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The Power of a Positive Mindset – Carrie Schochet
Alex Drost October 13, 2020
In the society we live in today, we're being bombarded with negativity from many different directions — whether it be the news, social media, friends, family or our workplace. It is crucial that if you want to establish and maintain a positive mindset you have to choose to do so on a daily basis. We have to intentionally sift through all the negativity and consistently choose to focus on the positive. Our discussion today is around the power of a positive mindset, but not only how to establish one, but how to maintain it once you've got it. In this episode, we welcome guest Carrie Schochet. Carrie is the Founder and CEO of Purple Squirrel Advisors, a boutique executive search firm based in Troy, Michigan. With a passion for helping companies grow by creating exceptional leadership teams, Carrie has spent the past 16 years connecting C-level and senior executives with leadership positions in finance, accounting, human resources, operations, sales, and marketing. In our conversation, Carrie and I dive into the topic of the power of a positive mindset and the daily habits that help up to maintain this attitude.
Carrie shares on why it is important to have a positive mindset.
Some things Carrie does to maintain her positive focus and attitude: Creating habits.
The role journalling plays in helping you maintain a positive mindset and attitude.
Having an accountability partner and changing the outcome.
How Carrie makes meditation work for her and her lifestyle.
What are we doing that we shouldn't be doing: Non-value adding areas.
The importance of taking time to reflect: Asking yourself why.
Scheduling your way to maintaining a positive mindset.
Why having a positive mindset helps you overcome challenges and reframe circumstances.
The importance of modeling resilience.
What advice Carrie would tell her younger self.
Carrie Schochet LinkedIn
Purple Squirrel Advisors LinkedIn
[00:00:01] ANNOUNCER: Welcome to Branch Out, a Connection Builder's podcast. Helping middle-market professionals connect, grow and excel in their careers. Through a series of conversations with leading professionals, we share stories and insights to take your career to the next level. A successful career begins with meaningful connections.
[00:00:22] AD: Hey, everyone. Welcome to Branch Out. I'm your host, Alex Drost. Wow! Can you believe we're in Episode 20 already? A big thank you to everyone who has contributed to the show to make this a success. We want to hear from you, our listeners to understand what you enjoy about the show and areas that you can see for us to improve. If you like what you're hearing, leave us a review on iTunes or share this podcast with your network, it really helps with our visibility.
Today's guest, Carrie Schochet, founder and president of Purple Squirrel Advisors, an executive recruiting firm. Carrie and I dive into the power of a positive mindset and the daily habits that help us maintain this mental attitude I hope you all enjoy.
ANNOUNCER: Connect and grow your network. We are on LinkedIn. Search for Connection Builders.
[00:01:10] AD: Carrie, welcome to Branch Out. I'm looking forward to a great conversation here today.
[00:01:12] CS: Thank you for having me. I'm excited.
[00:01:14] AD: Talking to our listeners for a minute. We're going to talk today on the power of a positive mindset. In today's world and by the time this episode comes out, we're going to be six or seven months into COVID, and we're in a world that's really negative right now. There's a lot of reasons to be down and negative, but I think the power of the positive mindset becomes so valuable now. Again, it's valuable in any time in any world, but in this environment now, it is so important so I'm really looking forward to talking and to say — and Carrie, maybe to kick us off here, can your just share some of thoughts on one, why is having a positive mindset so important and then what are the things that you're doing to help maintain that and keep that into your life?
[00:01:53] CS: Sure. Well, it's a big topic. As you said, an important one. In terms of positive mindset, I really believe that it's a choice every single day. We can choose be positive or we can choose to not, and we're being totally bombarded daily whether it's on social media, or the news, friends and family with negativity and we have to sift through that. There's a lot of studies on the impact of stress and anxiety on people. I think if we can, again, just back to the choice in trying to find ways to maintain that positive focus is something I'm working on every day.
[00:02:25] AD: Well, okay. So you say choice and I fully agree with that. I fully agree that being positive and having that mentality, it is a choice and it's hard choice. It's not one that we all naturally make. I struggle with this as much as anyone else. What are you doing in your life? How are you making sure that that stays front of mind, so that that is the right mindset that you're going into?
[00:02:44] CS: Okay, so it's a couple of things. First of all, it's centered around habits. And for me, I've got three little kids under nine, busy household. I'm sure many do. I don't think I'm any different than anybody else, but what I found is that waking up a little early to have that quite time for myself, that's a habit for me. And I do some journaling and focus on writing things down in terms of what matters today, what do I need to get accomplished in order to feel good about my day. I start my day every single day with those types of journaling activities that has really helped to kind of frame out. Then as I start to achieve those things throughout the day, I'm like, "Okay, I'm getting things done. This is where I wanted to go with my day."
For me, the other habit is exercise, so I've been an avid runner and cyclist for many years. That's another form of meditation for me. I quite honestly, I don't do very well sitting in silence or sitting still, so I ride my bike. That's my time to process and to think. I usually come out of those bike rides or walks, or runs with a clear head, and again, more positive energy.
[00:03:48] AD: I love it. The exercise part I think is one. We've talked about this in other episodes here on Branch Out. I'm not the best at myself, the quarantine 15 hit me very hard. I'm not great at that, and I struggle to maintain that. I do think that's important. I want to also dig in though. You talked about journaling. I'm going to share a little of my own experience here, and I would love, Carrie, for you to react to it. Journaling is a new thing. I've been trying to become good at journaling for like three years now. It's really hard habit to stay into. The only place I can speak from is my own perspective here. For me, the last handful of months I've been in my writing streak, I write every morning. That's kind of my goal and it centers me, and it helps me stay focused.
To your exact point, my writing isn't always positive. It starts negative at times, but I process those negative thoughts and set the tone for the day. I'd have internal conversation with myself of, what am I going to do, how is today going to be a good day, and it doesn't seem like it has that big of an impact in the moment. And you may not even feel it the second that you're writing it. But again, speaking from my perspective, what I've seen in my life after doing it, especially for the consistency. I noticed noticeable differences in how I feel every day and just making a habit of absolutely get up and I watch CNBC and I write my journal every morning. That's been really helpful for me. What have you seen? How do you make that happen? What is kind of your approach behind it?
[00:05:10] CS: No, that's a great point. What I love about writing and journaling and having this practice is that, it's a way to kind a measure where was I 30 days ago versus where am I today. So you can look back at what were you thinking a few weeks ago versus what my am I thinking today. That idea of, you can't manage what you don't measure. I think there's almost a way that you can measure your thoughts by doing the journaling and being consistent with it. That's just one piece of it, is like really kind of seeing that change over time and then being able to say, "Gosh, I was writing about this a month ago and I feel so much better about that today." It's a way to kind of track your progress, and if you're not writing it down, you may have forgotten the way you are feeling a month ago.
[00:05:50] AD: I would challenge, you will forget. I'm a big believer that everyone believes that memories are concrete and that we remember things. We don't remember stuff. Everything forms in how we think about stuff and what you think happened, probably didn't happen exactly the way you think it did. And every time you think about it, that thought evolves. And recognizing that when you document it, and to your exact point, you get to reflect it.
I'm going to put a quick plugin here. This is not a sponsored ad or anything, but there's an app called Penzu, and I'll link it in the show notes here. Penzu is the app that I use for writing. What I love about it is, it's on app I can get with an iPad, on the computer through the Chrome or through your web browser. It actually will send me and I can set up the rhythm, but it will send me periodic updates like, "Three months ago, you wrote this" or "One year ago, you wrote that" and it hits your inbox. To your exact point, you read that and you're like, "Wow! I've come a long way."
[00:06:40] CS: That's awesome. I'm going to have to check out that app. I'm really became excited and just wondering about that. One other point on this is, if you have an accountability partner to do some of this with. So even if there's some aspect of journaling that you would want to share with somebody, whether it's a colleague or a family member or something, the accountability piece I feel like has been huge for me. Because then, I get the daily thought or whatever it is that we're going to share about and then I'm like, "Oh! I got to get it back to that person" because they've sent it to me. Sometimes I'm first and maybe I'm going to inspire action from the other persons. I feel like if it's something that anybody out there is having a hard time committing to, find somebody else that has the same goal, and figure out if there's something you can share on.
[00:07:21] AD: I couldn't agree more. Accountability changes everything. Accountability is hard, but it changes the outcome. Now, let's get back on the power of positive mindset, right? So we're journaling, that's one thing that we're doing, we're exercising. Those are all things that are helping us maintain that strong mental health. I think I've talked before, in just real pure meditation. Meditation looks different for whoever. I'm on my own journey of learning what that means and by no means I'm an expert around it. I know it has profound impacts on the human brain when you really find that time. What have you done in that area? What have you seen and how do you see some benefits? Just for listeners that might be saying, "Hey, everyone talks about it but what does it mean?"
[00:08:00] CS: This is something that I really need to continue to work on. I'm not good at sitting still, at silencing and all of those things. But I have used a couple of apps. So Headspace is one that I've used, also the Palatine app has a meditations. I've done those with my kids at night actually and trying to get them to wind down. And even three to five minutes I think can make a difference. This is something that I know it takes a lot of practice and I'm not even, I would say, at an advanced beginner level.
[00:08:30] AD: It's a journey for all of us. It really is. I want to say this to listeners. Listen, this is me when I say this. This is the pot calling the kettle black, because this is a bad habit of mine. I am an all or nothing kind of guy. I say, well, if I can't meditate at least 20 minutes a day in pure silence, then I'm not meditating right. It's hard and it's something I'm personally — it's a personal goal of mine to work up to being in that position. But even when I first started my meditation journey, it is, it's taking three minutes in recognizing, "No, it doesn't seem like it did much." Do it three minutes every day for two weeks, and then start to see. Then you're like, "Oh, I can do five." Right?
Then the journaling is one of the great examples. Write down. When I first started to look back at my old journals, I wrote like two sentences. It's a starting place and you have to start doing those things in — again, we're all taking about positive mindset here. If you're not doing those things and you're not find that time to give your brain that space to process, to think, to be clear, to have a white space, the freedom to be positive, it's very easy to get suck in the day-to-day grind. It's very easy to get pulled into the negativity.
[00:09:32] CS: Yeah. I think that even during the day. So it's really funny, I have the Apple watch and it really is reading me in terms of like if I'm starting to get stressed out, all of a sudden I'll get the little notification to breathe. It's so funny because I've noticed is even just a few deep breaths can be very cleansing for my mind and can help to kind of — I guess the word that I would use is reset. So when my kids start to get worked up like we use that term, like reset. "Hey, you just need to take a reset." And sometimes, I have to tell myself that during the day too if I find myself going into an area of stress or negativity. Okay. I just need to reset; I needed a 30-second pause. There's another one, the idea of responding versus reacting. That's I think part of just being able to sort through it, take a breath and even the meditation can be 30 seconds and it can help
[00:10:17] AD: Absolutely. And the breathing, and this is a new one for me. I can't remember where I picked this up, but it's 468, four seconds breathing in, hold your breath for six seconds, exhale for eight. Do that twice and you will be blown away at how much your anxiety drops. I actually do it before speaking or presenting, or going into situations where I might have some spike of social anxiety or whatever it might be. That will level you out in a way that it's unbelievable. It's 468. Just keep that in the back of your mind and it's so easy to do. We all discount it. "That's not going to help" or "I don't have time for that. It's hard. Actually, I want to shift gears around that. I don't have time for that. I just simply don't have time for that. I've got a million things going on and you say all these things, and yeah, they make a lot of sense, but I just don't understand how the heck to make it all happen." What do you say to someone like that?
[00:11:07] CS: If it's important, there's time. We're all busy. I know that everybody is being pulled in multiple directions, and if it's important, it goes on the calendar and you make time for it. And if it's not important, then take it off the calendar. So I actually saw somebody LinkedIn post today about removing appointments from the calendar or what are we doing that we shouldn't be doing. And I feel like focusing on some of those types of things and figuring out, am I spending time in a non-value-added area? If I am, why don't I figure that out and then allocate that time to something else.
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[00:11:50] AD: This is a really important and again, one that I personally struggle with. It's a level of reflection, it's a level of finding out that time to really be reflective in nature, and say, what am I doing? Not just listening and — I live by my calendar. Like I don't know what I do day to day. I wake up and I look and say, "Okay. This is what I'm doing today." I think most busy professionals live their life the same way, but you do have to find time to audit your calendar. You have to audit and say, "Is this right? Is this what I should be doing?" and actually asking why. "Why am I having this meeting? Why am I doing those things?" Not just doing it because it's there. And to your point, I've never thought of in the way of trim your calendar. I like that though; I think that's really powerful to find that time to be able to do that.
[00:12:33] CS: Right. I'm not saying they cancel meetings and people or anything along those lines, but really thinking about, is there some sort of reoccurring event or meeting that I'm going to that really can be pushed to a priority two or three or however you want to do it. But those are just some of the things that I've looked at in terms of how to manage my calendar better. Because there are weeks where I'm like, "Oh my gosh! My calendar is a checkerboard. There is no time."
[00:12:57] AD: Fifteen minutes between every meeting and it's like, "How am I going to do anything?"
[00:13:00] CS: Well, and I think that what's really interesting about that is, in this COVID virtual world, I feel like we're over scheduling, because you're not giving any time for a drive time, we're not having those lunch meetings where it's business but it's also a bit social and it's generally relaxing. I feel like right now in this COVID world, there are days where I wake up and I've got video meetings from 9 to 5. That's exhausting to be on video or in a meeting all day with no breaks.
[00:13:27] AD: One hundred percent. Again, all back to the topic here. That will make you negative, that will wear you out. For me personally, one of my biggest things I've been working through is, I get to Thursdays and asked my wife this. If there's every night of the week I'm going to come home crabby, it's Thursday. It's because typically, I try to keep my Friday's open to catch up and to make sure I'm in a good place for the week. And by Thursday, I have jammed so many back-to-back meetings in that I'm just drained, I'm exhausted. And I've had to work really hard to be more conscious of what I'm putting on my calendar to make sure that I'm not getting there, and keeping myself, and recognizing what's the balance between productivity and getting worked on that's important my career, and to my job and everything I want to do, but also my own mental health, my own positive mindset when it comes down to it.
[00:14:18] CS: Yeah. So I think scheduling even time during the day for something that's, for me, I'll schedule a bike ride on my calendar in a work day and just knowing like, this is going to energize me for my afternoon or whatever the case may be, whatever that outlet that might be helpful. The other thing for me just like my environment in this COVID world where it's just different, I've been getting fresh flowers. Then I have them on my desk and it just makes me happy and I know I'm supporting a small business, a farmer. So I've been pretty consistently having fresh flowers and just having that little environment, that little spark of color has helped me — it's just makes me happy during the day. So that's is one other little thing that I've noticed I've been doing since we've been in this virtual setting.
[00:15:05] AD: I love it. I love it. Let's now talk on — we've talked a lot about how and the behaviors, and the habits, and the actions you can take to help build some of the positive mindset. Let's talk about the why. Why you need a positive mindset? What have you seen in your life where the positive mindset has helped you overcome challenges or reframe things, just share some thoughts around why that's important to you?
[00:15:27] CS: Well, so I lived in Chicago for 11 years. I worked at a global recruiting firm. It was a very competitive environment and I had my first two kids in Chicago, and I just found that it was less friendly. Once I had my kids it was harder to balance things. This inspired my husband and I to move from Chicago to Detroit. We move back seven years ago. I literally had to reinvent myself at that time. It was a bigger challenge than I anticipated because while I grew up here, I never spent time the business community. So really just kind of understanding how different Detroit is from a business community than like say, Chicago or some of the other major cities where there's always so many people moving in and out. That was hard.
I just really had to be focused on I guess a longer-term success and not looking at like short-term maybe challenges, failures, whatever you want to call them. For me, mindset was really important initially and just focusing on, "Okay. Like if I can just have a little win." It doesn't need to be a big win. It can be a little win. I think that's part of it, is like how do we quantify success in breaking the big old down to the little ones and saying, "Okay. Well, today, we'll be successful if I do this." I remember, that's like kind of how I got through those earlier years of rebuilding here in Detroit. It's something I've been focused on and practicing for years.
[00:16:47] AD: I love it. One thought that comes to mind as I hear you say that, when we step back and use the word failing or some of the challenges that you may come into. I question — we actually, one of the other podcasts, we do jump in to this a bit. What is failure? How are you not being successful, right? For me, I step back and say, "As long as I've learned, as I've grown, as long as I've gained experience, there is no failure." Right? Failure is when I stop and throw the towel in and say, "Well, this is just too hard." That's failure. That positive mindset and the experience I've had, which has been big, launch to business that was focused on networking and a time that the world — now, network is different things, like everything is different.
Listen, I had a couple of hard weeks, there is no way around it. Mentally, it was very hard for me to keep my brain positive. But what I've learned and it's still a lesson in resiliency, you have to keep focused on that. You have to realize that if you get yourself down, what is that doing? What positive like — and we've all had days, right? We've all had bad days where you're mopey. What's your productivity like? What are you really accomplishing when you're in that mental state? I'd argue very little, and you're certainly note effective at whatever you're doing. Just talking the networking thing for second. When you go to a networking meeting, I don't care if it's Zoom or in-person. If you're in a bad mood, people now. Like you can't show up pissy and then put a smile on, then no one realizes it. Like people realize it, and that's so important. You've got to remain happy and positive.
[00:18:16] CS: Well yeah, because positive energy is contagious. It really is. When somebody smiles at me, I'm likely to smile back. So I think we get out of the world what we put into it, and that positivity is contagious. We're getting calls every day from people who have recently become unemployed or circumstances have changed due to COVID. Sometimes, we have to give them a pep talk or we have to talk about ways to flip the experience or to translate skill sets and try to give them that positive angle that they are just not able to see right now. I don't know, I mean those are just some of the things that I'm noticing. But yeah, I guess the biggest thing is, I think about, "Gosh, I'm going to affect somebody else with my attitude, positive or negative and I don't want to negatively affect somebody.
[00:18:57] ANNOUNCER: This is Branch Out, bringing you candid conversations with the leading middle-market professionals.
[00:19:06] AD: I like that you aid positive energy is contagious. I would say all energy is contagious. Listen, we have all been there and I'm a Chick-fil-A fanatic. My wife and I like literally during quarantine, we've driven to Ohio to go Chick-fil-A, just for something to do. It's insane, but it's what we love. But why does America love Chick-fil-A? If you haven't been to Chick-fil-A, go to Chick-fil-A and I can't speak for all them, but the probably 20 different ones I've been to, they always smile, they're always happy. They've built a culture around that. And the difference of going there versus going to Taco Bell, it's a radical difference in how you feel when you walk into the place.
[00:19:41] CS: Absolutely.
[00:19:42] AD: And the as much as that's just a fast-food setting, you're in and out so it doesn't matter, right? But at the same time, think about that. Think about when you're interacting with someone or you're in a workplace, you're in an interview process or whatever it might be. If you're coming in there feeling negative, so does everybody else.
[00:19:56] CS: Exactly, yeah. And if you can be that person, that beacon of light bringing that positive energy, it's a game changer. It's really is. I understand that's hard, and it that comes back to everything we talked about in the beginning. If you're not taking care of yourself doing those right habits, those right rituals to help you form the right place in your mind to be positive, then you can't bring that energy. And if you can't bring that energy, then you're not positively affecting the situation that you're in, right? You have to tie all that back together.
[00:20:23] CS: Yeah, definitely. I'm with you on the Chick-fil-A. My kids love it. If they know I'm in Troy, they ask me to bring Chick-fil-A home. But there is something about the experience of going there too and I'm sure there's other examples that we can think of, but that's culture.
[00:20:37] AD: Yeah, they smile. Their people work well together, and talking on this — I had no clue we're going to take the podcast on the Chick-fil-A route, but I look in the effectiveness of their drive-thru and their order pick up system when COVID first hit. When the rest of the world was trying to figure how do we do this, they did a really good job. They had lines around the building and they still service customers because their employees worked in sync and in tandem with each other and execute it well. That does come from a culture of smiles, that comes from a culture of people showing up and saying, "I'm excited to be here. I'm going to do my best today. I'm going to work with other people and we're going to smile at who we work with." It doesn't come from people that are coming to work saying, "I'm here today." Right?
[00:21:16] CS: Well, yeah. So it's resilience too, and so one of the things that I think is important is, being resilient, modeling resilience for your team, your kids. I feel like resilience is one of the most important traits and it's like how you develop it. When I about even interviewing, when I see somebody that can talk about overcoming challenges, being resilient, putting that positive spin on the experience, it's huge and you often can't teach somebody to do that or can you? I don't know.
[00:21:43] AD: It takes experience in some way. In some ways you have to, but we can all take our own steps to better prepare ourselves for those situations, to overcome that. In some level, you have to have experience. You only know the level of stress that you've experienced in your life. You only know the challenges that you have experienced in your life. And we've all experienced different challenges, and different stress, and different levels of things we've had to overcome. And if you haven't experienced it, it's difficult to wrap your brain around it.
Now that said, you've always focused on having a positive mindset and focus on the right thing. So that when those challenges come in, and challenges will come, they will come and for our entire life, we will hit challenges. But if you go into those with the right mindset and focus on it, those challenges become so much easier to overcome. Then the launching pad and the growth that you're able to achieve through those challenges, becomes meaningfully different when you're not trying to just pick yourself up off the ground, but rather you're learning and running with the knowledge you gain, right?
[00:22:42] CS: Definitely, yeah. I think it's important to kind of frame the challenges of like, is this a big deal or is this not a big deal? Taking a step back from it. I mean, we had water come through the ceiling of our house just over the weekend. We just moved in. It's been like the third thing that we've dealt with. Initially I was like, "Oh, gosh! This is so frustrating." Then I heard about something really bad, a terminal diagnosis or something bad, I'm like, "You know what? I can deal with a little bit of water in my ceiling." This is an annoyance and that's about it. I feel like our challenges can sometimes be like the biggest thing, but then we take a step back from another like, okay, it's a big thing today but it's not going to be a big thing tomorrow.
[00:23:20] AD: Well, in tying this all back to the beginning of the conversation. When you talk about meditation and journaling, and finding some of that space, that is one, it helps you build some of the mindfulness to help you bring awareness to that sooner so you can step back and reassess. Then those actions, those behaviors, those habits create the conduit for you to process those thoughts and really be able to say, yeah. I'm the same way, we had a laundry sink that overflowed in the basement, and I frustrated at the moment and to take a deep breath and be like, "Okay."
[00:23:51] CS: I can deal with it, yeah.
[00:23:52] AD: Exactly, it's nothing. In the big picture, in five years, I sure won't remember it. Those are the things that we deal with all the time, but those are the little daily bottles that you have to come in your mind to continue to build that positive mindset, that resiliency and everything that comes from that.
[00:24:07] CS: And on the topic of building this over time and habits, the book Atomic Habits is an amazing book. It gives you the idea of — I think as we set these huge goals, and they're unrealistic and then we're disappointed when we don't achieve them, really the idea of the Atomic Habit is to slowly change over time. That's a way and I think with the journaling, and then again, seeing the change through journaling, those are just ways to really track it and make those —
[00:24:34] AD: If memory serves, I've read a few books on habits. I believe this came from Atomic Habits. Something along the lines of, "I meditate, that's who I am. I'm someone who finds time to meditate." Not, "I'm going to meditate and that's something, a habit that I'm building. Yes, it is a habit I'm building, but I meditate. That's what I do." That internal dialogue is a game changer when you're like, "I am a positive person. I bring positive energy to what I'm doing because that's who I am." I'm not great at it all the time. I have work to do, but that's what I do, right?
[00:25:05] CS: It's vision in statements. So instead of, "I'm trying to be healthy eater". It's, "I am healthy. I eat healthy. I am a cyclist. I am this." And exactly what you said, and so it's stating the ideal for who you are in the present tense.
[00:25:18] AD: Absolutely. Will make sure to link that in the show notes, that it's a great book, well worth the time. So last question for you here, Carrie. I love to ask our guest if you could step back and go talk to the Carrie 15 years ago in your career and give some advice, what would be that advice be?
[00:25:34] CS: I've spent a lot of time at a big firm and I guess, it was a little bit insulated from just a lot of other ideas, networking books, a lot of the training was internal. And so for me, what I have found has made just the biggest difference us, stepping outside my comfort zone, always be learning and open to new things. Those are some of the biggest changes that I've noticed, and becoming an entrepreneur, that was a really scary thing for me. I really had to, again, have a positive mindset from the get-go. But for me, it's been thirst for knowledge, curiosity and just continuing to focus on that every day. So I mean, I want to learn something every day.
[00:26:13] AD: We've said this and there's at least three podcasts that reference this now. Be a student of life, be a lifelong learner and recognize that — you said comfort zone. I'm a big believer that you're either comfortable or you're growing. And in if you are comfortable in life, if everything feels great, something's wrong. You're missing something. The analogy, I've seen this before. You're pushing a rock up a hill, and at times you can just stop and take a breather and you're just holding the rock there and it's not all that hard. But to get that rock to go up the hill, it's hard, it takes energy. You have to continuously push and put that in. If you're not feeling that, that rock is not moving and that's not good. That rock should always be moving up the hill. The sooner you embrace that, I couldn't agree more. I'm not saying it's easy, but the sooner you embrace that mentality, I think it's a game changer.
[00:27:03] CS: There's one quote that I love and I also think is a good reminder is, we're always going to have fears, but I saw the speaker, Judy Holler a while back and she said —
[00:27:13] AD: Your boss.
[00:27:14] CS: Yes. We're not going to not have fear. We just need to fear fearless. So you can't be fearless, but you have less worry about those fears. So for me, that's huge.
[00:27:25] AD: I love that, and it's just that fear is natural. It's human instinct. It saves you, right? I mean, it's meant to make sure that we aren't dying, that we're staying alive.
[00:27:32] CS: Right. Exactly. Right.
[00:27:32] AD: That's why it's here. It doesn't mean it's always rational in today's world, but when you see it, that's nothing more than an opportunity saying, "Okay. Why? How do I overcome it? How do I grow from it?" All the way back to meditation, journaling and everything else we talked about, that awareness, that mindfulness, that focus of thought. That's how you overcome those things. That's how you get there. So Carrie, this has been awesome. It's a great conversation, really enjoyed it. Appreciate your time, appreciate your contribution to the show here.
[00:27:56] CS: Thank you so much, Alex. It's been a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it.
[00:27:59] AD: Awesome. Thank you.
[00:28:02] ANNOUNCER: Thank you for tuning in this week. Share this podcast with your professional network to help others connect, grow and excel. Like what you hear? Leave us a review and don't forget to subscribe now.


At this time last year we were in full 'go mode' for SEMDA 2016 in Nashville, the flagship event's first foray outside of metro Atlanta. Amazingly SEMDA 2017 is already in the rear view mirror. As we put the program and the people together, we knew we had something special and everyone delivered. We hope your experience at SEMDA 2017 was of high value and that you will continue to use us as a resource for connectivity within the Southeastern medtech ecosystem year round.
For those not able to attend here are a just a few of the event's many highlights: concept to commercialization.
Aimee Copeland shared her inspiring story of surviving necrotizing fasciitis, a rare flesh-eating bacteria that took all four of her limbs – both arms below the elbow, her right leg below the knee, and her left leg almost to her hip. Her words struck a chord with every person in the room: physicians, innovators, investors and healthcare professionals alike. She provided us a glimpse into the patient's point of view. Her story served as a vivid reminder as to why we continue to innovate- to better patients' experience and save lives. When learning how to tie her hair into a ponytail, Aimee shared, it took her over 200 tries. She attempted a different strategy on try 201 and she got it.
Thank you, Aimee. We are grateful you shared your story with us.
Don Turner, Global Head, Commercialization, IBM Watson Health spoke during lunch on day one of SEMDA 2017. He focused on cognitive systems, their impact on the future of healthcare and how innovation must be a collaborative effort. Engineers and developers must be creating and meeting clinical needs with the end user in mind- the physicians. He provided a valuable perspective on medtech innovation, especially for the early stage medical device companies, entrepreneurs, and physician innovators.
Dr. William E. "Billy" Cohn, VP for Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices Companies and the Director of the new Center for Device Innovation at the Texas Medical Center in Houston really blew us all away! I am not sure if anyone was expecting to receive a complete timeline of the development of the artificial heart, but that is exactly what he gave us. The point? Innovation is a process that can sometimes take decades and definitely takes a village. The first practical and total artificial heart is on the horizon after thousands of hours of research, hundreds of large animal studies, and all of the devices that have preceded current technologies in use and the continual advancements that follow on decades of innovation.
On day 2 of SEMDA, GCMI and T3 Labs CEO, Tiffany Wilson took the main stage to lead the panel "The Politics of Innovation." She curated a power packed panel featuring Craig Buerstatte, Director, Office of Innovation & Entrepreneurship for the US Department of Commerce, Russ Lipari, Founder & CEO of Health Connect South, and Ashley Wittorf, Executive Director & Sr. Vice President of AdvaMed Accel. The four discussed the current political landscape and how it influences investment in innovation in the US medtech industry.
Cuts to NIH are not likely but other cuts may happen so get involved and engage the organizations that communicate to Congress to ensure innovation is funded.
State representatives do not know what you need until you tell them. If they are going to advocate for you they need to know why. Make sure to be succinct with why what you do matters. Know your audience.
In the session "Immigration Compliance for Employers: Practical Advice for Uncertain Times" one piece of knowledge that definitely stood out was that over-compliance (having your employee provide more than the required identification documents) when submitting I-9 forms is actually not compliant.
Startups and physician innovators, alike, received practical advice from Baker Hostetler and DePuy Synthes during the session "IP Protection Strategies for Emerging Medical Device Companies." The takeaways? Make sure you are aware of what you actually own with your IP and narrow your claims when filing patents- knowing that your claims can be amended and even added, provided of course the initial disclosure is broad enough to cover the added or amended claim. Expand your patent claims in the United States before investing in multiple international patents. For example, unless you are manufacturing in Sri Lanka, then you shouldn't spend the dollars to obtain a patent there.
Large companies are not immune to data security hacks and are in some cases more of a target than smaller firms. During the session "The Pacemaker Hack: Unpacking Risk Scenarios for Integrated Medical Devices" it was stressed that data breach is an issue for everyone- not just the IT team. The panel did point out, though, that the FDA has recently stepped up its efforts to combat the hacking of medical devices.
During the session" Beyond the press release: Integrated marketing strategies for medtech and med device," we learned from each level of the organization that PR isn't something that you can just hand off to an agency- as a medical device company you need to stay hands on and be the eyes and ears of your product users, patients, and sponsors. For marketing efforts to prove successful there should be engagement from the C-suite through to the program directors.
At the risk of missing someone, I would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to our outgoing Chair, Chris Lyons, Conference Chair Neely Carlton, Conference Programming Chair Kornelius Bankston, and Rob Natowitz for their conference program and PitchRounds Road Show leadership. A special thanks to Colette Inomata for her tireless work on behalf of the organization as a whole. Finally, thank you to all of our sponsors and producers without which none of this is possible.
After scouring the Southeast during our six-stop PitchRounds Road Shows, 21 medtech startup and early growth stage companies met with investors and pitched their businesses to 19 investors, corporate development professionals, and industry experts at SEMDA 2017. When the dust settled, Chrissa McFarlane, founder and CEO of healthcare blockchain solution provider Patientory, walked away with $10,000 and a slot to present at AdvaMed 2017.
Congratulations Chrissa and crew! Good luck at AdvaMed!
SEMDA does not take a hiatus after the annual conference. Stay involved and learn more about the resources available to medical device innovators by engaging SEMDA. One thing is for sure, we are already counting down the days until #SEMDA2018 in Greenville, South Carolina! In the meantime, follow SEMDA on LinkedIn and Twitter for the latest.


text:
Q: Facing problem in a Leetcode practice problem related to String Click HERE for the problem link.
Problem Statement - You are given a string s and an integer k. You can choose any character of the string and change it to any other uppercase English character. You can perform this operation at most k times.
Return the length of the longest substring containing the same letter you can get after performing the above operations.
Example 1:
Input: s = "ABAB", k = 2;
Output: 4
Explanation: Replace the two 'A's with two 'B's or vice versa.
Example 2:
Input: s = "AABABBA", k = 1;
Output: 4
Explanation: Replace the one 'A' in the middle with 'B' and form "AABBBBA".
The substring "BBBB" has the longest repeating letters, which is 4.
Constraints:
1 <= s.length <= 105
s consists of only uppercase English letters.
0 <= k <= s.length
MY APPROACH -
I have been trying to solve this problem since today, but I am lacking some knowledge. I am trying to solve this problem with the approach inspired by VOYER's MOORE MAJORITY VOTING ALGORITHM.

*

*My intuition is that suppose the first character will have the max count, then if we find another character then decrease the value of ptr and increase the count along with storing the value in max.

*if at some point, ptr == 0, and there are still characters remaining then make the current character as the max_character and repeat the same process. Similar to the majority voting algorithm.

*But, I am making some mistakes, I don't know what but I'm really close and want to solve this problem using this approach.

class Solution {
    public int characterReplacement(String s, int k) {

        int count = 0;
        int max = Integer.MIN_VALUE;
        int ptr = k;
        char ch = ' ';

        for(int i = 0; i < s.length(); i++){

            // if at sometime, ptr equals zero then count will also be zero
            if(count == 0){
                ch = s.charAt(i);
                count = 1;
            }
            else{
                if(s.charAt(i) == ch){
                    count++;
                    max = Math.max(count, max);
                }
                else{
                    if(ptr == 0){
                        ch = s.charAt(i);
                        ptr = k;
                        count = 0;
                        continue;
                    }
                    ptr--;
                    count++;
                    max = Math.max(count, max);
                }
            }
        }
        return max;
    }
}

I hope, I am able to explain my approach clearly, English is not my mother tongue, so grammatical mistakes can happen. And also, I know the approach to solve this problem using hashmap, but want to solve it using this approach.

A: You have a logic error in that once you exhaust k the code then needs to return to the first replacement index to resume the search.
Your implementation simply resumes the search from the last index where the k is exhausted.
Using the first failed case (characterReplacement("BABABBA", 1)) the posted code finds these subsequences (found subsequence in bold - first line is test case):
BABABBA
BBBABBA
BABAABA
BABABBB
when it should find:
BABABBA
BBBABBA
BAAABBA
BABBBBA           <-- OP code misses this one
BABAABA
BABABBB
BABABBA
To fix this you should first change your for loop to a while loop:
i = 0;
while (i < s.length()) {
}

And introduce an index variable lastStart which indicates the beginning of the subsequence on first mismatch:
int lastStart = 0;

And reset it to 0 as long as there is a sequence match:
if (count == 0) {
    // .. existing code
    lastStart = 0;
}

And reset the loop variable when replacement is exhausted subsequence mismatch and maintain lastStart on first subsequence mismatch.
else {
    if (ptr == 0) {
        // existing code
        i = lastStart;
    }
    if (ptr == k) lastStart = i;
    // existing code
}

Results:

Test
OP
Actual
Expected

characterReplacement("ABAB", 2)
4
4
4

characterReplacement("AABABBA", 1)
4
4
4

characterReplacement("BABABBA", 1))
3
4
4

characterReplacement("BABABCBABBB", 2)
5
7
7

Full code:
public int characterReplacement(String s, int k) {

    int count = 0;
    int max = Integer.MIN_VALUE;
    int ptr = k;
    char ch = ' ';
    int i = 0;
    int lastStart = 0;

    while (i < s.length())
    {

        // if at sometime, ptr equals zero then count will also be zero
        if(count == 0){
            ch = s.charAt(i);
            count = 1;
            lastStart = 0;
        }
        else{
            if(s.charAt(i) == ch){
                count++;
                max = Math.max(count, max);
            }
            else{
                if(ptr == 0){
                    ch = s.charAt(i);
                    ptr = k;
                    count = 0;
                    i = lastStart;
                    continue;
                }
                if (ptr == k) lastStart = i;
                ptr--;
                count++;
                max = Math.max(count, max);
            }
        }
        i++;
    }
    return max;
}

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text:
Home / Data Science / Data Science and Machine Learning: Mathematical and Statistical Methods (Chapman & Hall/CRC Machine Learning & Pattern Recognition) 1st EditionData Science
Data Science and Machine Learning: Mathematical and Statistical Methods (Chapman & Hall/CRC Machine Learning & Pattern Recognition) 1st Edition
Category: Data Science
"This textbook is a well-rounded, rigorous, and informative work presenting the mathematics behind modern machine learning techniques. It hits all the right notes: the choice of topics is up-to-date and perfect for a course on data science for mathematics students at the advanced undergraduate or early graduate level. This book fills a sorely-needed gap in the existing literature by not sacrificing depth for breadth, presenting proofs of major theorems and subsequent derivations, as well as providing a copious amount of Python code. I only wish a book like this had been around when I first began my journey!" -Nicholas Hoell, University of Toronto
"This is a well-written book that provides a deeper dive into data-scientific methods than many introductory texts. The writing is clear, and the text logically builds up regularization, classification, and decision trees. Compared to its probable competitors, it carves out a unique niche. -Adam Loy, Carleton College
The purpose of Data Science and Machine Learning: Mathematical and Statistical Methods is to provide an accessible, yet comprehensive textbook intended for students interested in gaining a better understanding of the mathematics and statistics that underpin the rich variety of ideas and machine learning algorithms in data science.
Focuses on mathematical understanding.
Presentation is self-contained, accessible, and comprehensive.
Ext ensive list of exercises and worked-out examples.
Many concrete algorithms with Python code.
Full color throughout.
Becoming a Data Head: How to Think, Speak and Understand Data Science, Statistics and Machine Learning 1st Edition
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Data Science on AWS: Implementing End-to-End, Continuous AI and Machine Learnin 1st Editiong Pipelines
Academic Techie
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Earlier this year I was on a bus working my way towards the Central Business District of Nairobi, Kenya. I was headed to the Kenyan Immigration Office. For the entirety of that morning I had been completely racked with anxiety and stress (for those old school WWE fans think Lex Luger's "Torture Rack" but in your stomach). My Kenyan work permit had been previously approved but only if I pay within 30 days of said approval.
I did indeed pay online within those 30 days but the day that I was actually dropping off the physical receipt was 35 days after the approval (why I couldn't drop them off earlier is another story all together). Meaning, if the Kenyan immigration services wanted, they could give me major issues and even revoke my work permit. My ability to stay and serve as a missionary in Kenya long-term was hanging in the balance.
At some point on this anxiety-ridden bus ride I had a revelation. It was an epiphany that forced me to come to a difficult and uncomfortable realization. The question that sunk into the depths of my mind that led to this enlightenment was this: I LOVE going on adventures and seeking the unknown as I travel around Africa - I actually thrive on it and even go out of my way to create "exciting" scenarios that my wife doesn't fully appreciate or always approve of (like arranging to stay at the homes of pastors in other African countries that I've never met and no one else that I know can vouch for them) - so why am I struggling with this?
I don't know if I'm an adrenaline junky or not but whenever there's an opportunity to do something crazy I definitely want in! For instance, literally one week before this whole work permit thing occurred I had conquered the third highest bungee jump in the world. I jumped off a bridge that was 216 meters (approx. 710 feet) above the ground and I did so without breaking a sweat and with barely an elevated heartbeat. I absolutely loved every second of it!
Yet, here I was worrying myself into an early grave because the receipt for my work permit is 5 days late? That stark contrast is what brought about the realization that it seems I am comfortable trusting my Maker with the unknowns of good health, long life, functional physical and cognitive abilities, and the like but I struggle to trust God with MY life. I don't like unknowns in the areas of my plans, my vocational future, my family, etc. I can trust when it comes to my physical being and eternity but not with the life I desire to live while I'm here.
When it comes to a planned adventure I find it easy let go and I completely enjoy the ride. The whole fun part of an adventure IS the unknown. The excitement comes from not being sure what will happen next or who I'll meet or what new kind of food I'll eat or what beautiful landscape I'll get to see. It's in these unknown and unplanned for moments that memories are made and stories are told.
But, when it comes to life I hold on tightly trying to control even those things I know that I cannot control. That fateful morning on the crowded bus I realized for the first time that I don't view life as an adventure. Instead I view life as something to be carefully planned out in order to eliminate unknowns. I view life as something that must have adventurous unknowns planned in to but I hadn't been living as if life itself WAS the adventure.
As Peter Pan (played by the late Robin Williams) in the cult classic "Hook" once said, "To live… to live would be an awfully big adventure." I want to live fully, absent of fear and worry, in the beautiful and continuous unknown that is "life." How about you?
My favorite meal is, and always will be, Kraft macaroni and cheese. There's just nothing quite like the magnificent contents of that Blue Box. In relation to this blog, when it comes to Kraft mac and cheese there are ZERO unknown involved. It's basic, simple, repeatable, and as safe as you can get.
The meal that connects to this blog on the adventurous side of the "unknown" spectrum is Pepe Soup. This West African delicacy (translated into American English as "Pepper Soup") Is just that – a soup of spicy hot peppers and meat. This thing packs enough punch to wake the dead. You always know it will be hot but you never know if it will be "burn your face off hot" or the more bland version of "can't stop your nose from running" hot.
On top of that, you're always guessing which meats (yes, "meats" plural) will come in your Pepe Soup. It's NEVER just one kind of meat but always a wide array. You might get any combination of crabs (you eat them shell and all), pigs feet, fish (bones and all), goat, beef, prawns, and cow and/or goat skin (without the hair). I'm not sure any meal I've ever eaten has as any possible variations as this one.
The song I would connect to this is "The Dance" by Garth Brooks because I don't think any of us would want to know how this life ends, even if we could avoid the pain and unknown. It's in the dance of life that we truly live.
Father, you are the author of adventure. Help me to see the beauty in the unknowns of my normal and boring day. May I relish the unexpected interruptions, the annoyances, and the uncertainties before me - knowing that this is how memories are made and real joy is found.
Don't plan out every minute of your day tomorrow. Take a new way home from work. Take your partner out for an unexpected dinner date. Laugh at your mistakes. Sneak some unknown into your world and when something unexpected comes don't retract but embrace the adventure ahead.
As I heard the words come out of the neurologist's mouth, my brain was unable to process them. My wife Cassia was sitting next to me. We live in Elgin, IL, but we had driven into Chicago to meet with a neurologist who would tell us the results of an MRI for our son, Elan, who was five months old. All of this started the day after Elan was born, when he failed his in-hospital hearing test. We wrote it off as a fluke because the test had been interrupted so many times. But after two more failed hearing tests, we knew something was wrong. We hoped it was simply fluid buildup in his ears that never drained. But then Elan began missing other developmental milestones. He didn't seem to react to our voices. He didn't make eye contact with us. He wasn't reaching for objects in front of him, or even tracking things that would move across his field of vision. Then the soft spot on his skull closed, and our pediatrician ordered an MRI. Soon we got the call that the neurologist was ready to meet with us.
I have heard those three words a lot in the last two months since that appointment. Elan has been diagnosed with epilepsy. Will seizures be a regular part of his life? I don't know. His is currently on three different seizure medications. How long will these meds work? I don't know. A recent bout of seizures compromised his swallow ability, requiring him to be put on a NG tube to eat. Will he regain his swallow ability, or will he be tube fed for the rest of his life? I don't know. Will he ever know my face? Will he ever hear my voice? Will he ever be able to walk? Or talk? Or sing? How will he experience beauty in this world? I don't know.
And yet, in the midst of all this unknown, there is beauty. There is beauty in recognizing the image of God in a boy who experiences life so differently. There is beauty in the way the community of Jesus has surrounded our family to help us bear burdens we would not be able to bear ourselves. There is beauty in my brand new appreciation for the episodes in the Gospels where Jesus makes the deaf and mute speak, makes the blind see, makes the epileptic cured, and makes the lame walk. There is beauty in knowing that God is fully able to reveal himself to Elan, despite Elan's limitations.
We don't know what the next few decades hold. But we do know how this story ends. It ends with heaven invading earth. With resurrection. With healing. With restoration, justice, and unity of all things. The end of the story is beautiful. And even between now and the end of the story, there is beauty - beauty in the glimpses of his kingdom coming, and, in the midst of the unknown, beauty in walking with the God who has made himself known to us.
"So Will I" by Hillsong.
White bean chicken chili - a delicious accident. The meal is a result of following a recipe on one page and accidentally finishing with a different recipe on a different page. Recipe here.
Father, I do not know what tomorrow holds. But I know the One who holds tomorrow. Help me to trust when I cannot see. Help me to walk by faith, and not by sight.
Pastor and author Tim Keller has said, "To be loved but not known is comforting but superficial. To be known and not loved is our greatest fear. But to be fully known and truly loved is, well, a lot like being loved by God." Jesus came so that we might experience being both known and loved at the same time. This week, take a look at the people around you. Who feels like no one really knows them? Who feels like they are unknown, and thus unloved? Consider the opportunity you have to be intentional and vulnerable with these people this week. As you carry Christ in you, may you yourself be the beauty in the midst of the unknown.
I'm staring at an unfinished canvas in my room. What do you need? The vaporous background looks like a portrait swallowed in smoke, and the anticipation of peering behind the veil almost seems better than whatever might even be revealed.
I'm no artist— an understatement— yet something compelled me to pick up an armful of canvases and paints last week. It's likely connected to the dreams I've been having lately: the ones where I seem to be skimming across bronze, slate, and black pools of paint - swept up on crests of colored waves that are sometimes solid enough to stand on, and other times flood over me like a tsunami. Their force pushes my body along, lifting me and ferrying me down through hues of vibrant seas. The paint never binds to me, and yet I can't seem to move beyond it.
These visions of untethered buoyancy began around the same time I found myself embarking on an uncharted course. Last summer, what began as a quiet evening in a prayer labyrinth somehow unfolded into a current that disrupted the known and controllable elements in my life— and I've been caught in the undertow ever since. In short, it meant uprooting and moving 2,000 miles westward— away from dear friends, a stable job, a beloved church, and surrendering the scraps of my own badly-drawn plans.
Now I am swimming in upheaval and unknowns - yet I have found so much new peace in surrendering the relics of my stability to God in order to find Him. It hasn't fulfilled my expectations of what I imagined was ahead; it ended up demolishing them entirely, replacing them with what I didn't even know I needed.
For instance: how much displacement has removed what had given me a sense of security. Yet, within the demolition of those walls, I also found it was removing a protective layer that I unwittingly constructed to keep well-hidden wounds from exposure. I had relied on it to keep areas of my heart from experiencing new harm, but it also prevented it from being tended to and made whole. I had no idea there were wounds requiring attention until the bulk of my armor was removed. The process healing has already begun.
It's not easy to relinquish a desire for safety when it's asked of us. Not having a barrier between us and the wild elements of the unknown introduces a set of anxious questions: Can I survive this? If I give up what belongs to me right now, will my hands ever get to hold anything good enough ever again? Will I ever be able to find our way back home?
Despite the danger, something deep within us leaps with prospect of being changed by God. Something within us desires to trust and follow the way to a Creator who first revealed himself to Israel not in an easily seen form, but cloaked in hints of clouds and flame. They weren't given certainty ahead of their journey, but in the process of following, their identity and purpose was formed. Allowing ourselves to be shepherded into the unknown leads us to abiding close to heart of God. Abraham leaves his old name to find a new one— and with it a new identity. Moses, who can't see beyond his limitations in word and speech, becomes God's megaphone to his people. Scripture recalls many others— Gideon, Ruth, Esther, Paul— who listened, threw away predictive scripts, and found themselves beautifully transformed by what they embraced instead.
My eyes return to my canvas. Perhaps if I can navigate the fog beyond my brushes, I can hold fast and trust the mystery I'm being led through is for my benefit, not befuddlement. Or maybe I can find that the colors found in dreams aren't meant to impart some authoritative form of meaning, but are waves of beauty to enjoy and delight in. Maybe this leads to an Artist, who can see beyond what's been committed to canvas— patiently adding little by little to an intricate work— seeing it, and saying that it is good, very good.
I let the mystery dry before adding a new layer.
Amidst change and transition, I have found much comfort in the stability of a morning routine. I like to wake early and prepare a simple breakfast to accompany a time of quiet reflection, Scripture, and centering prayer.
Good Father, open our hands to release what we hold onto so tightly for security. Let us be unafraid to dismantle what keeps us letting your love abide in our hearts. Remind us that to lose our tightly-held lives for your sake is to gain it fully. Let be in love with Your mystery, and not see it as something to solve. Lead us and change us by the power of your Spirit and in the name of your Son.
Leave the distractions of idle time and go for a lengthy walk. Flirt with boredom— no phones allowed. Where do your thoughts land? What occupies your mind? Take note of the emerging themes. Do you find yourself anxious about anything? Instead of running from it, run into it. Cross-examine your discomfort. What's the question behind the question? Where are the wanderings of your heart and mind leading?


Web to Print Magneto Extension is a comprehensive product design suite full of powerful features to transform any online store into a creative studio where products can be designed and sent instantly for printing. Allow your customers to explore their creativity and give personal touch to their products with the creative designer tool using words, slogans, pictures and cliparts. With Web to Print Magneto Extension get support for any printing method that you need. So whether you are a Screen Printer or DTG Printer we'll be always there to support your printing business. While making our designer tool, we have taken utmost care to make sure it works with any device. So no matter how your customers access your store, they can still design their products with ease. With Web to Print Magneto Extension print your orders in various formats like PNG, JPG, SVG & PDF to get stupendous printing. We will help you customize the product designer tool as per your requirements. We have experience working with various industries and incorporate your custom features in the best way possible. We will help you install Brush Your Ideas into your system without any installation charges. So if you run into any problem during installation of we'll always be there to bail you out.


The United States Postal Service Office of Inspector General, in a report dated June 15, has accused the Postal Service of selling booklets of Harry Potter stamps to Royal Mail at a 35 percent discount below face value. The USPS is prohibited by law from selling U.S. stamps to anyone at less than face value.
The Stamp Fulfillment Services office agreed to sell Royal Mail thousands of United States Harry Potter stamps at a 35 percent discount in violation of a United States Postal Service law prohibiting the sale of U.S. stamps to anyone at less than face value.
The U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General charged in a report dated June 15 that the Kansas City, Mo., facility made the sales decision without the approval or knowledge of officials in Washington.
As of April 6, the report said Royal Mail had not paid for the 2,640 booklets of Harry Potter stamps it received during fiscal year 2014. The USPS could risk losing $24,371 as a result, the report said.
The transaction was disclosed in a report the Inspector General said was triggered by statements by an acting manager of the facility about how Stamp Fulfillment handled sales of philatelic items that had gone off sale and were used "for improper purposes" at the facility, which is located in a federal underground cave complex.
The report said that the Kansas City facility did not always follow USPS policies for the off-sale retail products and accountable paper (stamps and stamped envelopes).
Off-sale items were used for gifts, employee incentives, facility decorations and Combined Federal Campaign donations, it said.
That violates USPS policy stating that any such gifts must be purchased expressly for employee recognition.
Some off-sale items were "arbitrarily discounted" and sold through a retail outlet at the caves.
Such sales should be offered to the general public at the same prices, the Inspector General said.
The report also found that the Stamp Fulfillment office had failed to conduct annual or frequent examinations of its off-sale inventory.
There were supposed to be 828,290 items in the inventory, the report said. But the Inspector General managed to count only 1,500 of a supposed inventory of 1,557 commemorative stamp panels.
Records showed 226 envelopes with digital color first-day postmarks, but the Inspector General located 750.
The Inspector General estimated the value of the materials stored at the facility at $7.1 million, but said they were not listed with any value on the USPS ledgers.
The report said that chief marketing officer James P. Cochrane, who oversees the stamp program, agreed to placing greater management oversight on the Stamp Fulfillment facility.
"All of the items currently stored (under lock) in the 'show room' and 'framed art room' will be disposed of properly," said a Cochrane memo to the Inspector General dated June 8.
"Items that can be destroyed by shredding will be shred locally," he said.
The Cochrane memo said that Stamp Services was recommending that the Inspector General have someone witness the destruction.
Quarterly reports will be used to avoid a buildup of unsold materials, the report said.


text:
Home Liberal The Doug Jones Coalition: Democrats feel momentum in Alabama, but they'll need...
The Doug Jones Coalition: Democrats feel momentum in Alabama, but they'll need black and white voters to beat Roy Moore (Slate)
The Doug Jones Coalition: Democrats feel momentum in Alabama, but they'll need black and white voters to beat Roy Moore. – By Jamelle Bouie (slate.com) / Dec 11 2017
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama—Roy Moore currently leads in the latest polls of the Alabama Senate race, and has led every public poll released in the past week. But on the ground in Alabama it feels like Doug Jones has the momentum in these frenzied final days of the campaign.
Part of this is due to Moore's absence. The controversial Republican—accused of molesting a 14-year-old and pursuing sexual relationships with other teenagers as a man in his 30s—has vanished from the campaign trail. His last public event, a rally with former White House strategist Steve Bannon, was on Tuesday. Since then, he's been a ghost of a candidate, present only on the airwaves.
Jones, by contrast, is on a tireless schedule of events and meetings, criss-crossing the state with high-profile Democrats like Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey and former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick. On Saturday, Jones held events in Selma, Montgomery, and Birmingham, urging supporters to do the hard work that marks the end of every campaign: making calls, knocking on doors, and bringing people to the polls. On Sunday, Jones visited churches in the Birmingham area, held a get-out-the-vote event at his Birmingham field office, then headed to Huntsville to attend a community meeting and rally supporters.
Jones doesn't sound like a candidate who is losing. In Montgomery, he was confident, urging supporters to do their part on Tuesday and giving a version of his closing argument: That this election is a chance to protect the programs that help ordinary Alabamans—Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security—as much as it is a chance to reject Roy Moore and his "divisive politics."
Still, there are real worries about Jones' campaign, largely centered on his outreach to black voters. "I think they've put a lot of resources here in Alabama; I just hope they went to the right places," said Catrena Norris Carter, national coordinator of Selma's Bridge Crossing Jubilee, who had come to Jones' Birmingham office on behalf of the Alabama New South Coalition. "It's those smaller, rural towns that are going to make the difference, and I'm just hoping they get to enough of those places."
"Those places" are the black enclaves of Alabama's Black Belt, named so for the quality of its soil. While the large majority of black Alabamans who are registered say they will likely vote, the Black Belt's poverty and isolation make it difficult to mobilize voters. High turnout there is critical to Jones' chances, and groups on the ground are working hard to make that happen, but there are real obstacles. "[Voter ID] has been a problem in the Black Belt areas because those are rural areas, and they have to drive a distance to get to the ID offices," explained Kynesha Brown, who was working in the Montgomery area to mobilize voters in low-turnout areas as part of "Roll to the Polls," an effort to bring people to the voting booth on election day.
In 2014, Alabama implemented a strict voter identification law that had previously been blocked under a provision of the Voting Rights Act that was struck down in 2013 by the Supreme Court. The law provided for free state photo IDs to satisfy the requirements for voting, but in 2015—citing a budget crisis—Alabama Republicans shuttered dozens of driver's license offices, many of them in counties with high numbers of black registered voters. "Every single county in which blacks make up more than 75 percent of registered voters will see their driver license office closed. Every one," noted John Archibald of the Birmingham News at the time. And after investigating those closures, the U.S. Department of Transportation concluded that black Americans in the Black Belt were "disproportionately underserved by the state's driver license services, causing a disparate and adverse impact on the basis of race."
Following the investigation, Alabama agreed to increase hours of operation for driver's license offices in the region. But without early voting, weekend voting, or robust mail-in voting, the state is still a place where it's difficult to vote if you lack the time or resources to get identification and get to the polls. Which means it's a state that actively burdens a large portion of its black population.
All of which gets to why this race is so difficult for Jones—why, despite momentum and an absent opponent, he's still an underdog. Alabama is deeply racially polarized, and white Alabamans give the vast majority of their votes to Republicans.
That polarization has helped make the GOP functionally the "white" party and the Democrats the "black" one. It's part of the basic structure of the state's politics, and informs decisions like the one that shuttered driver's license offices in the Black Belt.
Those decisions stand to depress black turnout and make Jones reliant on a certain proportion of white voters who might not otherwise be inclined to support a pro-choice Democrat. For all the attention heaped on black voters, whether Doug Jones can win will depend on whether white Alabamans cross a line that's as much racial as it is partisan.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2017/12/in_alabama_doug_jones_scrambles_to_assemble_a_winning_coalition.html
PB/TK -One would think DEM'ers, who have a history of not showing to vote and they are desperately needed, would be calling off sick or using a personal day to make sure that nothing stops them from going to the…. Wait was that a rain drop?
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Q: Fast way of concatenating complex data using vertcat with custom rows I need to concatenate few bigger matrices, but in specific manner - for example to concatenate only 1 row from X matrices.
There is a good solution of storing the data in a structure, so then there is no need of preparing long list of things that needs to be concatenated.
For example, we will have a structure like that:
struct(1).huge = [1 2 3 4; 1 2 3 4];
struct(2).huge = [1 2 3 4; 1 2 3 4];
struct(3).huge = [1 2 3 4; 1 2 3 4];

Then we can concatenate these with:
concatVar.concat = vertcat(struct.huge);

Instead of, for example:
concatVar.concat = vertcat(struct(1), struct(2),(...),struct(100));

But what if I need to concatenate only specific rows from different fields in the structure, for example only 1 row:
concatVar.concat = vertcat(struct.huge(1,:));

Then this method will not work, with the error:
"Expected one output from a curly brace or dot indexing expression, but there were X results".
Is it even possible of doing something like that in a fast and reliable way with use of vertcat or horzcat?
Thanks for any advice!
BM

A: It seems hard to avoid a loop in this case. You can convert the struct's field into a cell and then use cellfun, which is essentially a loop.
Let your struct be defined as follows. Note that it's not advised to use function names or reserved words like struct as variable names.
s(1).huge = [1 2 3 4; 1 2 3 4];
s(2).huge = [1 2 3 4; 1 2 3 4];
s(3).huge = [1 2 3 4; 1 2 3 4];

Then:
result = cell2mat(cellfun(@(x) x(1,:), {s.huge}, 'uniformoutput', false).');


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Take a look inside the soon-to-open Sky Deck high-end food hall in San Diego's Carmel Valley
Luminaries gathered at the San Diego International Film Festival's Preview and Press Party at Theatre Box's 5th & Sky rooftop lounge on Thursday, Oct. 3, 2019.
(Pam Kragen/The San Diego Union-Tribune)
The two-story, 26,000-square-foot culinary destination was modeled on Barcelona's upscale El Nacional dining complex
By Pam Kragen
Sky Deck, North County's latest culinary attraction, is finally nearing completion after a yearlong pandemic-related delay.
On June 11, a handful of the restaurants in the nautically-themed 26,000-square-foot dining-and-drinking destination will open, with the majority coming online around mid-July.
But on Wednesday afternoon, Sky Deck's developer and architect offered a walk-through preview of the massive, 1,000-seat complex, which is the final piece of a four-year, $120 million expansion of the Del Mar Highlands Town Center, at El Camino Real and Del Mar Heights Road in San Diego.
Sky Deck is located 14 miles south of the Windmill Food Hall, a 12,000-square-foot food hall that opened in September 2019 in the old Pea Soup Andersen's restaurant building in Carlsbad. The two venues are among a wave of similar projects that have opened around the county in recent years, including the Little Italy Food Hall in Little Italy, the Liberty Public Market in Point Loma and the still-in-the-planning stages Outpost Urban Food Hall in Poway.
The entrance patio to Sky Deck, a 26,000-square-foot restaurant destination at the Del Mar Highlands Town Center in Carmel Valley.
But Sky Deck creator Pat Donahue doesn't like his career-capping project being compared to the region's other food halls. He modeled his project after El Nacional, the famously luxurious, 400-seat dining-and-drinking destination in Barcelona, Spain, which he visited on vacation several years ago.
"This isn't a food hall, and please don't call it a food court. This is a restaurant collection and a culinary experience," said Donahue, the former CEO of Donahue Schriber Realty Group, the Costa Mesa company that developed Sky Deck and owns more than 60 shopping centers nationwide.
Like El Nacional, Sky Deck is a large and opulent location with a large bar at its centerpiece, surrounded by independently operated restaurants that have their own seating areas and full service staffs. Sky Deck will have eight restaurant tenants plus the main bar. There is also a French bakery/pastry counter and an upstairs patio Brewers Deck, where three local companies, two beermakers and one hard kombucha-maker, all had their soft openings this weekend.
Old boats, fish traps and glass floats hang from the 35-foot ceiling in Sky Deck, a 26,000-square-foot restaurant destination opening soon at the Del Mar Highlands Town Center in Carmel Valley.
Donahue said the goal for Sky Deck is to create an exciting location that will draw the dinner crowd for a night out at the shopping center.
"Food courts are good at drawing a lunch crowd to centers, but at dinnertime that falls apart because nobody's going to get any credit for taking someone out to dinner at a food court. This place will be a date night destination. It will be dinner-centric," he said.
Two of the Sky Deck tenants are excited about the project's potential for success. Third-generation chef/restaurateur James Augustine, 20, is opening two side-by-side venues inside Sky Deck, Zizikis Street Food and J Restaurant. He opened Zizikis for takeout-only service two months ago and said he's been stunned by its success, serving mostly local residents within a five-mile radius.
"Our business has been absolutely crazy," said Augustine, who got his start in the kitchen five years ago at Beeside Balcony in Del Mar. "People are really excited about this. I'm optimistic."
Sky Deck developer Pat Donahue, left, with chef/owner James Augustine, 20, who is opening two dining venues inside the upscale restaurant destination, Ziziki's Street Food and J at the Sky Deck.
Also bullish on the future are Aaron and Anne Ortega, who co-own Oceanside's Northern Pine Brewing with brewer Bobby Parsons. The married brewers were the first tenants signed to the Sky Deck project a couple of years ago. Anne Ortega said initially they were going to run the whole upstairs deck but they're even more excited to be sharing space with Boochcraft and Rough Draft Brewing Co.
"It is so exciting to be here with these other companies," Anne Ortega said on Wednesday. "We think this place is going to be a big deal. We can't wait for it to all come together."
Sky Deck is opening in a pedestrian-rich area that's been growing rapidly in recent years, according to Chris Elliott, vice president of leasing and acquisitions for Donahue Schriber. It's directly across the street from the 2-year-old mixed-use project One Paseo, a 23-acre development of housing, offices and retail shops. More than 280,000 square feet of leased office space was recently completed there and more is on the way, Elliott said.
Sky Deck, a 26,000-square-foot upscale food hall, was built above the Jimbo's market at Del Mar Highlands Town Center.
Sky Deck — built atop the new 25,000-square-foot Jimbo's market and reached via an outdoor escalator — was designed by Mitra Esfandiari, senior principal of RDC Architecture in Long Beach.
Inspired by San Diego's Navy history, the interior design has an industrial maritime theme that's decorated with real fishing boats, lobster traps, glass floats, nets and reclaimed iron hardware from decommissioned ships.
The building has a 35-foot-high, glass-paneled ceiling and its north wall is painted with a 100-foot-long ocean mural. Esfandiari said she wanted the massive scale of the building to have a unifying "wow factor," but for each of the individual restaurants to have their own unique and intimate design.
Here's a look at the tenants of Sky Deck. For opening updates, visit delmarhighlandstowncenter.com/skydeck/.
Sky Deck, a 26,000-square-foot restaurant destination opening soon at the Del Mar Highlands Town Center in Carmel Valley, is naturally lit with many windows in its 35-foot-high ceiling.
Understory — Scott Slater, founder of Slater's 50/50 restaurants, and his wife, Thai, partnered with Le Parfait Paris owners Guillaume and Ludi Ryon, to run this huge central cocktail and wine bar with a live music stage and the ability to order plated food delivered from any of the eight onsite restaurants. the seating will be under a canopy of branched light structures that resemble trees. Opening June 11.
Le Parfait Paris — The Ryons' French bakery company, with three locations in San Diego, opens its fourth location near the entrance of Sky Deck. The pastry counter will serve Le Parfait specialties including macaroons, pastries and desserts.
Zizikis Street Food — Chef/owner James Augustine's Greek restaurant serves pita wraps, burgers and sides made from family recipes. Now open for takeout. Opening June 11.
J at Sky Deck — A New American restaurant, also from James Augustine, features appetizers and entrees such as grilled Spanish octopus, lamb meatballs, pan-seared salmon and steaks. Opening June 11.
Kiin Extraordinary Thai — Pimwara "Patty" Thongchua, owner of Plumeria vegetarian Thai restaurants in Encinitas and University Heights, will offer both vegetarian and non-vegetarian options. Opening June 11.
Marufuku Ramen — This Bay area ramen restaurant chain, specializing in Hakata-style tonkotsu ramen, opens its first San Diego County location.
Owners and managers mingle at Ambrogio15, the Milano Pizza Experience, inside the Sky Deck, a 26,000-square-foot upscale food hall opening soon at Del Mar Highlands Town Center.
Ambrogio15, the Milano Pizza Experience — A more upscale version of the popular Pacific Beach pizzeria, will have more than a dozen gourmet pies developed by Michelin-starred Milanese chef Silvio Salmoiraghi and partner Choi Cheolhyeok. It will also offer a seven-course gourmet tasting menu for 15-20 diners at a time featuring Italian dishes and global meat and seafood entrees, with a vast menu of natural Italian wines and French Champagnes. Opening June 11 or earlier.
Craft House — Chef Caesar Huerta and his brother/partner Jose Huerta will serve New American and Mexican cuisine, including ceviches and whole grilled branzino. The brothers' first Craft House, a brewpub known for its burgers, opened in North Park in 2018.
Urbana, Mexican Gastronomy — The second location of Javier Cuadra's Michoacán-inspired street foods stand at the Anaheim Packing District food hall, including tacos, ceviches, enchiladas, salads and pozole.
Glass Box — Operated by chef Ethan Yang of Zen Modern Asian Bistro in Sabre Springs, Glass Box will offer yakitori, sushi and other Asian dishes at a dining bar where guests surround the chefs on three sides in a glass-walled restaurant. Opening in late August.
Boochcraft, Organic Hard Kombucha — Founded in Ocean Beach and headquartered in Chula Vista, Boochcraft is serving 16 of its flavored high-alcohol fermented tea drinks on tap in the upstairs Brewers Deck. Now open.
Rough Draft Brewing Co. — This Sorrento Mesa brewer specializes in IPAs, ales, stouts and Belgian-style and bourbon barrel-aged beers. Now open.
Northern Pine Brewing — This 3-year-old Oceanside brewer serve an eclectic mix of its house-brewed beers on tap, which include Smoke Show Black IPA and its Saized & Confused Saison, which won a gold medal at the 2020 San Diego International Beer Competition. Now open.
Inside the Sky Deck upscale food hall at Del Mar Highlands Town Center, a massive hand-painted ocean-themed mural can be seen on the wall above the soon-to-open restaurant tenant J at the Sky Deck.
LatestRestaurantsBars
Pam Kragen
Pam Kragen is the arts and entertainment editor, as well as the chief theater, dining and opera critic, for the San Diego Union-Tribune. She joined the Union-Tribune staff in October 2012 after 27 years at the North County Times, where she served as the Arts & Features Editor, as well as the paper's longtime arts writer and theater and opera critic. She is the co-founder of the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle. She holds a bachelor of arts degree in journalism from San Diego State University and completed fellowships in theater criticism at the University of Southern California and opera-classical music criticism at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. And in 2022, she was chosen as one of the fellows in the prestigious National Critics Institute, run by the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in New London, Conn.
Mojalet Dance Collective revives its upbeat tribute to dance from the 1920s to '60s: 'Blast from the Past'
San Diego has a new poet laureate. But he sees you as the voice of the city.
Athletic Brewing celebrating a dry-ish January with its non-alcoholic beers
Museums, other sites offer discount admission during Museum Month in February
At Lunar New Year, desserts can be customary or 'cute-ified'


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Whether you're working in an office or going out for happy hour, this dress will sure be a knockout winner. Pair it with a blazer and pumps for the office or wear it with heels and an extra oomph to your push up bra for a fun night out!
Model is 5'8" and wearing size 1X.


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Remember to buy cabbage the next time you're at the store. These 4+ vegetarian cabbage dishes are true keepers
Jessica Jacobs
Cooktop Cove
You might not think much of cabbage at first glance, but this vegetable is so versatile in cooking. From roasting to baking to stir-fry, this vegetable can enhance an almost endless variety of dishes.
Whether it's in a salad, soup, or main entree, cabbage can be a hearty, nutritious base for any meal. The recipes below show how easy cooking with cabbage can be. All recipes are vegetarian-friendly.
Cabbage is a delicious and hearty base for any salad, and this recipe is no different. In it, several varieties of cabbage are united with a slightly sweet dressing to make a colorful salad just right for a picnic or barbecue. The best part? It keeps very well. Get the recipe here.
Spicy cabbage soup
This recipe is comforting enough for cold winter days, and it's also a perfect choice when you're looking for a quick and easy detox meal. It's full of vegetables, so you'll feel great after you eat it. Get the recipe here.
Vegetarian cabbage rolls
If you've never had cabbage rolls, don't knock them until you try them. They might sound a little bit bizarre, but they're so delicious. Get the recipe here.
Low carb baked cabbage
Cabbage is a seriously underrated vegetable. It's jam-packed with nutrients – including vitamins C and K, as well as fiber, the amino acid glutamine and antioxidants that can help lower your risk of cancer. Plus, it can be cooked in many ways for a delicious side dish. This recipe calls for baking it under a blanket of sour cream and cheese.
Garlic roasted cabbage
Roasting cabbage adds an extra layer of flavor to this seemingly boring vegetable. The caramelization creates an amazing flavor that simmered or raw cabbage simply lacks. Get the recipe here.
Boiled cabbage
This is as simple as it gets. For seasoning, use salt, pepper, and butter. You can also add some cider vinegar to enhance the flavor. Get the recipe here.
Spruce Eats
Vegetarian country cabbage soup
Just one teaspoon adds a savory smokiness to the meal. Including Great Northern beans instead of beef is a great way to fill up hungry diners. Get the recipe here.
Wine-braised cabbage
The addition of wine gives the end cabbage dish a completely different taste than the raw form. Once you cook the cabbage in butter and cabbage, it'll be hard to have it another way. Get the recipe here.
Vegetarian cabbage stir-fry
When you think of cabbage, what comes to mind? Most people probably think about coleslaw, but I always think about my grandmother's noodles and cabbage. It was a simple dish – literally just noodles and cabbage – that put dinner on the table during lean times. Over the years, I modified her basic version to become this recipe. It's filled with heart-healthy vegetables, and I swapped in zoodles (spiralized zucchini) for the pasta noodles.
Zucchini isn't at the top of your list of cravings? That's probably because you've never come across a recipe like this one.


I work in the designing field and find the wireless aspect of this keyboard to be very helpful. I have not exceeded the wireless range of this keyboard yet.The keyboard prior to this I had owned and used for three years at work everyday. Not a bad investment to get that kind of use out of a product.
I love everything about this keyboard case!!! This works much better than previous keyboard I have had. It looks great (match to my cellphone) and works perfectly! It does add quite a bit of weight to the iPad, and makes it feel much more like a laptop than a tablet. My daughter use this iPad also for her home work.Great quality !


text:
Augustyn Mika (ur. 4 października 1935 r. w Rzepienniku Strzyżewskim, zam. w Skierniewicach), profesor, polski pomolog, specjalista w zakresie agrotechniki roślin sadowniczych, a w szczególności regulowania wzrostu i owocowania.

Życiorys
Po ukończeniu szkoły podstawowej uczył się w Państwowym Liceum Ogrodniczym w Ropczycach. W 1954 roku podjął studia na Wydziale Ogrodniczym Szkoły Głównej Gospodarstwa Wiejskiego w Warszawie, w gronie znakomitych profesorów pomologii Szczepana Pieniążka i Aleksandra Rejmana. W 1960 roku uzyskał stopień magistra ogrodnictwa. Bezpośrednio po studiach został zatrudniony w Instytucie Sadownictwa w Skierniewicach, gdzie pracował przez ponad 60 lat. W 1967 r. uzyskał stopień doktora nauk rolniczych po obronie rozprawy "Studia nad mechanizmem zahamowania wzrostu jabłoni przy pomocy przyginania pędów i jego wpływem na zawiązywanie pąków kwiatowych". Stopień doktora habilitowanego uzyskał w 1975 roku, tytuł profesora nadzwyczajnego –  w 1984, a profesora zwyczajnego – w 1990 roku. W latach 1961 – 1963 przebywał na studiach uzupełniających z zakresu sadownictwa w East Malling Research Station, w Anglii, a w latach 1975 – 1994  – na stażach zagranicznych w: Michigan State University, East Lansing i University of California,  Davies,  USA, Instytucie Sadownictwa prowincji Hobei Chińskiej Akademii Nauk, Perugia University, Włochy, Instytucie Sadownictwa Aomori, Japonia. Wypromował 7 doktorów, spośród których jeden uzyskał stopień dr. hab., a dwóch tytuł profesora .

Kariera naukowa

Prof. dr hab. Augustyn Mika należy do czołowych przedstawicieli nauki sadowniczej w Polsce. Był najbliższym współpracownikiem profesora Szczepana Pieniążka.  Opracował naukowe podstawy architektury współczesnych sadów intensywnych zakładanych z drzew  karłowych i półkarłowych. Wyjaśnił zjawisko przemiennego owocowania i sprecyzował zabiegi sprzyjające corocznemu owocowaniu. Scharakteryzował związki między intensywnością wzrostu drzew, a ich skłonnością do wczesnego owocowania, a także  zależności między budową morfologiczną pędów i ich zdolnością do formowania pąków kwiatowych. Wykorzystał zjawisko geotropizmu do formowania drzew owocowych. Opracował rewelacyjną, prostą metodę formowania koron z poziomymi pędami, która osłabiała wzrost pędów i przyspieszała ich owocowanie. Metoda opublikowana w amerykańskim czasopiśmie American Fruit Grower  oraz francuskim Arboriculture Fruitiere znalazła zastosowanie w wielu rejonach sadowniczych świata. Jako pierwszy w Polsce podjął badania nad intercepcją i dystrybucją światła słonecznego w sadzie. Określił związki między architekturą sadu, nasłonecznieniem sadu, a jakością jabłek. Opracował nową technologię uprawy wiśni i śliw, która umożliwia mechaniczny zbiór owoców kombajnem. Wyniki tych badań przedstawił w 160 oryginalnych publikacjach naukowych, ponad 190 doniesieniach na konferencjach krajowych i zagranicznych, 20 monografiach i podręcznikach oraz w około 1000 artykułów popularno-naukowych. Jego podręcznik "Cięcie drzew i krzewów owocowych" został przetłumaczony na język litewski i opublikowany w Wilnie  . Prof. A. Mika wprowadził wiele innowacji w kształtowaniu struktury sadów i utrzymywaniu drzew pod kontrolą w zakresie ich wzrostu i owocowania. Innowacje te szeroko upowszechnił w praktyce sadowniczej.

Pełnione funkcje

Kierownik Zakładu Agrotechniki Instytutu Sadownictwa i Kwiaciarstwa (1980 – 2000), zastępca dyrektora ds. nauki 1999 – 2002,  Członek Rady Naukowej ISK – 3 kadencje, Członek Komitetu Nauk Ogrodniczych PAN – 2 kadencje, Członek Komitetu Redakcyjnego Wydawnictw naukowych ISK – 4 kadencje, Wykładowca i promotor prac inżynierskich i magisterskich w Wyższej Szkole Humanistyczo-Ekonomicznej w Skierniewicach, wykładowca na kursach magisterskich, specjalność sadownictwo, SGGW w Warszawie 1980 – 2000. Założyciel i Członek Zarządu Towarzystwa Rozwoju Sadów Karłowych (1990-
2010), Członek Międzynarodowego Towarzystwa Nauk Ogrodniczych (2004- 2010), Członek Working Group of High Density Planting of ISHS (1978 – 1988), (Członek Polskiego Towarzystwa Botanicznego), Kierownik i wykonawca projektów badawczych USDA (PL–480) (1970 – 1984), Konsultant w zakresie formowania i cięcia drzew owocowych USDA (USA) (1986 – 1990), Członek Rady Nadzorczej Spółki Zakładu Sadowniczego w Brzeznej, Konsultant ds. rozwoju sadownictwa w Państwowych Gospodarstwach Rolnych (1970 – 1990), Konsultant wydawnictwa 'Hortpress' (1990 – 2012), Przewodniczący SITO, Oddział Skierniewice (1975-1980).

Odznaczenia, wyróżnienia i nagrody

Krzyż Kawalerski Orderu Odrodzenia Polski, Złoty Krzyż Zasługi, Srebrny Krzyż Zasługi, Srebrny Medal The Warshipfull Company of Fruiteriers (Anglia), Medal 40-lecia Polski Ludowej, Medal Instytutu Agronomicznego w Marymoncie , Wyróżnienie People to People (USA), Certificate of Appreciation USDA, (USA), Odznaka Zasłużony Pracownik Rolnictwa, Złota Odznaka Spółdzielczości Ogrodniczo-Pszczelarskiej, Honorowa Odznaka Towarzystwa Ogrodniczego w Krakowie, Złota Odznaka Polskiego Związku Działkowców, Złota Odznaka SITR (dwukrotnie) Nagroda Indywidualna I i II Stopnia Ministra Rolnictwa, Nagroda Zespołowa I Stopnia Ministra Rolnictwa, Najwyższa Nagroda Dyrektora ISK "Kryształowe Jabłko", Nagroda Wyższej Szkoły Humanistyczno Ekonomicznej w Skierniewicach, Nagroda Towarzystwa Przyjaciół Instytutu. Honorowy Obywatel gminy Rzepiennik Strzyżewski.

Przypisy

Urodzeni w 1935
Ludzie związani ze Skierniewicami
Polscy pomolodzy
Absolwenci Szkoły Głównej Gospodarstwa Wiejskiego
Odznaczeni Krzyżem Kawalerskim Orderu Odrodzenia Polski
Odznaczeni Złotym Krzyżem Zasługi
Odznaczeni Srebrnym Krzyżem Zasługi
Odznaczeni Medalem 40-lecia Polski Ludowej
Ludzie urodzeni w Rzepienniku Strzyżewskim

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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What will it take to restore peace in Kashmir?
A prominent Kashmiri politician resigns over unrest in the disputed region.
16 Sep 2016 22:08 GMT Kashmir, Asia, India, Conflict, Human Rights
It's the worst unrest for six years in Indian-administered Kashmir. Weeks of protests, more than 80 people killed and thousands wounded.
The trigger was the killing of a popular rebel fighter by Indian security forces in July.
Tension between Kashmiris and the Indian government was already high over accusations of human rights abuses.
A politician has resigned over the killing of civilians.
What are the underlying issues making peace elusive?
Presenter: Martine Dennis
Sanjay Kak - Kashmiri documentary filmmaker and author of Until My Freedom Has Come: The New Intifada in Kashmir.
Sreeram Chaulia - Professor and dean at the Jindal School of International Affairs.
Prem Shankar Jha - Journalist and author of Kashmir 1947: The Origins of a Dispute.


Ok, I will admit to not following all the knitty gritty details of the upcoming nuptials of the Royal Couple but how often do you really get to have a royal wedding? If I had the day off I would totally be glued to my tv to watch the whole procession and revel in my inner 7 year old's wish to be a princess (yeah I was that girl.) Here are a few towels for all of us "grown up" princesses.
Time to break out the celebratory packet of Digestives and toast the happy couple with a Cuppa!
Will and Kate, truly, all the best.