star performers on our high-leverage innovators list sets a performance goal that all innovators can aspire to reach. But the fact that relatively few of the Global Innovation 1000 companies are able to hit that target in a given year — let alone repeatedly over time — is a reminder that innovation excellence isn't something that can be bought by simply spending more on R&D. Rather, it's the result of painstaking attention to strategy, culture, executive involvement, customer insights, and execution throughout the stages of innovation, all with an eye toward creating differentiated experiences.
As it has in each of the past 13 editions of the Global Innovation 1000, this year Strategy&, PwC's strategy consulting business, identified the 1,000 public companies around the world that spent the most on R&D during the last fiscal year, as of June 30, 2018. To be included, companies had to make their R&D spending numbers public. Subsidiaries that were more than 50 percent owned by a single corporate parent during the period were excluded if their financial results were included in the parent company's financials. The Global Innovation 1000 companies collectively account for 40 percent of the world's R&D spending, from all sources, including corporate and government sources.
For each of the top 1,000 companies, we obtained from Capital IQ and Thomson Eikon the key financial metrics for 2013 through 2018, including sales, gross profit, operating profit, net profit, historical R&D expenditures, and market capitalization. All sales and R&D expenditure figures in foreign currencies were converted into U.S. dollars according to an average of the exchange rate over the relevant period; for data on share prices, we used the exchange rate on the last day of the period.
Finally, to understand the ways in which global R&D is and will be conducted at companies across multiple industries, Strategy& conducted an online survey of 869 innovation leaders and managers around the world. The companies participating represented more than US$130 billion in R&D spending, or 17.1 percent of this year's total Global Innovation 1000 R&D spending; all nine of the industry sectors; and all five geographic regions.
Robert Chwalik is an advisor to executives in the automotive, industrials, and oil and gas sectors for Strategy&, helping them improve both top-line growth and bottom-line performance in such key operational and strategic areas as global engineering and product innovation. He is a principal with PwC US and is based in New York.
Brad Goehle is an advisor to executives on innovation and product development for Strategy&, helping companies in the aerospace and defense, automotive, and industrial sectors with product and portfolio strategy, engineering, and enterprise transformation. He is a managing director with PwC US and is based in Arlington, Va.
Barry Jaruzelski, "Why Silicon Valley's Success Is So Hard to Replicate," Scientific American, Mar. 14, 2014: Bay Area tech firms integrate their innovation strategies with their business strategies, leading to standout performance.
Barry Jaruzelski, Kevin Dehoff, and Rakesh Bordia, "Smart Spenders: The Global Innovation 1000," s+b, Nov. 30, 2006: The first year that the study created and analyzed a list of high-leverage innovators.
Robert Safian, "Why Apple Is the World's Most Innovative Company," Fast Company, Feb. 21, 2018: An interview with CEO Tim Cook on the company's track record of innovation success.
All previous Global Innovation 1000 studies from 2005 to 2017, as well as videos, infographics, and other articles: strategyand.pwc.com/innovation1000.


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ELECTIONS & CAMPAIGNS
Initiative and Referendum
StateVote Election Results and Analysis
NCSL's The Canvass
can•vass (n.)
Compilation of election returns and validation of the outcome that forms the basis of the official results by a political subdivision.
Avalanche of Election Bills Introduced in 2017
Electoral College Back After 17-year Hiatus
Ask NCSL
From the Elections Administrator's Perspective
Worth Noting
From NCSL's Elections Team
The year after a presidential election typically brings an avalanche of election legislation in state legislatures. With the events of the previous election fresh in the mind of legislators, bills are introduced reacting to how the primaries were run and what types of candidates they produced, the institution of the electoral college and how candidates access the ballot. NCSL's Elections Team is tracking more than 1,500 election bills so far and many follow that trend, though with some notable "of the times" twists. Below is a sampling of some of the bills introduced this year. NCSL's elections legislation database is updated every week.
Should primaries be more open to unaffiliated voters and permit voters to choose which primary to vote in? How far ahead of time does a voter have to affiliate with a political party in order to vote in a closed primary? (See NCSL's webpage on State Primary Election Types for more information.) In addition to these usual topics, this year we see a few new twists on addressing the topic of primary elections.
Bills in three states deal with the cost of primary elections. Many states assist local election officials with paying for the cost of state and/or presidential primary elections (see NCSL's webpage on Election Costs: What States Pay for more information). Arizona HB 2339 would increase the amount that counties are reimbursed for presidential preference primary elections. Currently, counties are reimbursed $1.25 per active registered voter, and this bill would increase that amount to $3 or $4 per active registered voter, depending on the voting population of the county. New York AB 2520/SB 3700 would require the state to reimburse counties and the city of New York for the costs associated with administering primary elections. Utah HB 204 would require state and local election officials (rather than parties) to run the presidential primary election and includes an appropriation to do so.
Several bills in Mississippi (HCR 18, HB 229, HB 302, HB 305, HB 367, SB 2224) would abolish partisan primaries and establish a combined preferential election in which all candidates are listed on the same ballot and held a few weeks before the general election. If a candidate receives a majority of the votes cast in the preferential election, that candidate appears on the general election ballot. If no one receives a majority, the top two vote getters' names are placed on the general election ballot. All voters in Mississippi, regardless of party affiliation, could vote in the preferential election.
Bills in Illinois (HB 285) and Virginia (HJR 541 and HJR 635) would establish "top two" primaries, and bills in Iowa (SB 33), Mississippi (HCR 35) and Utah (SB 114) would establish primary runoffs if a candidate does not obtain a certain percentage of the votes during the first round.
Disclosing Tax Returns
Who can be on a ballot is always of some interest. Notable this year is the number of states that have specifically looked at requiring future presidential candidates to disclose income tax returns in order to be placed on the general election ballot. As of February 20, 2017 legislators in 18 states (Arizona, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont and Virginia) have introduced bills on this topic.
The biggest trend of the last few years had been online voter registration. When President Barack Obama was first elected in 2008, only two states permitted their citizens to register to vote using the internet. By 2012 that number had grown to 13, and as of January 2017 there are 34 states plus the District of Columbia that offer online registration— four more states have passed legislation to create systems in the near future. With so many states now offering online registration, fewer states are considering it this year. Still, bills have been introduced in Michigan (SB 56), Mississippi (HB 373, SB 2223), Montana (HB 51), Puerto Rico (HB 402) and Texas (HB 80, HB 143, HB 159, SB 185).
A newer trend is automatic voter registration, whereby citizens who apply for or renew a driver's license are automatically registered to vote unless they actively "opt out." After Oregon enacted automatic registration in 2015, there has been a spike in interest. Six states (Alaska, California, Connecticut, Oregon, Vermont and West Virginia) and the District of Columbia have authorized it, and 89 bills in 32 states have been introduced so far this year.
Voter List Maintenance
Maintaining clear and accurate voter rolls looks to be a hot topic this year in legislatures. Bills in Maryland (SB 842/HB 1354) and New Jersey (AB 4480) would require agencies that deal with jury records to provide information to election officials on individuals who are not citizens of the United States, and a Missouri bill (HB 777) would improve the reporting of death notifications to election authorities.
Bills in Hawaii (SB 115, HB 173, SB 327, HB 714) and Illinois (SB 943, HB 2573) would require joining the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), which improves the accuracy of voter rolls by sharing data between states. Several bills in New Jersey address voter list maintenance, including two bills urging cooperation with other states to identify duplicate registration records (AR 190 and AB 639) and the creation of an online form to update information on an existing voter registration record (AB 4391).
After several relatively quiet years, legislators are once again looking at identification required to vote. Bills in Iowa (SB 47), Maine (HB 89), Nebraska (LR 1, LR 15), New York (SB 298) and Wyoming (HB 167) would establish voter ID requirements. Arkansas HB 1047 would require voters to provide identification when voting and include a photocopy of ID with an absentee ballot. Indiana HB 1329 and Virginia HB 1428 would require absentee voters to include a photocopy of ID with the returned ballot.
Other states are taking other approaches besides requiring identification. Connecticut HB 5096 would require an audit of statements from voters who did not present an ID. Illinois HB 439 would establish a pilot program that would allow election officials to place driver's license pictures in poll books in order to help verify a voter's identity. Similarly, Virginia SB 1253 would require e-poll books to include photographs of voters for identification purposes. Texas HB 384 would require the secretary of state to include photographs on voter registration certificates, which would then be considered acceptable ID.
North Dakota (HB 1369) and New Hampshire (HB 106 and HB 642) are both considering additional residency requirements for voters. Bills in Arizona (SB 1223), Kansas (SB 79), South Carolina (SB 167), Tennessee (HB 79), and numerous bills in Texas and Virginia would expand the list of acceptable IDs for voting or provide the option of signing an affidavit if a voter is not able to produce a valid ID.
Ballot Selfies
Two years ago "ballot selfies" (voters taking photos of their voted ballots and posting them online) became a thing. State legislatures and the courts have been dealing with the issue ever since, and 2017 is no exception. Bills in Alaska (HB 7), Colorado (HB 1014), Illinois (HB 206), Missouri (HB 249), New Hampshire (HB 249), New Jersey (AB 4188), New Mexico (SB 117) and South Carolina (HB 3152) would permit the sharing of ballot selfies. So far, at least two bills have been introduced to prohibit them: Florida SB 224 and Iowa HB 93. See NCSL's page on ballot selfies for more information.
Data Collecting
Data is great. Election officials are increasingly seeing the value of collecting data about voters and the voting process in order to improve the administration of elections. Legislators are also looking at data to ensure there are enough polling places and materials to mitigate lines on Election Day. Arizona SB 1390 would require election officials to take key information, such as prior turnout and demands for bilingual poll workers, into account before establishing polling places. Colorado SB 37 would require election officials in larger counties to measure and report the time it takes to vote, and also direct the secretary of state to establish uniform data-gathering and reporting rules. Virginia SB 1552/HB 2415 would require local election officials to determine the number of ballots to be printed based on the number of active registered voters and historical election data. Arizona SB 1306 would establish a statewide uniform format for unofficial election results. New York AB 2139, AB 2278, SB 3304 and SB 3436 and Arizona SB 1219 would require additional information on sources and numbers of voter registrations from local election officials.
Alternative Voting Methods
Bills in several states address ranked-choice or instant run-off voting. Bills in Arizona (HB 2272), Connecticut (HB 6153), Hawaii (HB 179/SB 218, SB 824, HB 136, SB 824) Indiana (SB 529), Missouri (SB 140), New York (AB 1762, SB 3309), Virginia (HB 2315) and Washington (SB 5267) would all permit ranked choice voting for some elections. Wyoming SB 112 would require ranked pair voting, a variation in which the winner is the candidate that wins against all others in a one-on-one match up. Bills in Connecticut (HB 5950) and Wyoming (Wyoming HB 248) would study the option of implementing ranked-choice voting, and Georgia SB 32 would permit military and overseas voters to vote by instant run-off ballot. See NCSL's Alternative Voting Systems page for details on these options.
2016 was a year for unexpected events—not least of which was the amount of attention paid to the Electoral College, and that has resulted in a bumper crop of legislation related to it this year. For only the 5th time in U.S. history the winner of the Electoral College vote was not the winner of the popular vote. Unlike the most recent time it happened—2000—this time there was no vote counting controversy to debate for weeks. Rather, the result was cut and dried. Under the Constitution the winner of the Electoral College vote wins the presidency, and there was no doubt about who won the most Electoral College votes.
Those wanting to award the presidency to the winner of the popular vote face an uphill battle. The layperson first thinks of amending the U.S. Constitution, something that hasn't happened since 1992. The 27th (and most recent) amendment, which prevents salary increases for members of Congress until after an election, took 202 years to be ratified by the states.
As state lawmakers begin considering changes to election laws in 2017 and 2018, what options can they consider?
Do Nothing: As is, all candidates have the same rules to play by, and everyone knows what those rules are and how they work. Changes could involve unintended consequences. Besides, time and political capital spent on the Electoral College is subtracted from time spent on other priorities.
The Congressional District System: Forty-eight states use the winner-take-all system for awarding electoral college votes. That means the candidate that wins the popular vote in those states wins the electoral votes. Maine and Nebraska, however, use the congressional district method of awarding electoral college votes.
In these two states, one electoral vote is awarded to the presidential candidate who wins the popular vote in each congressional district, and the remaining two electoral votes are awarded to the candidates receiving the most votes statewide. For example, in 2008 in Nebraska, Barack Obama won the electoral vote in the congressional district including Omaha, while John McCain won in the state's other two districts and won the statewide vote as well, securing the state's two at-large votes, resulting in four Republican electors and one Democrat.
The National Popular Vote Compact: Another reform option sprung from the 2000 presidential election —the National Popular Vote Compact. Under the compact, state lawmakers pass legislation to award their states' electoral votes to the winner of the popular vote nationwide, rather than the state popular vote. For instance, if the Democratic candidate won the popular vote in California, but the Republican candidate won the popular vote nationwide, California would be required to send its Republican slate of electors to the meeting of the electors. The agreement would take effect only if enough states to represent more than a total 270 electoral votes—the amount needed to win the Electoral College.
So far, 10 states and the District of Columbia have joined the compact—California, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington—which total 165 electoral votes, so 105 more votes are needed for the compact to take effect. New York made its participation with the NPV interstate compact permanent in 2016. The compact has also passed legislative chambers in several other states. For the complete list, go to National Popular Vote, Inc. and check out NCSL's National Popular Vote webpage.
Faithless Electors
Besides changing how the system works, legislators can address the issue of faithless electors. No federal law or constitutional provision requires electors to vote for the party that nominated them, and over the years a number of electors have voted against the instructions of the voters. These are known as faithless electors.
In the 2016 election, there were seven faithless electors, the most since 1972: five Democrats and two Republicans. Additionally, three electors were removed due to their votes and were not included in the final tally.
States can attempt to bind their electors to the results of the popular vote through the use of pledges with fines and penalties or the threat of disqualification and replacement. At least 29 states and the District of Columbia have laws on the books attempting to bind electors' votes. But here's the catch: no elector has ever been penalized or replaced, nor have these laws been fully vetted by the courts. It remains to be seen whether more states will pursue policies reining in electors this year, based on the number of faithless electors last year.
At least 53 bills in 21 states dealing with the Electoral College have been introduced in state legislatures. Approximately 18 states have legislation to adopt the National Popular Vote Compact, while New Jersey has legislation to repeal the state's participation in the compact and California has a resolution urging other states to adopt the compact.
Seven states are seeking to adopt the congressional district system, while Nebraska once again has legislation to adopt the winner-take-all method of allocating electoral college votes. Lastly, a handful of states are seeking to address faithless presidential electors with ways of binding votes or replacing electors who do not vote for their party. For more information, see NCSL's elections legislation database.
What is a "none of the above" option on ballots?
A "none of the above" or "none of these candidates" is an option on ballots that allows voters to register a protest vote against all the candidates for a given office. In some instances, if "none of the above" were to receive a majority of votes, it could trigger additional actions such as special elections. This option appears on ballots in several European countries and India.
Nevada is the only state to provide a "none of these candidates" option and has done so since 1975. However, even if that option were to receive a plurality of votes, the candidate with the next highest number of votes would win the election. At least three states have legislation to introduce a "none of the above" option on ballots—California (AB 541), Missouri (HB 894) and West Virginia (SB 44). California and West Virginia would apply only to elections for President and Vice President and would not trigger any additional action, but Missouri would apply it to all elections for statewide office, state legislature circuit judge and U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives. Also in the Missouri legislation, a win by "none of the above" would trigger a special election in which any candidate on the previous ballot would not able to participate.
Senator Nicole Cannizzaro (D-NV) chairs the Senate Committee on Legislative Operations and Elections in the Nevada legislature. She got her start in the legislature some years ago, as a legal intern and was elected for the first time in 2016. She represents a suburban area in the Las Vegas valley. Sen. Cannizzaro spoke to The Canvass on Feb. 13.
"My primary focus is to ensure that we are making elections open, fair and accessible to voters. The ease of access for people to exercise their constitutional right to vote is in the forefront of my mind. We should make it easier to vote, not harder."
"There's going to be a focus on voter registration. We have an initiative petition now, and the Assembly will hear that bill first. If they take action, we'll see where it takes us. It deals with automatic voter registration as one piece of it. If it is easier for people to register, it will be easier for them to be able to vote."
"Candidates, candidate information, campaigning, campaign finance, all of those issues come to us too. There are a lot of folks who are interested in how candidates file and what they disclose."
"Nevada has two major population areas, in Reno and down south in Vegas, and then a lot of rural counties. What's of interest to our rural clerks is upgrades to their equipment, so they can get electronic poll books, and so we can have good assurance that they are up to speed. My understanding is that, for the actual voting machines and software, there had been some federal money for it, but it is generally a county expense. There's been some discussion, with the lack of federal money now, where those costs will fall now."
Read the full interview with Senator Cannizzaro.
From the election administrator's perspective
Marla Young is the county clerk for Box Elder County, Utah, a largely rural county an hour north of Salt Lake City. She worked in the clerk's office for years before being elected for the first time in 2011. Young spoke with The Canvass on Feb. 13.
"We had more people register and more people vote than before. There was a lot of concern over the election, and a lot of media hype, and that brought people out in droves to vote. That was a good thing, even though in its own way it caused us a little more stress."
"Utah has been in a transition stage. A lot of counties are moving to entirely voting by mail. Our county was in the minority, with eight out of 29 counties that still had traditional polling locations. Even so some of the other counties had longer lines than we did. We did have lines, but people were in and out really smoothly and within 15 minutes."
"Security [is foremost in my mind]. We want to make sure everything is top notch. On the vote-by-mail ballots, we check every signature. We have a statewide database, Vista, and all the counties in the state use it. As we receive voter registration applications or anything else, we capture the signatures. The ballot return envelope has an affidavit, and the voter signs it as they turn the ballot in. We check that signature. If there is any question, we contact them. There is a two-week canvass period, so as long as they get a correction back to us by then, we can count the ballot."
"We have a really good working relationship with a lot of our legislators, and we help them draft elections bills. I wish more would work with us as clerks and not blindside us. I'd also love to have them come work in my office for three months in a general election year so they can see we do everything we can to put procedures in place so that nothing can go wrong. We keep it tight."
Read the full interview with Marla Young.
The third episode of NCSL's new podcast, Our American States, deals with elections. Learn all about the security of American voting systems with elections expert, and regular Canvass contributor, Doug Chapin of the University of Minnesota.
A new NCSL elections LegisBrief hit the press last month. Check out Funding the Next Generation of Elections Technology.
The National Conference on State Certification Testing of Voting Systems will be held June 19-20 in Austin, Texas. The purpose is to "share ideas and solutions for ensuring voting and election system reliability, transparency and integrity through better testing of systems," a topic that is sure to resonate across the country. The deadline to register is May 1 and it is open to people engaged in the testing and certification of voting systems.
Not sure how we missed this in the fall, but check out the Congressional Research Service's latest report on voter ID, State Voter Identification Requirements: Analysis, Legal Issues, and Policy Consideration, that was released in October of 2016.
Here's a prime example of how the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) can impact elections: officials in Colbert County, Ala. are facing the question of renewing their contract for maintaining their ADA-compliant voting machines or risk exposing the county to lawsuits.
Lost in the flurry of appointments and nominations to the new presidential administration is the cavalcade of special elections that will happen over the next year. In Montana, county officials are supporting legislation that would allow the counties to choose to conduct special elections entirely by mail, in hopes of saving money on polling places. See NCSL's All-Mail Elections page for more information.
Remember the Federal Election Commission (FEC)? You wouldn't be alone if the federal agency in charge of regulating campaign finance had slipped from your mind in recent years. Now a Democratic commissioner has resigned, setting up a political fight for the future of the commission.
Until recently, when NCSL has thought about local jurisdictions making their own way on elections tech development, we've thought of Los Angeles, Calif., and Travis County, Texas. There's a third player in that space: San Francisco. Its seven-member elections commission voted unanimously to ask the city for $4 million to continue developing a new voting system based on open source software.
While voter fraud is certainly not widespread, there are instances that pop up every election cycle of improprieties that may or may not have been intentional and deliberate. In Kansas, a county sheriff is being investigated after receiving a ballot for his mother that lived in a nursing home in another county; in Texas, hundreds may have voted improperly and a woman in the country illegally was convicted of voter fraud and sentenced to eight years in prison.
The Massachusetts state auditor has determined that the Bay State's early voting law constitutes an unfunded mandate for cities and towns—and the state should pay for it. This is a great example of how the lines blur when determining who pays for elections. Check out NCSL's page on election costs.
Here are two items in honor of President's Day: The Washington Post's presidential podcast is great listening end to end; and for the watch nerds out there watch blog Hodinkee has a well-researched and in-depth look at the timepieces our Commanders-in-Chief have worn over the centuries.
You can't vote in two different states in the same election, right? Maybe. Maybe, not. Stay tuned for NCSL's research about double voting prohibitions. And let us know, please, if you have insight on this topic.
For those of you interested in redistricting, email Wendy Underhill to sign up for NCSL's redistricting list serve to connect with your peers and get the latest news. 2020 is right around the corner!
Don't forget to register for NCSL's Future of Elections: Technology, Policy and Funding Conference, June 14-16 in Williamsburg, Va.
—Wendy Underhill, Dan Diorio and Amanda Buchanan


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Home / Compare Savings Accounts / Most Aussies don't understand the very basics of their money
Most Aussies don't understand the very basics of their money
Photo source: Photo by Alex Blăjan on Unsplash
New Research by Raiz has found many Australians lack a clear understanding about basic personal finance, including their own savings account's interest rate.
Micro investing app Raiz surveyed 1,000 Australians to identify their level of understanding of savings and investment options, and the research found that while 60% of us claim to have some level of knowledge of investing, 85% don't even know what the interest rate on their savings account is.
53% of Australians meanwhile are unaware cash is the safest place to store savings – 22% believe property is the safest investment option, 20% think fixed income is while 10% think equities (shares) are the safest.
Compared with cash, property, fixed income and equities generally have greater potential for returns at the cost of being riskier asset classes.
Raiz CEO George Lucas said many respondents may have confused safety with the best long-term returns.
"Most people have not experienced or remember an extended period where stocks and property have gone down," Mr Lucas told Savings.com.au.
"When we talk about the safety of cash, we mean that at any point of time when you need your wealth, for example, to pay a deposit for a house or fund a trip, you can access the amount you need with full confidence that the amount you saved is still available."
Mr Lucas also said many people are mistaken when it comes to knowing their interest rate.
"Many Australians are completely unaware of the best options to protect and grow their income and think they're getting 2-3% on their savings accounts when, depending on the bank, it's often less than 1%" he said.
"This is due to the way saving accounts are advertised with introductory offers. At this interest rate, if Australians are using their savings accounts to save money, with inflation, the opposite is happening and they're actually going backwards.
"That's why it's important to ensure we're educating consumers now on how to look after their money if they're to become more financially stable in the future."
A brief look at the market's highest rate savings accounts shows the top interest rate the average Joe or Jane can get is 3.10%, but this is an introductory rate for just the first four months.
The second highest rate – 3.05% – is also introductory. The highest non-introductory rate available with no restrictions on age or deposits is the 2.90% available from CUA.
Bank of Queensland recently released a 3.00% savings account, but this product is only available to people 25 and over.
Men more risk-seeking, invest more in equities
Raiz's research found 10% of people think equities are the safest investment option.
Equities can be quite risky at the best of times due to the volatility of everyday stock markets, and it appears women understand this risk more than men.
38% of men invest in the equity market according to Raiz, compared to 22% of women. 16% of men also consider themselves 'extremely knowledgeable' when it comes to the stock market, while just 6% of women feel the same.
Yet Raiz's data shows 34% of men use the Raiz app's 'aggressive' growth portfolio, compared to 21% of women.
In the 'conservative' portfolio it's women who dominate, at 31% to 20% men.
George Lucas said the research shows women tend to be more risk-averse than men.
"This is not a surprise as it's also something we see at Raiz. In the Raiz app, we have six portfolios for users to select from when investing their money," he said
"More men opt for the aggressive portfolios than women, who tend to select the more conservative options.
"This is not evidence that men are more financially literate than women. If anything, it indicates that men are taking more investment risks they don't fully understand," Lucas says.
Source: Raiz (supplied)
Bank distrust grows following royal commission
The royal commission might have passed but the aftershocks are still being felt by both the banks and their customers.
Raiz found the royal commission has had a major impact on consumer confidence levels, with nearly half (47%) of people saying they're less inclined to invest their money in the big four banks following Commissioner Hayne's final report.
"For a while now, Australians have felt less inclined to invest with the big banks. There was an ethical line that many felt was crossed and now people are looking at alternative ways to invest their money," Lucas says.
"More than half of those who took part in the research said they will now look to diversify their investments."
Overall trust in the banks is down too: a study from ME Bank in March found 94% of people believe banks don't act in their best interests, while a similar report from Deloitte found it was 79% of people who didn't trust them.
Deloitte's survey also found:
49% of people trust their bank to keep promises, and 26% trust banks in general
33% believe their bank will admit its mistakes
55% think their bank treats them with respect
20% believe banks in general are ethical and do what is right and fair.
People are quite apathetic towards their banks however, with only 48% of the respondents who distrusted their banks actually willing to switch.
Collections: CUA Savings Account News
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Australians lost a record $323 million to scams in 2021
Unemployment, underemployment at lowest rate since 2008
Household spending in December highest since 2017: CBA
Marketech offers $5 CHESS-sponsored share trading
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Album of the Month: Laughing Man - The Lovings ('63-'69)
Low fidelity swagger. That's what Laughing Man's debut album, The Lovings ('63-'69), exudes. It's a short album that spans only seven tracks, but it is dense with artistic potential. The first thing you will notice when listening to this album is the unique sound of the production. The vocals of singer Brandon Moses are quivering and distorted, hiding just below the surface in a way that convinces your ears they are listening to antique vinyl. The guitar and drums manage to be both tastefully understated and sonically raunchy. The song structures are simple but based around the sophisticated voices of jazz chords and a wide range of tonality.
I feel tempted to write about this album in a way that suggests that its very genius is founded on a perfectly balanced merge between classic blues and soul and the leading edge of rock music; that the juxtaposition between post-modern soundscapes (such as the lovely minimalist droning on "Swirl") and dripping-with-attitude blues manages to adeptly cross musical boundaries in style as well as in the audience that appreciates and supports it. I'd like to go on and on about those things - about how a whole history of music that has thrived in D.C. is somehow apparent in seven short songs. I'd really like to point out that the last track on the album, "Mood and Dress," manages to consolidate all of those points the strongest. This is possibly the most self-aware track on the album with Moses's emotion filled vocals ringing in the fuzzy background as bubbly supporting voices are brought to the very front of the song in perfect clarity.
However, I feel pretty sure that the band would cringe at reading that sort of review. Getting back to my original thesis, I'm reasonably confident that Laughing Man really just took all the music that they grew up loving and stirred it up into a really great debut. It's lo-fi without pretention and an homage to the early days of soul without sounding geriatric (despite what the album's aging title may imply...)
-Jarrett
wdceditor's blog


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Q: Javascript - range of 5 around index in array I was wondering how to do the follow.
I have an array of objects and I'm trying to retrieve a set amount eg of them around a given index.
Here's an example.
var arr = [0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10];
var index = 0;
var max = 5;

If the index is 0 I want [0 - 4]
If the index is 4 I want [2 - 6]
If the index is 9 I want [6 - 10]

But I also want it to work if the array is smaller then the max too. Eg
var arr = [0,1,2];
var index = 0;
var max = 5;

Any index would return [0 - 2]

Any thoughts?

A: You might want to try this
var arr = [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10];

function getRange(array, index, range) {
    var least = index - Math.floor(range/2);
    least = (least < 0) ? 0 : least;
    return array.slice(least, least+range);
}

A: var start = index - max / 2;
if (start < 0) start = 0;
var end = start + max;
if (end > arr.length) {
  end = arr.length;
  start = end - max;
  if (start < 0) start = 0;
}
var result = arr.slice(start, end);

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Superzwei (Eigenschreibweise superzwei) ist ein christliches Comedy-Duo aus Hessen, das aus den Komikern Volker Schmidt-Bäumler und Jakob Friedrichs besteht.

Geschichte
Schmidt-Bäumler und Friedrichs traten zuerst 1987 unter dem Namen NIMMZWEI auf. Diesen Namen mussten sie nach einem rechtlichen Konflikt mit dem Süßwarenhersteller Storck im Jahr 2002 aufgeben und änderten ihren Namen in "superzwei".

Programm
In ihrer Show bieten sie einen Mix aus modernen christlichen Liedern und pointierter Comedy. Sie sind vorwiegend in Deutschland aktiv, treten aber auch in der Schweiz und in Österreich auf. Die Konzerte werden meist von Kirchengemeinden vor Ort organisiert. Außerdem sind "superzwei" häufig auf christlichen Festivals vertreten.

Zwischenzeitlich hatten sie auch einen festen Platz in einer Radiosendung des Hessischen Rundfunks.

Diskografie
 1988: Wer fragt schon nach Senf? (CD/MC)
 1991: Unter 4 Augen (CD/MC)
 1993: Wir wollen nur deine Seele! (CD/MC)
 1996: Karikatour (CD/MC)
 1998: The Pest of nimmzwei (CD)
 2000: intim 2000 (CD)
 2002: superzwei live (CD)
 2004: Die Rückkehr der Heiligen 2 Könige (CD)
 2007: Meister der Herzen (CD)
 2009: superzwei~zwansisch (DVD)
 2012: Kampf der Plagiatoren 25 Jahre superzwei – ein Tribute-Album (CD)
 2012: Paradies und das (CD)

Weblinks
 Website des Duos

Einzelnachweise

Künstlerduo
Comedy-Gruppe
Christliche Band


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Home»Today's Stories
Government launches own 'news service' to sell message
By Paul O'Brien Political Correspondent
THE Government has launched its own "news service" in a bid to sell its message better.
Key policies and issues which the Government wants publicised will be presented "in the language of a news bulletin", the coalition said.
The Government has insisted it will present these reports "objectively".
But perhaps anticipating criticism that it is attempting to circumvent the media, the Government has denied it is trying to "compete" with news providers.
It does say, however, that the service will allow citizens to "review many speeches in full", thereby giving "a clearer picture of Government intent".
The service will post its "news" reports, as well as press releases and videos, on a website, MerrionStreet.ie, named after the Dublin street on which Government Buildings is located.
The website says it will be the Government news service and will "give people a view of Government from the vantage point of Government Buildings itself".
"In simple terms, MerrionStreet.ie will review the wide range of Government activity and then report certain key events as news," the website says.
"All Government press releases will be accessible from our website… But our central task will be to take a variety of events and report on them objectively, in the language of a news bulletin.
"MerrionStreet.ie is produced by a team in Government Buildings, involving the Government Information Service, Government Press and IT. Our objective is not to create a competition with traditional media in terms of deadlines, scope or scoop. Indeed we hope journalists find MerrionStreet.ie a useful reference point, and are free to report and use its elements.
"But it will allow people with an interest in the work of Government to view latest developments on one website, which over time will become a valuable archive of information.
"It will allow a citizen to hear or read again, the words of the Taoiseach or a minister on an important subject. It will allow you to review many speeches in full, giving you a clearer picture of Government intent."


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