Air Operated Double Diaphragm (AODD) pumps are an interesting seal-less, displacement alternative to centrifugal pumps. They are extraordinarily good 'all-rounders', finding applications in a wide range of industries, including construction, mining, electronics, chemicals and food processing.
The pumps are self-priming so they can run dry without any damage and because they are powered entirely from compressed air, they are ideal for use in remote or hazardous locations, not to mention explosive environments. They require low amounts of maintenance and offer low cost of ownership, completing an attractive package.
The pumping of waste fluids is an important requirement in a host of different industries and liquid waste can frequently contain varying amounts of solids, from sludge, slurries and solids in municipal and industrial waste applications, to slurries laden with rocks, pebbles and other particulates in the mining industry.
Air Operated Double Diaphragm pumps triumph over other pump designs, such as those with close-fitting or rotating mechanisms where abrasive slurries can cause serious wear to functioning parts.
As a result this can cause significant restoration costs and in many cases suspend productivity. Due to the size and make-up of AODD pumps, these issues rarely occur.
Of course AODD pumps are not restricted to pumping waste containing solids; they are equally well suited to pumping other types of waste, including aggressive chemicals and even viscous fluids since the flow rate is directly proportional to the speed of the pump.
For this type of application, AODD pumps differ from other pump types in that they automatically reduce the pumping rate as the level of viscosity increases. They also cleverly stop pumping when the liquid can no longer move in order to stop the potential of damaging itself. Other pumps struggle with viscous materials and can lose friction within the pump itself as well as between the walls of the pipe and the liquid.
In order to better understand the many benefits offered by AODD pumps, it is worth examining the way that these pumps work. Fig. 1. shows how the two diaphragms in the pump (A and B) are moved from left to right and back again by directing compressed air alternately to them via a central air valve.
The movement of diaphragm A towards the centre of the pump generates a partial vacuum in the chamber, causing ball valve 1 to close while ball valve 2 opens as air pressure forces liquid from the inlet ('I') into the chamber.
At the same time, diaphragm B compresses the volume in its chamber, which closes valve 3 and forces fluid past valve 4 and out through the outlet port ('O'). When the air valve reverses the movement of the diaphragms, fluid is pumped via the left hand side of the pump. The diaphragms are clamped to the walls of the pumping chamber so there are no sliding seals in the pump. The diagram shows the flow of liquid from the bottom to the top, however alternative designs allow liquid to flow from the top to the bottom of the pump or even through the centre of the pump, which can lead to smoother flows.
AODD pumps contain fewer moving parts than many other types of pumps and are simple to set up. There are no shaft seals or packing boxes involved. The diaphragm is a dynamic seal that converts the pneumatic pressure on one side to a fluid pressure on the other (the medium to be pumped). Discharge flow rates are adjusted by controlling the air inlet, so no complex control systems are required.
Waste fluids are frequently stored in containers, and may then have to be transferred to other containers, such as a tanker, for removal from site. AODD pumps are well suited to this type of application because they are inherently dry self-priming. This means they are capable of drawing up liquid even when installed above the source liquid level, unlike centrifugal pumps which require an initial charge of liquid.
Another great benefit of AODD pumps, in regard to the self-priming feature, is its ability to act as a 'scavenger'. By attaching a hose to the inlet, the pump can function as a type of vacuum cleaner to clear out and completely empty drums, barrels and other containers. This cost-saving aspect of the pumps adds real value to the end user.
Unlike most centrifugal and displacement pumps that fail if they run dry, AODD pumps have the ability to run faster without damage when operating dry. Furthermore, air shut-off valves can also be added in order to reduce the amount of compressed air wasted whilst running dry.
The versatility of this pump type, and range of applications that can be accommodated is due in no small part to the wide range of materials than can be used in the construction of both for the pump body and the diaphragms. The diaphragm is literally the heart of the pump. Key factors to take into account when determining the suitability of a diaphragm pump for certain applications are the materials that need to be pumped, the temperature in which they are to operate, the potential effect on the equipment and of course the flex life of the diaphragm.
Various rubber components are used in the manufacture of diaphragms and a nylon fabric mesh is used for dimensional stability and additional strength. Elastomers such as Neoprene, Buna-N, EPDM, (Nordel) and Viton are the most frequently used. Their chief characteristic is flexibility which allows more volume to be displaced. Thermoplastic materials are also available for manufacturing diaphragms. These are produced by an injection moulding process and require no fabric reinforcement for dimensional stability or tensile strength. The most popular are polyurethane, Hytrel, Santoprene and Teflon. Polyurethane gives excellent general purpose diaphragms which are the most economical of all, with extremely good flex life.
Derivatives of the above materials have also been developed by individual pump manufacturers for use in their own pumps. Despite Teflon having very little elasticity, which can reduce flow rate by up to a fifth, an additional rubber back-up diaphragm can provide extra flexibility and memory. PFTE diaphragms have been developed to boost flexibility, memory and also flow rates. Single piece diaphragms where the PTFE diaphragm is bonded directly to a rubber diaphragm are also available to combine the chemical resistance of PTFE with the flex characteristics of an elastomer.
If a plant isn't suitably designed for the application of an AODD pump, the pump could end up costing more to run than it should. Having said that, the cost of ownership of the pump itself can be broken down into investment and installation costs, maintenance and upkeep costs including labour and spares, energy costs as well as waste removal and disposal costs.
Purchase costs will naturally depend on the size of the pump and the materials of manufacture, but with many manufacturers to choose from, the prices tend to be competitive. However, installation costs are minimal since pumps can be positioned wherever there is adequate space for them, even submerged if the liquid is compatible with the material of the pump and the exhaust is ported out of the liquid.
Additional costs may arise if pulsation dampeners are required to accommodate vibrations and surges in the piping systems. AODD pumps are very reliable since they have very few moving parts and components that can wear. They are easily dismantled for maintenance or diaphragm replacement.
The main working parts are the valves, valve seats and diaphragms. Spares are generally fairly low cost, but it is vital to select the correct corresponding parts. For example, Neoprene is outstanding for general purpose as a low cost diaphragm that delivers the highest flex life. Teflon-based diaphragms are generally the most expensive, with other materials lying in between, so while the diaphragm used must be compatible with the fluid to be pumped, care should be taken to make sure that it is not 'over-specified, leading to unnecessary costs.
Energy costs for the pump comes from the consumption of the compressed air required to power the pump. Since compressed air is a relatively costly utility in many plants, requiring compressors and air distribution systems, this represents the main running cost for an AODD pump. However, AODD pumps can be used in locations where either electricity simply isn't available or in hazardous areas where electrical supplies are restricted. This enables AODD pumps greater flexibility over centrifugal and positive displacement pumps.
AODD pumps are generally environmentally friendly as most of them use oil-free compressed air for pollution-free operation. No oil mist is vented into the atmosphere and also there can be no oil contamination of the pumped fluid. Since there are few components that require maintenance, it is relatively straight forward to refurbish AODD pumps, increasing their lifetime and further decreasing cost of ownership.
As already mentioned, there is a huge choice of AODD pumps from a large number of manufacturers, so it can be useful to consult with independent pump suppliers, who are not tied to a particular manufacturer, for advice on the most suitable pump for a given application within the allocated budget.
David Rozee is with Triark Pumps.


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 Introduction – SVG 1.1 (Second Edition)
 archived 5 Jul 2013 17:52:05 UTC
{{cite web | title = Introduction – SVG 1.1 (Second Edition) | url = http://www.w3.org/TR/SVG/intro.html | date = 2013-07-05 | archiveurl = http://archive.today/uI7Cs | archivedate = 2013-07-05 }}
SVG 1.1 (Second Edition) – 16 August 2011Top ⋅ Contents ⋅ Previous ⋅ Next ⋅ Elements ⋅ Attributes ⋅ Properties
1.1 About SVG
1.2 SVG MIME type, file name extension and Macintosh file type
1.3 SVG Namespace, Public Identifier and System Identifier
1.4 Compatibility with Other Standards Efforts
1.5 Terminology
This specification defines the features and syntax for Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG).
SVG is a language for describing two-dimensional graphics in XML [XML10]. SVG allows for three types of graphic objects: vector graphic shapes (e.g., paths consisting of straight lines and curves), images and text. Graphical objects can be grouped, styled, transformed and composited into previously rendered objects. The feature set includes nested transformations, clipping paths, alpha masks, filter effects and template objects.
SVG drawings can be interactive and dynamic. Animations can be defined and triggered either declaratively (i.e., by embedding SVG animation elements in SVG content) or via scripting.
Sophisticated applications of SVG are possible by use of a supplemental scripting language which accesses SVG Document Object Model (DOM), which provides complete access to all elements, attributes and properties. A rich set of event handlers such as 'onmouseover' and 'onclick' can be assigned to any SVG graphical object. Because of its compatibility and leveraging of other Web standards, features like scripting can be done on XHTML and SVG elements simultaneously within the same Web page.
SVG is a language for rich graphical content. For accessibility reasons, if there is an original source document containing higher-level structure and semantics, it is recommended that the higher-level information be made available somehow, either by making the original source document available, or making an alternative version available in an alternative format which conveys the higher-level information, or by using SVG's facilities to include the higher-level information within the SVG content. For suggested techniques in achieving greater accessibility, see Accessibility.
SVG 1.1 is a modularization of SVG 1.0 [SVG10]. See the Document Type Definition appendix for details on how the DTD is structured to allow profiling and composition with other XML languages.
The MIME type for SVG is "image/svg+xml" (see XML Media Types [RFC3023]). The registration of this MIME type is in progress at the W3C.
It is recommended that SVG files have the extension ".svg" (all lowercase) on all platforms. It is recommended that gzip-compressed [RFC1952] SVG files have the extension ".svgz" (all lowercase) on all platforms.
It is recommended that SVG files stored on Macintosh HFS file systems be given a file type of "svg " (all lowercase, with a space character as the fourth letter). It is recommended that gzip-compressed SVG files stored on Macintosh HFS file systems be given a file type of "svgz" (all lowercase).
The following are the SVG 1.1 namespace, public identifier and system identifier:
SVG Namespace:
Public Identifier for SVG 1.1:
PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD SVG 1.1//EN"
System Identifier for the SVG 1.1 Recommendation:
http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/1.1/DTD/svg11.dtd
The following is an example document type declaration for an SVG document:
<!DOCTYPE svg PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD SVG 1.1//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/1.1/DTD/svg11.dtd">
Note that DTD listed in the System Identifier is a modularized DTD (i.e. its contents are spread over multiple files), which means that a validator may have to fetch the multiple modules in order to validate. For that reason, there is a single flattened DTD available that corresponds to the SVG 1.1 modularized DTD. It can be found at http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/1.1/DTD/svg11-flat.dtd.
While a DTD is provided in this specification, the use of DTDs for validating XML documents is known to be problematic. In particular, DTDs do not handle namespaces gracefully. It is not recommended that a DOCTYPE declaration be included in SVG documents.
SVG leverages and integrates with other W3C specifications and standards efforts. By leveraging and conforming to other standards, SVG becomes more powerful and makes it easier for users to learn how to incorporate SVG into their Web sites.
The following describes some of the ways in which SVG maintains compatibility with, leverages and integrates with other W3C efforts:
SVG is an application of XML and is compatible with the Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 Recommendation [XML10]
SVG is compatible with the Namespaces in XML Recommendation [XML-NS]
SVG utilizes XML Linking Language (XLink) [XLINK] for IRI referencing and requires support for base IRI specifications defined in XML Base [XML-BASE].
SVG content can be styled by either CSS (see Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) level 2 [CSS2]) or XSLT (see XSL Transformations (XSLT) Version 1.0 [XSLT] and XSL Transformations (XSLT) Version 2.0 [XSLT2]). See Styling with CSS and Styling with XSL for details.
SVG supports relevant properties and approaches common to CSS and XSL, plus selected semantics and features of CSS (see SVG's styling properties and SVG's Use of Cascading Style Sheets).
External style sheets are referenced using the mechanism documented in Associating Style Sheets with XML documents Version 1.0 [XML-SS].
SVG includes a complete Document Object Model (DOM) and conforms to the Document Object Model (DOM) Level 1 Recommendation [DOM1]. The SVG DOM has a high level of compatibility and consistency with the HTML DOM that is defined in the DOM Level 1 specification. Additionally, the SVG DOM supports and incorporates many of the facilities described in DOM Level 2, including the CSS object model and event handling [DOM2] [DOM2STYLE] [DOM2EVENTS].
SVG incorporates some features and approaches that are part of the Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL) 3.0 Specification [SMIL], including the 'switch' element and the 'systemLanguage' attribute.
SVG's animation features (see Animation) were developed in collaboration with the W3C Synchronized Multimedia (SYMM) Working Group, developers of the Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL) 3.0 Specification [SMIL]. SVG's animation features incorporate and extend the general-purpose XML animation capabilities described in the SMIL Animation specification [SMILANIM].
SVG has been designed to allow SMIL to use animated or static SVG content as media components.
SVG attempts to achieve maximum compatibility with both HTML 4 [HTML4] and XHTML™ 1.0 [XHTML]. Many of SVG's facilities are modeled directly after HTML, including its use of CSS [CSS2], its approach to event handling, and its approach to its Document Object Model [DOM2].
SVG is compatible with W3C work on internationalization. References (W3C and otherwise) include: [UNICODE] and [CHARMOD]. Also, see Internationalization Support.
SVG is compatible with W3C work on Web Accessibility. Also, see Accessibility Support.
In environments which support DOM 2 Core [DOM2] for other XML grammars (e.g., XHTML [XHTML]) and which also support SVG and the SVG DOM, a single scripting approach can be used simultaneously for both XML documents and SVG graphics, in which case interactive and dynamic effects will be possible on multiple XML namespaces using the same set of scripts.
Within this specification, the key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" are to be interpreted as described in Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels [RFC2119]. However, for readability, these words do not appear in all uppercase letters in this specification.
At times, this specification recommends good practice for authors and user agents. These recommendations are not normative and conformance with this specification does not depend on their realization. These recommendations contain the expression "We recommend ...", "This specification recommends ...", or some similar wording.
animation element
An animation element is an element that can be used to animate the attribute or property value of another element. The following elements are animation elements: 'animateColor', 'animateMotion', 'animateTransform', 'animate' and 'set'.
animation event attribute
An animation event attribute is an event attribute that specifies script to run for a particular animation-related event. See Animation event attributes. The animation event attributes are 'onbegin', 'onend', 'onload' and 'onrepeat'.
basic shape
Standard shapes which are predefined in SVG as a convenience for common graphical operations. Specifically: 'circle', 'ellipse', 'line', 'polygon', 'polyline' and 'rect'.
A surface onto which graphics elements are drawn, which can be real physical media such as a display or paper or an abstract surface such as a allocated region of computer memory. See the discussion of the SVG canvas in the chapter on Coordinate Systems, Transformations and Units.
A combination of 'path', 'text' and basic shapes which serve as the outline of a (in the absence of anti-aliasing) 1-bit mask, where everything on the "inside" of the outline is allowed to show through but everything on the outside is masked out. See Clipping paths.
container element
An element which can have graphics elements and other container elements as child elements. Specifically: 'a', 'defs', 'glyph', 'g', 'marker', 'mask', 'missing-glyph', 'pattern', 'svg', 'switch' and 'symbol'.
conditional processing attribute
A conditional processing attribute is one that controls whether or not the element on which it appears is processed. Most elements, but not all, may have conditional processing attributes specified on them. See Conditional processing for details. The conditional processing attributes defined in SVG 1.1 are 'requiredExtensions', 'requiredFeatures' and 'systemLanguage'.
core attributes
The core attributes are those attributes that can be specified on any SVG element. See Common attributes. The core attributes are 'id', 'xml:base', 'xml:lang' and 'xml:space'.
current innermost SVG document fragment
The XML document sub-tree which starts with the most immediate ancestor 'svg' element of a given SVG element.
current SVG document fragment
The XML document sub-tree which starts with the outermost ancestor 'svg' element of a given SVG element, with the requirement that all container elements between the outermost 'svg' and this element are all elements in the SVG language.
current transformation matrix (CTM)
Transformation matrices define the mathematical mapping from one coordinate system into another using a 3x3 matrix using the equation [x' y' 1] = [x y 1] * matrix. The current transformation matrix (CTM) defines the mapping from the user coordinate system into the viewport coordinate system. See Coordinate system transformations.
descriptive element
An element which provides supplementary descriptive information about its parent. Specifically, the following elements are descriptive elements: 'desc', 'metadata' and 'title'.
document event attribute
A document event attribute is an event attribute that specifies script to run for a particular document-wide event. See Document-level event attributes. The document event attributes are 'onabort', 'onerror', 'onresize', 'onscroll', 'onunload' and 'onzoom'.
event attribute
An event attribute is one that specifies some script to run when an event of a certain type is dispatched to the element on which the attribute is specified. See Event attributes.
The operation of painting the interior of a shape or the interior of the character glyphs in a text string.
filter primitive attributes
The filter primitive attributes is the set of attributes that are common to all filter primitive elements. They are 'height', 'result', 'width', 'x' and 'y'.
filter primitive element
A filter primitive element is one that can be used as a child of a 'filter' element to specify a node in the filter graph. The following elements are the filter primitive elements defined in SVG 1.1: 'feBlend', 'feColorMatrix', 'feComponentTransfer', 'feComposite', 'feConvolveMatrix', 'feDiffuseLighting', 'feDisplacementMap', 'feFlood', 'feGaussianBlur', 'feImage', 'feMerge', 'feMorphology', 'feOffset', 'feSpecularLighting', 'feTile' and 'feTurbulence'.
A font represents an organized collection of glyphs in which the various glyph representations will share a common look or styling such that, when a string of characters is rendered together, the result is highly legible, conveys a particular artistic style and provides consistent inter-character alignment and spacing.
A glyph represents a unit of rendered content within a font. Often, there is a one-to-one correspondence between characters to be drawn and corresponding glyphs (e.g., often, the character "A" is rendered using a single glyph), but other times multiple glyphs are used to render a single character (e.g., use of accents) or a single glyph can be used to render multiple characters (e.g., ligatures). Typically, a glyph is defined by one or more shapes such as a path, possibly with additional information such as rendering hints that help a font engine to produce legible text in small sizes.
gradient element
A gradient element is one that defines a gradient paint server. SVG 1.1 defines the following gradient elements: 'linearGradient' and 'radialGradient'.
graphical event attribute
A graphical event attribute is an event attribute that specifies script to run for a particular user interaction event. See Event attributes on graphics and container elements. The graphical event attributes are 'onactivate', 'onclick', 'onfocusin', 'onfocusout', 'onload', 'onmousedown', 'onmousemove', 'onmouseout', 'onmouseover' and 'onmouseup'.
graphics element
One of the element types that can cause graphics to be drawn onto the target canvas. Specifically: 'circle', 'ellipse', 'image', 'line', 'path', 'polygon', 'polyline', 'rect', 'text' and 'use'.
graphics referencing element
A graphics element which uses a reference to a different document or element as the source of its graphical content. Specifically: 'image' and 'use'.
The process of determining whether a pointer intersects a given graphics element. Hit-testing is used in determining which element to dispatch a mouse event to, which might be done in response to the user moving the pointing device, or by changes in the position, shape and other attributes of elements in the document. Hit-testing is also known as hit detection or picking. See hit-testing and processing order for user interface events and the definition of the 'pointer-events' property.
IRI reference
An IRI reference is an Internationalized Resource Identifier with an optional fragment identifier, as defined in Internationalized Resource Identifiers [RFC3987]. An IRI reference serves as a reference to a resource or (with a fragment identifier) to a secondary resource. See References and the 'defs' element.
light source element
A light source element is one that can specify light source information for an 'feDiffuseLighting' or 'feSpecularLighting' element. The following light source elements are defined in SVG 1.1: 'feDistantLight', 'fePointLight' and 'feSpotLight'.
local IRI reference
An Internationalized Resource Identifier [RFC3987] that does not include an <absoluteIRI> or <relativeIRI> and thus represents a reference to an element within the current document. See References and the 'defs' element.
A container element which can contain graphics elements or other container elements which define a set of graphics that is to be used as a semi-transparent mask for compositing foreground objects into the current background. See Masks.
non-local IRI reference
An Internationalized Resource Identifier [RFC3987] that includes an <absoluteIRI> or <relativeIRI> and thus (usually) represents a reference to a different document or an element within a different document. See References and the 'defs' element.
outermost svg element
The furthest 'svg' ancestor element that remains in the current SVG document fragment.
A paint represents a way of putting color values onto the canvas. A paint might consist of both color values and associated alpha values which control the blending of colors against already existing color values on the canvas. SVG supports three types of built-in paint: color, gradients and patterns.
presentation attribute
An XML attribute on an SVG element which specifies a value for a given property for that element. See Styling. Note that although any property may be specified on any element, not all properties will apply to (affect the rendering of) a given element. The definition of each property states to what set of elements it applies.
A parameter that helps specify how a document should be rendered. A complete list of SVG's properties can be found in Property Index. Properties are assigned to elements in the SVG language either by presentation attributes on elements in the SVG language or by using a styling language such as CSS [CSS2]. See Styling.
rootmost 'svg' element
The rootmost 'svg' element is the furthest 'svg' ancestor element that does not exit an SVG context. See also SVG document fragment.
A graphics element that is defined by some combination of straight lines and curves. Specifically: 'path', 'rect', 'circle', 'ellipse', 'line', 'polyline' and 'polygon'.
The operation of painting the outline of a shape or the outline of character glyphs in a text string.
structural element
The structural elements are those which define the primary structure of an SVG document. Specifically, the following elements are structural elements: 'defs', 'g', 'svg', 'symbol' and 'use'.
SVG canvas
The canvas onto which the SVG content is rendered. See the discussion of the SVG canvas in the chapter on Coordinate Systems, Transformations and Units.
SVG context
An SVG context is a document fragment where all elements within the fragment must be subject to processing by an SVG user agent according to the rules in this specification.
If SVG content is embedded inline within parent XML (such as XHTML), the SVG context does not include the ancestors above the rootmost 'svg' element. If the SVG content contains any 'foreignObject' elements which in turn contain non-SVG content, the SVG context does not include the contents of the 'foreignObject' elements.
SVG document fragment
The XML document sub-tree which starts with an 'svg' element. An SVG document fragment can consist of a stand-alone SVG document, or a fragment of a parent XML document enclosed by an 'svg' element. When an 'svg' element is a descendant of another 'svg' element, there are two SVG document fragments, one for each 'svg' element. (One SVG document fragment is contained within another SVG document fragment.)
SVG user agent
An SVG user agent is a user agent that is able to retrieve and render SVG content.
SVG viewport
The viewport within the SVG canvas which defines the rectangular region into which SVG content is rendered. See the discussion of the SVG viewport in the chapter on Coordinate Systems, Transformations and Units.
text content element
A text content element is an SVG element that causes a text string to be rendered onto the canvas. The SVG 1.1 text content elements are the following: 'altGlyph', 'textPath', 'text', 'tref' and 'tspan'
text content child element
A text content child element is a text content element that is allowed as a descendant of another text content element. In SVG 1.1, the text content child elements are the following: 'altGlyph', 'textPath', 'tref' and 'tspan'
text content block element
A text content block element is a text content element that serves as a standalone element for a unit of text, and which may optionally contain certain child text content elements (e.g. 'tspan'). .
A modification of the current transformation matrix (CTM) by providing a supplemental transformation in the form of a set of simple transformations specifications (such as scaling, rotation or translation) and/or one or more transformation matrices. See Coordinate system transformations.
transformation matrix
Transformation matrices define the mathematical mapping from one coordinate system into another using a 3x3 matrix using the equation [x' y' 1] = [x y 1] * matrix. See current transformation matrix (CTM) and Coordinate system transformations.
The general definition of a user agent is an application that retrieves and renders Web content, including text, graphics, sounds, video, images, and other content types. A user agent may require additional user agents that handle some types of content. For instance, a browser may run a separate program or plug-in to render sound or video. User agents include graphical desktop browsers, multimedia players, text browsers, voice browsers, and assistive technologies such as screen readers, screen magnifiers, speech synthesizers, onscreen keyboards, and voice input software.
A "user agent" may or may not have the ability to retrieve and render SVG content; however, an "SVG user agent" retrieves and renders SVG content.
user coordinate system
In general, a coordinate system defines locations and distances on the current canvas. The current user coordinate system is the coordinate system that is currently active and which is used to define how coordinates and lengths are located and computed, respectively, on the current canvas. See initial user coordinate system and Coordinate system transformations.
user space
A synonym for user coordinate system.
user units
A coordinate value or length expressed in user units represents a coordinate value or length in the current user coordinate system. Thus, 10 user units represents a length of 10 units in the current user coordinate system.
A rectangular region within the current canvas onto which graphics elements are to be rendered. See the discussion of the SVG viewport in the chapter on Coordinate Systems, Transformations and Units.
viewport coordinate system
In general, a coordinate system defines locations and distances on the current canvas. The viewport coordinate system is the coordinate system that is active at the start of processing of an 'svg' element, before processing the optional 'viewBox' attribute. In the case of an SVG document fragment that is embedded within a parent document which uses CSS to manage its layout, then the viewport coordinate system will have the same orientation and lengths as in CSS, with the origin at the top-left on the viewport. See The initial viewport and Establishing a new viewport.
viewport space
A synonym for viewport coordinate system.
A coordinate value or length expressed in viewport units represents a coordinate value or length in the viewport coordinate system. Thus, 10 viewport units represents a length of 10 units in the viewport coordinate system.
XLink attributes
The XLink attributes are the seven attributes defined in the XML Linking Language specification [XLINK], which are used on various SVG elements that can reference resources. The most import XLink attribute is 'xlink:href', whose definition can be found on each element that allows it. The remaining XLink attributes are 'xlink:type', 'xlink:role', 'xlink:arcrole', 'xlink:title', 'xlink:show' and 'xlink:actuate'.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Greenwich coach John Marinelli strives to be "fair, firm and consistent" with parents.
Editor's note: This story originally appeared in the Fall edition of GameTimeCT Magazine, which was delivered to home subscribers of Hearst Connecticut newspapers.
Dave Johnson has worn many hats during a professional career spanning more than three decades. He's been a teacher, coach and, most notably, administrator — all positions of authority in which communication is essential.
When he was the athletic director at Bunnell High School in Stratford, from 1981-2015, Johnson carved out time in his jam-packed schedule every year to meet with parents who had a child involved in athletics. It was an opportunity for Johnson to answer questions and to calm any lingering concerns about a smorgasbord of topics.
When that stance went ignored, Johnson's job became infinitely more difficult. It's why, even now, as he finds himself in an all-encompassing role as commissioner of the South-West Conference, Johnson sympathizes with the athletic directors — and, by extension, coaches — whose jobs have been complicated by overbearing parents.
The overwhelming consensus among administrators and coaches is that they're having damaging effects.
It's a question that SCC commissioner Al Carbone has seen many young, enthusiastic coaches ask.
Carbone, of course, needs no reminder that this conversation involves far more than dollars and cents. Having spent the last 15 years directly involved in high school athletics, Carbone knows it has more to do with the increased pressure that coaches face to satisfy everyone.
When the responsibilities of the job clash with the demands of parents in a win-or-else culture, problems are bound to arise. Carbone has seen the scrutiny surrounding coaches amplified tenfold, not just throughout Connecticut but nationwide.
Paul McNulty said he resigned from his position with the Staples-Westport boys lacrosse program over concerns about interference from an incoming group of parents. After coaching high school sports for 50 years, McNulty came to the conclusion that the job was no longer worth the time, stress and aggravation.
Former Staples High School boys lacrosse coach Paul McNulty.
An even more egregious example occurred in May, when a plane towing a banner advocating for the dismissal of two coaches — "Fire Coaches Schrader & Kowalczyk," it read — flew over a high school baseball game in Westchester County.
While these are isolated incidents, they also are emblematic of a disturbing trend in which vengeful parents overstep their boundaries, seeking to drive out high school coaches, even those who are highly successful.
Often, say coaches and administrators, parent-driven complaints stem from frustrations over playing time or in-game strategy. Perhaps it's because most coaches feel they have nothing to gain by discussing either topic outside of the team huddle.
Marinelli, whose father Lou has notched a state-record 350 wins at New Canaan, said he strives to be "fair, firm and consistent" with parents. He sees them as his biggest supporters and wants them to feel involved. But, he said, there are limits to that involvement.
Johnson watches the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament religiously, tuning in from the First Four to the Final Four. Millions of others are known to share in that tradition.
While Johnson finds most of March Madness to be compelling theater, there is one aspect of the viewing experience that always made him feel uneasy as an athletic director.
Coaches, to varying degrees, feel pressure to not only win games, but also help players develop their skills. After all, every parent wants to see his or her child experience success.
But problems arise when those same parents run out of patience.
"There definitely is an interesting phenomenon," said UConn legend and ESPN analyst Rebecca Lobo, who is also a volunteer assistant girls basketball coach at Northwest Catholic. "I've seen it just by watching my own kids play baseball, soccer, softball and basketball. Parents are really, in some ways, overly invested in what their kids are doing in the field or on the court. They have weird parent goggles that they wear, that they only see positives in the results of what their kids are doing and don't really understand that everything has a process.
Simon believes that mentality regarding scholarships can be traced back to the rise of AAU programs throughout Connecticut in the mid-90s.
"When I first starting coaching in the early '90s, you had one or two kids on your team thinking that they were going to go ahead and play in college," said Simon, who, aside from coaching girls basketball at Newtown High School for 11 seasons, also served as athletic director from 1999-2016. "You did their (recruiting) videotape for them. I remember shoving them those envelopes and getting coaches' addresses and sending them off. Now, so many different organizations are promising kids this idea that they can play in college when perhaps they can't.
The statistics show the stark truth: It's incredibly difficult to secure a college scholarship. According to the NCAA, only 424,707 of the 7.2 million individuals who competed in high school sports in 2016-17 went on to play in college.
Every house, no matter how big, needs a strong foundation to survive a storm. The same can be said for high school athletic departments, all of which have been subjected to complaints from parents at one point.
For a program to remain stable, it might receive solid support from administration.
When a parent with an axe to grind complains about about playing time or X's and O's, coaches want to know that their bosses will have their back. Many insist it's the only way they can survive in an ultra-competitive, results-oriented business.
Laczkoski said he is still bothered by the lack of support he received from his bosses at Notre Dame-Fairfield after he was accused in 2016 of physically abusing one of his players. An investigation into the incident found Laczkoski to be innocent. Laczkoski, though, did not have his contract renewed after the season, his 10th with the program.
Marinelli, who both played and coached under his father at New Canaan before landing his first head coaching job, believes incidents regarding parental interference can shine negatively on a school if handled improperly. It's a reason, he thinks, why some established assistants would rather stay where they're comfortable. The grass isn't always greener on the other side.
Administrators stressed the importance of having a rigid process in place for when complaints arise. In such instances, Simon said, it's vital that the first conversation be between the athlete and his or her coach, not the principal, superintendent or anyone else.
Even then, some coaches can't help but feel vulnerable because of how volatile the profession has become.


As Interim CEO of Planned Parenthood Northern Michigan, I lead an organization that strives to meet the reproductive health care needs of more than 20,000 women, men and families throughout Northern Michigan each year.
The majority of the people we serve in our medical centers are low-income women with little if any ability to pay for their care. These women rely on Planned Parenthood for quality, affordable, prevention based health care, including contraceptives.
For nearly 30 years, federal laws have been in place to help safety-net providers buy birth control at affordable prices, enabling them then to pass on savings to those in greatest need.
Last year, through passage of the Deficit Reduction Act (DRA), Congress changed this long-standing law, putting affordable contraception out of reach for potentially hundreds of thousands of women.
Since the enactment of the DRA, the price of birth control pills at universities and health centers across the country has doubled, tripled and, in some cases, increased at even higher rates.
Hundreds of thousands of women nationwide are losing access to birth control because they cannot afford such extraordinary increases. Without access to this essential health service, women are at increased risk of unintended pregnancy and potentially serious health issues.
This is a simple problem to fix, but we need the help of Congress to do it. Congress needs to restore the ability of pharmaceutical companies to offer low-cost drugs to university health centers and safety net providers. This change will cost the government nothing and can be done immediately.
Not only will it help promote strong, healthy families but it also will save the government millions of dollars in direct and indirect costs related to unintended and unwanted pregnancies. I urge Congress to restore this much needed benefit immediately.


As many as 15 Democrats already have declared their intent to seek the party's nomination for president in 2020.
So each one must try to distinguish himself or herself from the crowd.
Do something different. Say something outlandish.
One candidate, Andrew Yang, is talking up universal basic income, the idea of the government handing out a regular sum of cash to everyone, regardless of employment status. But others are endorsing that.
So Yang is promising to oppose circumcision.
That got the attention of talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh.
"Our last caller had many things on her mind, including the revelation that this new hero to the left in their presidential sweepstakes, a guy named Andrew Yang, actually predicted that whites will be shooting up Asian churches in a generation. I had to go find this. Right here it is. It's at a website called Flag and Cross. 'Democrat Candidate Says Next Generation of Whites Will 'Shoot Up Asian Churches.' This is not a joke," he said.
"So we have audio sound bites of this guy. His name is Andrew Yang. He is a big believer in universal basic income, and he has taken a strong stance publicly against circumcision. He 'revealed in a little-noticed tweet last week that he was against [circumcision]. In an interview with the Daily Beast, he said that if he were elected he would incorporate that view into public policy, mainly by pushing initiatives meant to inform parents that they don't need to [cut their infants foreskin] for health reasons," Limbaugh said.
"A presidential directive on anti-circumcision. You probably don't know that there is a thing called the National Organization Circumcision Information Resource Centers. NOCIRC. Now, you've heard me talk about them. I've talked about them over the years whenever the subject comes up. They've got videos. They've got visual aides. They give away all kinds of promotional material to people who will support the no-circumcision movement. They're out in San Francisco," he said.


text:
#pragma once

#include "il2cpp-config.h"

#ifndef _MSC_VER
# include <alloca.h>
#else
# include <malloc.h>
#endif

#include <stdint.h>
#include <assert.h>
#include <exception>

// System.Security.Cryptography.AsymmetricAlgorithm
struct AsymmetricAlgorithm_t1241690687;
// System.Byte[]
struct ByteU5BU5D_t4260760469;
// System.String
struct String_t;

#include "codegen/il2cpp-codegen.h"
#include "mscorlib_System_String7231557.h"

// System.Void System.Security.Cryptography.AsymmetricAlgorithm::.ctor()
extern "C"  void AsymmetricAlgorithm__ctor_m1763307756 (AsymmetricAlgorithm_t1241690687 * __this, const MethodInfo* method) IL2CPP_METHOD_ATTR;
// System.Void System.Security.Cryptography.AsymmetricAlgorithm::System.IDisposable.Dispose()
extern "C"  void AsymmetricAlgorithm_System_IDisposable_Dispose_m2114841139 (AsymmetricAlgorithm_t1241690687 * __this, const MethodInfo* method) IL2CPP_METHOD_ATTR;
// System.Int32 System.Security.Cryptography.AsymmetricAlgorithm::get_KeySize()
extern "C"  int32_t AsymmetricAlgorithm_get_KeySize_m3282676997 (AsymmetricAlgorithm_t1241690687 * __this, const MethodInfo* method) IL2CPP_METHOD_ATTR;
// System.Void System.Security.Cryptography.AsymmetricAlgorithm::set_KeySize(System.Int32)
extern "C"  void AsymmetricAlgorithm_set_KeySize_m503039102 (AsymmetricAlgorithm_t1241690687 * __this, int32_t ___value0, const MethodInfo* method) IL2CPP_METHOD_ATTR;
// System.Void System.Security.Cryptography.AsymmetricAlgorithm::Clear()
extern "C"  void AsymmetricAlgorithm_Clear_m3464408343 (AsymmetricAlgorithm_t1241690687 * __this, const MethodInfo* method) IL2CPP_METHOD_ATTR;
// System.Byte[] System.Security.Cryptography.AsymmetricAlgorithm::GetNamedParam(System.String,System.String)
extern "C"  ByteU5BU5D_t4260760469* AsymmetricAlgorithm_GetNamedParam_m3241367956 (Il2CppObject * __this /* static, unused */, String_t* ___xml0, String_t* ___param1, const MethodInfo* method) IL2CPP_METHOD_ATTR;

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Darling, be a pet and fire-up the engine.
Seems the wind just ran out of puff, again.
South-Eastern Australia enjoyed a few typically warm summers days last week and the weather pattern saw wind power output collapse – as it does more than 100 times every year. In our post yesterday we covered the resulting spike in wholesale power prices and "load-shedding" that saw small business owners in Victoria's coastal tourist Mecca, Port Fairy without power during the most lucrative month of the tourist season.
Wind power demonstrated, yet again, that it is truly an "infant" industry. However, as STT's already observed it's one infant that will never grow up.
We would all be rolling around the floor in fits of laughter if it wasn't so serious. You see, there are those among our political betters who are keen for more of the same.
But, at least a few of Australia's journos are catching on to the greatest economic and environmental fraud ever committed. Here's a cracking article from The Weekend Australian by STT Champion, Graham Lloyd.
WHEN electricity demand peaked at the height of this week's heatwave in southern Australia, the total power output from the fleet of wind farms across Victoria and South Australia was almost zero.
The doldrums that stopped wind power production about midday on Wednesday coincided with warnings from the Victorian government and the national electricity market operator that electricity users faced the possibility of blackouts.
Figures supplied by the Australian Energy Market Operator show that between 11.30am and 4pm on Wednesday, as demand hit a daily peak of 33029 megawatts nationally, wind's share of supply fell as low as 0.3 per cent. When the electricity price peaked at $6213 in South Australian on Wednesday in the half-hour to 4pm, wind was contributing 0.7 per cent to total demand.
The capacity factor (the amount of electricity produced compared with maximum rated capacity of the wind farm) fell as low as 4 per cent in Victoria and 2 per cent in South Australia.
In addition, graphs supplied by AEMO yesterday showed that throughout the week, demand for electricity and the capacity factor of wind generation had tended to move in opposite directions.
The squeeze on national electricity supply during the week was compounded by the failure of a high voltage cable at AGL's Loy Yang coal-fired power station, which took one unit offline for 40 hours. In addition, the Torrens power station was offline for about 20 hours after a steam leak.
Industrial electricity users were warned they would be the first to lose power supply if load shedding was required.
The failure of wind to continue supply at times of high demand this week has highlighted a long-standing argument about the impact of intermittent renewable energy on the stability and reliability of electricity networks.
AEMO has said the National Electricity Market allowed for existing coal and gas generators combined with "demand management" at industrial sites, to balance the varying output from wind.
The renewable energy industry has argued that wide distribution of wind farms would compensate for intermittent power generation at individual wind farms.
An AEMO spokesman said wind generation on the National Electricity Market "contributed a high percentage to the increased demand" on Thursday and yesterday. "Over time, the typical capacity factor of NEM wind averages about 33 per cent," he said.
STT says: "hats off, Graham". Another sizzling piece from one of the very few Australian journos who isn't afraid to do his job.
In yesterday's post we took a look at the debacle that is the Victorian energy market. We lapped up the new wind industry euphemism "low-yield wind week" tossed up by AGL as its glib response to the complete and utter failure of its 420 MW Macarthur operation to generate any meaningful output on 14 January 2014. AGL could have just come out and said "to hell with the small business owners at Port Fairy" who were left without a power supply, yet again, thanks to a completely unreliable power generation source which can only ever be delivered at crazy, random intervals.
STT is struggling to work out where the AEMO's claim for the "typical capacity factor" of "about 33 per cent" comes from? The catch could be in the rider "over time", but the annual capacity factor of all windfarms connected to the Eastern Grid is less than 28%.
STT's not sure about you, but we tend not to "average" our television viewing, computer use, air-conditioning needs or illumination requirements "over time".
STT might be orphans, but we tend to expect that when we switch on the light in order to tend to a crying baby in the middle of the night that bedroom light just might work.
When we kicked the kettle into gear for a brew this morning we also considered that the boiling water we were after was only a "click" away.
When it comes to power supply and demand the concept of "averages over time" is an "Alice in Wonderland" style nonsense that would make Humpty Dumpty proud.
Power is not consumed in "averages" or "over time". It's a "here and now" kind of proposition, for most of us.
Pop into a hospital and head to the cardiac ward – where you'll find any number of overweight, middle-aged executives hooked up to a bank of machinery – clinging to life – thanks to electricity.
The zipper boys are probably keen to have an around-the-clock power service – maybe because their lives depend upon it. While you're there, slip over to the neonatal unit and you'll find quite a few tiny, helpless premature babies in the same boat: hooked up to life supporting equipment, all chewing up power, around-the-clock.
as an "average over time"? Why on earth not?
Mining, mineral processing, industry and manufacturing don't work on "averages over time", either. Come to think of it there's no aspect of modern life that doesn't require electricity on-demand.
Next time you get off your flight – or arrive at a morning meeting – notice the rush to power terminals as travellers plug-in smart phones and ipads for that essential recharge. Sure, "the connected" last off-grid for a while, but the short battery lives of high-tech kit quickly drag them back to the nearest available power point.
The twaddle dished up by the AEMO about "averages over time" was the target of Paul Miskelly's cracking paper that showed just how vulnerable the Australian power grid is – due to the inherent unreliability and intermittency of wind power (see our post here).
It seems that – when it comes to wind power generation – the AEMO suffers from a defect in its understanding of what "unreliable" and "intermittent" means, so we'll draw them a picture (if the graphs below look fuzzy click on them, and they'll pop up in a new window and appear razor sharp).
South Australia is touted as one of the "wind power capitals of the world" – a dubious title, sure – particularly when South Australians are paying the highest power prices in the world. So let's have a look at its wind power output last Monday (13 January 2014).
From 10am to 7pm SA's huge fleet of fans couldn't top 120 MW (or more than 10% of total capacity) – and for most of that period produced half that, bottoming out at just under 60 MW (or 4.98% of total capacity) as demand picked up around Noon and climbed through the afternoon. Note the almost complete collapse in wind power supply occurs just when SA needed it most. Reliable stuff, wind power.
"Ah", says the greentard in retort, "but the wind is always blowing somewhere".
On the Eastern Grid Australia's wind farms are spread from: Jamestown in the Mid-North, west to Cathedral Rocks on lower Eyre Peninsula and south to Millicent in South Australia; down to Cape Portland (Musselroe) and Woolnorth (Cape Grim) in Tasmania; all over Victoria; and right up to Cullerin on the New South Wales Tablelands.
So, the argument goes, with the wind always blowing somewhere, there'll always be plenty of wind power to supply Australia's renewable energy "needs".
Well, here's another picture – same day – but this time covering the entire output of all the fans connected to the Eastern Grid.
From 10am from 5pm the entire fleet of fans connected to the Eastern Grid couldn't top 300 MW (or 11% of their total capacity of 2,660 MW) and for most of that 7 hour stretch struggled to produce 150 MW (or 5.6% of total capacity) and all as demand picked up (as usual) around Noon and rose into the afternoon.
Oh dear. That kind of kills the ol' chestnut about "the wind always blowing somewhere". The fans connected to the Eastern Grid are spread out over an area bigger than Texas and yet seem to take their daily sabbaticals on a collective "down-tools" basis.
If this wasn't so serious it would be the funniest joke ever told. Fortunately, for Australians the Head Boy, Tony Abbott is all set to scrap the RET, so the "gag" won't last for much longer.
NSW Premier "Barrel of Laughs" Barry O'Farrell is in on the "joke".
He's keen to imitate SA's energy market debacle with his own wind-rush.
Wind turbines are to energy grids, what sailboats are, to the shipping industry…..USELESS! Wind turbines are at best a novelty, or source of greentard entertainment…at worst, they are a hellish nightmare for all affected by the cost, the noise, and the destruction of our most beautiful lands.
The best punchline for this pathetic joke/scam….is prison time. These crooks have been getting away with this fiasco for long enough. We need to have investigations into how things could have gotten this bad, and whose heads are on the block.
WELL, WELL, WELL, the little wind weasel and greentard goons just don't get it. When we need power we need it, but the little fans are stopped and when we don't need power they are generating power into nothing.Wake up you GOONS, we need coal, gas and hydro so we have power all the time. GET REAL YOU GOONS or go to HELL.
Nuclear. All the power, all the safety record, none of the CO2, all the time.


The Cavs continued their hot play at home in the playoffs avoiding the sweep in a convincing Game 3 win.
The Cleveland Cavaliers avoided the dreaded 3-0 series hole with a resurgence 116-86 Game 3 blowout win over the Boston Celtics Saturday night.
It was the sixth straight win at home in the playoffs for the Cavs, while Boston now moves to 1-5 on the road.
LeBron James led the way for Cleveland with a game-high 27 points, 12 assists and five rebounds. Five other Cavs posted double-digits in scoring - George Hill and J.R. Smith bounced back from their poor performances in Boston with 13 and 11 points respectively.
Boston never led in the game and were down by as many as 30 points, they'll look to bounce back in a critical Game 4 on Monday.
11:02 p.m. ET - That's a wrap, wire-to-wire win for the Cavaliers. The Cavs "others" stepped up - they knocked down their threes (17-34) and we now have a series.
10:49 p.m. ET - Cavs still providing hightlight even in the blowout. Cedi to Larry for the flush!
10:19 p.m. ET - Big games bring out the big time celebs.
10:10 p.m. ET - LeBron finding Tristan not once but twice....Cavs pounding the Celtics inside, 30 points in the paint for Cleveland.
10:04 p.m. ET - Kevin Love is coming alive now offensively. Beautiful lead pass to LeBron for the hammer.
9:42 p.m. ET - LeBron rocks the party that rocks the body.
9:29 p.m. ET - 20 point lead for Cleveland. Cavs 8-for-13 from three...C's 2-for-8.
9:17 p.m. ET - Oh hi there Larry Nance Jr. - working the pick and roll nicely with Lebron in this second quarter. The supporting cast has brought it so far for Cleveland.
9:10 p.m. ET - LeBron has 12 points, 2-for-2 from three point range and one mean block on Aron Baynes. Get it out of here Aron!
8:59 p.m. ET - George Hill already has more points in this game (11) than he did in both Game 1 and 2 of the series combine (8).
8:59 p.m. ET - Cavs already 5-for-7 from three point range. J.R. Smith and George Hill both have hit triples. Things can't be going any better for the Cavs right now.
8:45 p.m. ET - First two Cavs baskets coming from George Hill and Tristan Thompson...good sign for the home team.
8:39 p.m. ET - Same starting lineup for both teams from Game 2. Tristan Thompson up front with Kevin Love. Can they impose their will on the offensive glass? Boston crushed the Cavs on the glass in Game 1, and hung tough in Game 2. Cavs need to take advantage of their ability to rebound.
8:33 p.m. ET - This game could go a long way into how the NBA's off-season plays out. Some fans already in full pitch mode.
8:25 p.m. ET - LeBron James leads the Cavs out in a must-win Game 3. The good news for Cavs fans is Cleveland is 5-1 at home in these playoffs. The only loss coming in Game 1 to the Indiana Pacers.
8:04 p.m. ET - Al Horford is averaging 17.5 points and 7.0 rebounds per game in the Eastern Conference Finals so far. He and Marcus Morris will be called upon to keep the young Celtics above water on the road.


text:
The New Daughter (2009)
Watch The New Daughter (2009)
Director: Luiso Berdejo
Starring: Kevin Costner, Ivana Baquero, Samantha Mathis
Writers: John Travis, John Connolly
#Q-F
Storyline:  The New Daughter (2009) John James is a writer; his wife has left him. He moves with his middle-school aged daughter and young son to an isolated house off a dirt road in South Carolina. The property has an Indian burial mound, which fascinates his daughter, Louisa, who's entering puberty. Strange things: noises on the roof and in the woods, the cat missing, Luisa sleepwalking clutching a straw doll no one's seen before. She visits the mound often, staying late, coming home covered with mud. John's younger son, Sam, is frightened. John learns the house has a history and seeks out the previous owner. Louisa's behavior becomes more bizarre. Is there an explanation? An ant farm and a missing babysitter provide clues.
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IRVINE, California, May 9, 2017 – MB Interim Leaders (MBIL) announced the successful appointment of the interim Head of Logistics at a multi-billion dollar national healthcare company.
This interim executive leader search was conducted by Rebecca Miller, MBIL's Vice President of Sales. After a recent vacancy by the Head of Logistics, the healthcare company had an urgent need for an interim Head of Logistics with large scale direct to consumer distribution and final mile optimization experience to streamline processes and efficiencies surrounding route optimization and scheduling. The interim leader placed by MBIL possessed this niche skillset and within a short time frame of MB Interim Leaders receiving the request, he was hired and placed onsite. Since his assignment began, he has effectively streamlined efficiencies and implemented changes to optimize the final mile distribution.
The interim leader has over fifteen years of experience leading operations and logistics teams at companies including Ann Taylor and Diedrich Coffee. He has held direct responsibility for reengineering processes for final mile deliveries in industries including floral and gifting, apparel, and food service.
Established by McDermott & Bull in 2011, MB Interim Leaders is the definitive interim executive leadership resource for companies seeking to address immediate challenges. McDermott & Bull has been redefining expectations within the world of executive search since 2001, and the advent of MB Interim Leaders powerfully equips the firm to service both the temporary and permanent needs of its clients. The firm's practice leaders, all of whom have substantial executive experience, are uniquely positioned to address the dynamic leadership demands of public and private companies across nearly every industry. Respected companies including Aramark, CoreLogic, Epson America, Hyundai Capital America, In-N-Out Burger, Kaiser Aluminum, Unified Grocers, Western Federal Credit Union (UNIFY Financial Credit Union), Broadcom, Cisco Systems, Chicken of the Sea, Western Digital, Golden State Foods, Google, Panda Restaurant Group, Honda Center/Anaheim Ducks, Comerica Bank, Union Bank, as well as portfolio companies owned by private equity firms such as Riverside Company, Sun Capital Partners, ClearLight Partners, Swander Pace Capital, Chicago Growth Partners, Atar Capital, and Riordan, Lewis & Haden, have all partnered with McDermott & Bull. Additionally, the firm's Executive Network program provides valuable resources for and offers opportunities to build meaningful relationships with thousands of C-Suite and VP-level executives throughout the country.


"PERFECT… I REALLY LOVE THAT!
The 10 track album 'BROTHERS & SISTERS', made in collaboration with renowned producer Nick Faber, released on Tru Thoughts in August 2016.
There have been glowing reviews from Blues & Soul magazine, The Guardian and The Independent (see Press).
Album tracks have received airplay on BBC 6 Music from Don Letts, Lauren Laverne, Craig Charles and Nemone, on BBC Radio 2 via Huey Morgan and Alex Lester, from Julie Adenuga on Apple Music Beats 1 as well as exclusives on FIP (Radio France).
Recent remixes have gained airplay on BBC Radio 1 from Annie Nightingale, The Tom Robinson Show on BBC 6 Music and Gilles Peterson's WorldwideFM.
The lead track 'Bata Boy' was released on Tru Thoughts in July 2016 as an EP package along with remixes from Steve Cobby (Fila Brasilia) and Wrongtom (Tru Thoughts).
The EP was received to critical acclaim across the UK and internationally, particularly in Japan, America and Australia.
The video was premiered on AFROPUNK and the track was featured on the Spotify USA weekly playlist and Bandcamp USA Weekly Radio.
Lauren Laverne included the track in the 'People's Playlist' on 6 Music, the Dizraeli remix of 'Bata Boy' was featured in BBC Radio 1 DJ Annie Nightingale's Autumn Statement and Best of 2016 Radio 1 shows, and the Wrongtom remix was featured on The Tom Robinson Show on BBC 6 Music.
The Rice & Peace EP released on Tru Thoughts in December 2016 with remixes from Dizraeli, V.B.Kühl, Dorylus, Captain Over and J-Felix (Tru Thoughts).
The So Sue Us EP released on Tru Thoughts in March 2017 with remixes from Origin One, Contours, Polyop, Rtmgsn, Sanjiao, Mangataot and Junction13.


Washington, DC - Flight Attendants, represented by the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA), reached a tentative agreement today with AirTran Airways. Mediated talks took place under the auspices of the National Mediation Board. The two-year agreement calls for pay increases and enhanced work rules. Specific terms will not be released until the over 2,000 Flight Attendants have had a chance to review the details.
"AirTran Flight Attendants deserve a contract that reflects the contributions we have made to the success of our carrier," said Alison Head, AFA AirTran President. "While AirTran Flight Attendants look forward to the opportunities ahead with Southwest Airlines, we remained committed to negotiating improvements that advance our careers immediately. Over the past five weeks, AirTran Flight Attendants have been picketing across the country, sending a message that we would not rest until we had a new agreement in place. The company responded by coming to the table with responsible proposals."
The tentative agreement will be sent out for membership review and ratification. The results will be counted on April 18. If ratified, the agreement would take effect May 1.
For over 60 years, the Association of Flight Attendants has been serving as the voice for Flight Attendants in the workplace, in the aviation industry, in the media and on Capitol Hill. Nearly 50,000 Flight Attendants at 21 airlines come together to form AFA, the world's largest flight attendant union. AFA is part of the 700,000-member strong Communications Workers of America (CWA), AFL-CIO. Visit us at www.afacwa.org.


I was sitting here tonight trying to think of ideas for a monthly prize for our workout competition and the one thing that kept coming to my mind was some type of gift basket. And one thing led to another, and I just kept coming up with all sorts of gift basket ideas.
Most of these would be great as rewards for working out, but they can also be used for anything else. These are easy to put together but because they take a little thought, I think they are more fun and unique than just buying a gift card. So here are my ideas for different gift basket ideas. When I say night off gift basket, I was thinking a night off from working out (for the workout competition).
Fun – rewarding yourself is important!


text:
Talk To A Rep
The 5 Modules PDF
Talk To A RepTalk To A Rep Get Started Login
Tips to Avoid CMS Noncompliance for Call Centers Selling Medicare Advantage Plans (MAPD)
This is a guest post by Scott Klonowski.
From the point of first contact all the way through the enrollment process, it's critical to stay compliant with guidelines from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and avoid noncompliance.
Noncompliance costs everyone money. Here are a few important ways to prevent and correct noncompliance:
Make Sure You Have Permission to Contact & Monitor Calls
According to CMS guidelines, agents cannot make unsolicited phone calls. Additionally, many parts of the U.S. require consent for calls to be recorded. It's important to be up to speed on state and federal regulations and ensure your agents are using the right language to obtain consent—in both incoming and outgoing calls.
Follow CMS Marketing & Language Guidance
CMS has clear guidance on their website about presenting information to potential enrollees. Avoid any potential to mislead contacts and refrain from using absolutes or superlatives to describe Medicare plans and benefits. CMS also advises that the term "free" should be avoided when speaking about reduced costs or $0 premiums.
Keep Health Information Safe
The Healthcare Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) exists to ensure security and privacy of patient health information, including Social Security numbers, IP addresses, images of their faces, account numbers, and more. It's important to make sure you all of your agents regularly receive proper training on HIPAA, and that your internal guidance restricts the ability to share personal health information with others.
Conduct Regular Reviews & Training
Training agents once and expecting them to remember every detail isn't sustainable. Through regular compliance training and access to updated knowledge about policies and procedures, you can ensure that your staff is knowledgeable about policy, and also knows where to look for relevant information if they have questions.
It's also important to monitor and audit adherence to the standards and programs in place. This helps inform your training, internal protocols, and other guidelines.
Streamline Your Processes
Often, reps get bogged down working with static scripts and navigating between screens or tools that aren't talking to each other. But there's a way to reduce stress, increase productivity, improve customer experience, and drive sales—all while ensuring compliance.
Cue offers a simple, integrated solution that streamlines workflows and tracks adherence to compliance requirements for insurance companies with phone-based sales and support reps. With dynamic and personalized scripts and real-time call and conversation analytics, both reps and their managers can operate with more support and peace of mind.
Scott Klonowski began his journey in insurance as a captive agent in 1993. In 2002, he started Klonowski Agency where he focused primarily on selling and servicing group health plans to small businesses in Northeast Ohio.
After 10 years of growth, Scott recognized that a Human Resources Administrative platform that companies could use to manage their benefits, payroll, timekeeping, and paid time off all in one place was missing from the market. With just a concept and no prior experience in building software, Scott started My1HR in November 2011 with his friend and business partner Glenn Leppo. In 2013, they built connectivity to HealthCare.gov for individual quoting and enrollment, and soon after built a quoting enrollment platform for independent agents, INSXCloud. After helping thousands of independent brokers and agents, Scott sold The Klonowski Agency in 2015 and My1HR in 2018.
Scott now uses his experience working with companies of every size to help business owners find success. From new companies gearing up for rapid growth to mature ones looking to sell (and every stage in between), Scott mentors and provides professional support and guidance to business owners to help them set and achieve their goals.
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The 35th Street Review
Like Staring Into A Mirror
Lloyd Moseby · Posted on May 2, 2008 May 4, 2008
Allow me to introduce a baseball team. A team with solid pitching and a lineup that has the potential to score a lot of runs. A team with a gigantic he–beast designed to close out games and inspire fear deep inside hitter's hearts. A team that is often overshadowed by its division rivals. A team that spends money, adds a few key pieces in the off-season yet can't quite draw attention from the "big guns" in the division with their "infinitely deep pockets" and "ability to fleece the Marlins." A team that won its division in 1993. A team that decided to build a symmetrical, concrete toilet-bowl stadium two years before everyone else realized that building a funky, baseball-specific park was a lot more fun. A team picked to finished third in its division by just about everyone.
The similarities between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Chicago White Sox are numerous, which makes sense considering Chicago and Toronto are basically the same city. In fact, if we apply a quick 90 degree rotation and disregard the Great Lake in question. . .
But as far as this baseball season goes, the similarities end there. The White Sox have gotten off to a quick start, jumping on the Tigers' terrible April and spending some time atop the division. The Jays, not so much.
Blue Jays fans and media types alike saw this as the year the Jays leapfrog the Yankees and/or the Red Sox. The Yankees are prime for the taking now, their mix of too young and too old just not working. But the Jays haven't been able to take advantage.
Pretty much everything that could have gone wrong has. Logically and financially sound personnel moves such as cutting loose not-quite-starting left-fielder Reed Johnson have backfired. I believe he ended up in a certain Midwestern city, making web gems and knocking around right-handed pitching unlike ever before.
On the field, nothing has gone right. A suicidal record in one run games (2-8), averages with runners in scoring position best viewed with a magnifying glass, and a batting order that on most nights seems picked out of a hat. The lowest slugging percentage in the American League, an arbitrary stat that I highlight simply because it points out that they don't hit many home runs, and they hit even fewer doubles. A rotation that features four men with more more quality starts than wins.
At this rate, the Jays would be lucky to finish third. As I said above, the vast majority of pundits and bloggers picked the Jays to finish third, just like the Sox. But do you know what everyone knows? Jack shit. Just as many White Sox bloggers and assorted South Siders told themselves, "Fuck those Tigers. Look at the size of those fat bastards. Hair farmers don't win shit." We keep a similar level of faith here in Torontopia.
The pitching has been as advertised, better even. A little luck and some better swings, and the wins will come. It is very somewhat I don't even know anymore they just keep losing likely that they will come at the expense of your Chicago White Sox.
Pitching Matchups
Mark Buehrle will get a front row seat to the "Best Pitcher You've Never Heard Of" show when he faces Shawn Marcum in the opener. Jon Danks and Jesse Litsch will try to keep their teams within a touchdown of each other on Saturday. Roy Halladay will make his next start on Sunday against everyone's favorite Cuban of dubious age. The Roy Halladay that has four consecutive complete games, more than every other team in baseball. That guy. He's pretty good. Javier Vasquez meets Dustin McGowan in a potential duel in the series closer Monday.
White Sox that I hope takes the weekend off
Nick Swisher. He beats the Blue Jays up and down. He's hit 5 home runs in his career at the dome. He's got brutal facial hair. He lent his old hairstyle to Anton Chigurh. Please be gentle Mr. Swisher.
In conclusion, this has been a most depressing exercise. I'd like to thank everyone at 35th Street Review for the cathartic opportunity. I'd wish the Sox luck this season, but I wouldn't mean it.
Lloyd the Barber Moseby can be found at Ghostrunner on First when he isn't trying to sell HGH to David Eckstein.
© 2020 The 35th Street Review
©2007-2010 The 35th Street Review.
"Retire? That's a joke. If you had this injury you would be on crutches right now. If the sun shines tomorrow, I'll play." - Bo Jackson on his hip injury


Summer is winding down. While fall does not "officially" begin until Friday, September 22nd, fall activities in Ontario are already on my radar. Fall is my favorite time of year. It's the time for apple picking, fall fairs, hot apple cider and of course a corn maze is a must-do on the fall activity bucket list. Perhaps I am bias, but in my opinion, Ontario does corn mazes best. Have fun answering trivia questions and working as a family to get out of the over 6 inch corn maze located at Cricklewood Farm apple orchard.
The farm is located between Brighton and Colborne, just over an hour east of Toronto and one hour west of Kingston. Cricklewood Farm apple orchard has 150 years of history behind it, and has been in the family for that entire time.
Since the early 2000s though, farm owners Beth and Brent Siwicky have designed and constructed corn mazes in various shapes, with proceeds going to help different charities. Each year in January, the farm selects a main charity and several smaller ones to support with proceeds from the corn maze. This year a percentage of the maze sales will be donated to the Prim Rose Donkey Sanctuary with the farms goal being $1500.
Celebrating it's 43rd year in operation the Prim Rose Donkey Sanctuary is an animal sanctuary in Roseneath, Ontario which is dedicated to the rescue, protection, and rehabilitation of abused, neglected, and unwanted donkeys. The sanctuary is about a two-hour drive northeast of Toronto.
My daughter, husband I paid a visit to the donkey sanctuary last summer. It is such a peaceful place, with so many gentle and trusting animals.
Some of the donkeys have been rescue from abuse and neglect, others given over when a caring owner was no longer able to care for them, or had passed away.
Although PrimRose is officially a Donkey Sanctuary, no needy large animal is ever turned away. The Sanctuary is open year round on Thursdays and Sundays from 1:00 – 4:00 pm. There is no admission fee, but donations are gratefully accepted.
Plenty of planning and hard work goes into prepping the corn maze for visitors. According to knowledgeable staff at the farm, constructing the maze took just over a month to complete.
The corm maze takes about 1 hour and 20 mins to walk through. There are escape routes on the corn maze should you decide to exit early. A toddler and grandparents maze is only 1/2 acre in size and is included in the regular maze admission price. It's short and easy to do, and a prize awaits your little ones return!
Maze designers have you complete a series of puzzles while in the maze. All puzzles are cleverly designed to teach about the Prim Rose Donkey Sanctuary and donkeys.
The "mini maze" is designed in the shape of horseshoes, to match this years theme. The mini maze takes about 20 min to complete.
Throughout the maze you'll find a serious of true and false questions that help guide you through the maze.
This weekend my husband, daughter and I had fun weaving through a maze in the shape of a donkey's head and through letters that spell out Prim Rose Donkey Sanctuary. You will be pleased to know that the path through the cornstalks are nice and wide and easy to walk through.
What a wonderful experience it was for not only our four year old daughter, but myself as well! My last time in a cornfield was actually in 2011, when my husband and I visited Cricklewood Farm apple orchard and made our way through the maze.
That year the farm partnered with the Lion's Foundation of Canada for Dog Guides. Thanks to all participants in 2011 the farm raised $1565.44 to help with dog guide expenses.
Cricklewood Farm also offers lots of fun activities once you're finish the corn maze. Other activities at this farm include a picnic area, play area, and photo ops.
The farm also offers pick your own apples, raspberries, and pumpkins as well as sweet corn and squash (11 different varieties). Pumpkins are usually available late September (depending on the season) and October. Prices depend on the pumpkin's size.
At Cricklewood Farms they grow 43 different types of apples. Paula Red apples were ready to pick when we were there. We didn't pick any, but a couple at the farm who were picking apples while we were there, told us that the apples were very nice.
A trip to the farm would not be complete without a stop to the market, which provides snacks, baked goods, cheese, honey, jam and gift items.
My daughter was of course drawn to the various stuffed animals and my husband couldn't leave without sampling the delicious home made tarts.
During the month of October, Cricklewood Farm hosts twilight walks. Imagine walking through the maze with a flashlight in the dark?
The farms Monster Hunt is an annual autumn event that visitors to the farm enjoy. Children and families hunt through the orchard for hidden monsters. Find them all and collect a small reward. Be sure to like Cricklewood Farm on Facebook or follow @CricklewoodFarm on Twitter for an upcoming date for the monster hunt.
More information on Prim Rose Donkey Sanctuary is available at www.primrosedonkeysanctuary.com. If you are interested in visiting the maze, the corn maze is open until Nov. 6. To learn more visit www.cricklewood.ca.
Do you know of another Ontario corn maze? Navigating a corn maze also makes for a fun date!
For more information and amazing stops to see while in the area, check out northumberlandtourism.com.
I can't wait to hit up our local corn maze here in the Niagara Region!!
This looks like a fun place. I will have to check it out closer to Halloween! I would love to do the twilight walks with my partner.


I started working in the Financial Services industry in 2001 and became a fully qualified Independent Financial Adviser in 2004 after achieving a degree in Maths and Sports Science from Birmingham University.
Within Margetts Wealth Management Ltd I focus primarily on the more technical and bespoke planning areas for corporate and high net worth clients, providing solutions in the areas of pensions, investment and tax planning.
To deliver a high quality service, I believe it is important to further my development and to keep pace with changing legislation and have therefore achieved the financial diploma status with the Personal Finance Society and hope to achieve Chartered Status in the near future (i.e. the highest grade of formal qualification available for an Independent Financial Adviser). I also hold specific advanced qualifications in Taxation and Trusts, Investments and Retirement Planning.
I have achieved my success in the industry by hard work and dedication and I always aim to provide clients with the best service possible. I believe this is key to building successful client relationships and a successful business.
Furthermore I always looks to provide proactive advice and servicing to clients and feel that the key to this is maintaining a comprehensive understanding of client's situations and objectives. I believe that clients always appreciate the time taken to listen to them and understand their requirements. I believe only then can we use our experience and knowledge to provide straightforward and effective solutions so that their requirements can be achieved.
In my spare time I enjoy spending my time with my Wife and 2 young children and like to keep fit… getting out on my mountain bike where I can!


Adoption of new technologies such as analytics, artificial intelligence in information system has enabled the auditor to examine and analyse large volumes of structured and unstructured data related to a company's financial information. This capability allows auditors to test 100 percent of a company's transactions instead of only a sample of the population. Major accounting firms have asserted that the use of these tools will enhance the audit by automating time-consuming tasks which are more manual and rote in nature.
North America was the largest geographic region in the market, accounting for more than one-third of the global market. The USA was the largest country accounting for nearly one-third of the global information system audit services market.
According to The Business Research Company's Consultant, Nitin Gianchandani, transparency is the new direct tax environment which is helping in focusing attention on tax collection. Tax activists are generating public awareness about tax bills. This created new laws at both national and international levels. For instance, OECD implemented base erosion and profit shifting project.
PwC was the largest player in the information system audit services market in 2017. PwC's growth strategy aims to strengthen its advisory division by expanding its services to small and medium, social enterprises.
The information system audit services market includes information system audit which involves the assessment of the controls relevant to the IT infrastructure within an organization. Information system audits may be performed as part of the internal control assessment during internal or external audit.
Information System Audit Services Global Market Report 2018 is a detailed report giving a unique insight into this market. The report is priced at $4000 for an individual user. To use across your office, the price is $6000 and $8000 if you wish to use across a multinational company.


It's kind of like some rechargeable batteries – they become less and less able to hold a charge over time. More charging and less powering. I was like that – less able to deal with adversity, less able to recharge, less able to think creatively. I think the real answer will be a sabbatical in 2010, but for now, I'm taking a break, looking at new habits that will help me to be healthy and effective.
I don't want to be like a worn out laptop battery, and I'm not planning on allowing myself to get so worn down that I can't do my job.
If you've lost your resiliency – especially if you're a pastor – it's worth the effort to recover that ability. For me this vacation is different than any other I've had. My focus this time isn't on escaping from my work but on allowing God to renew me, restore me, and transform me.


5. Have a regular presence on Twitter. I Tweet a lot more now than I did when I started out. More first goal was to Tweet four to six times each day, four or five days a week. I use Hootsuite to schedule my Tweets throughout the day. Do NOT send out all your tweets at once. This is called hogging the stream and is the height of bad manners!
9. Reply to others publically. Twitter is a public medium and people like to be mentioned. If someone says something nice about you, or mentions you, be sure to reply publically to thank them. I also keep a list of people who regularly mention me and try to find something they do that I can mention.
So I've compiled a list of 23 social media conversation starters for Authors. These should help you never be at a loss for words!
1. Now that hashtags have caught on for a lot of different social media platforms, ask your followers/friends to share their favorite hashtags.
2. Take advantage of the seasons and ask, "What are you reading this summer (fall, spring, winter, etc)."
Look no farther than the calendar for update inspiration.
3. Along the lines of following the calendar, get more specific. For example today is Lazy Day, World Lion Day, National Duran Duran Day, Skyscraper Appreciation Day, and National S'mores Day. It's also National Smile week—just think the social media updates you can create around those! I post the days for the month to come on the last Thursday of each month. Here's a link to August Calendar Days. You can also post questions about what week this is, and what month.
4. Share a new author you've discovered, and invite your followers/friends to do the same. The author doesn't have to be brand new—just new to you.
5. Post a cliche you hate to hear and ask others to post ones that irritate them.
6. One of my most popular social media updates was when I asked for favorite writing quotes. You can do an infinite variation on this by asking for quotes about love, family, mothers . . . you get the idea.
Share your favorite music to write by.
7. Share your favorite music to play while you're writing. Or even better, share a Spotify playlist.
8. Ask for recommendations for new movies.
9. We all grew up rolling our eyes (maybe only mentally) when mom came out with one of her sayings. Post one of your least favorites, and ask your followers to chime in with one of theirs.
10. In this day of smart phones and tablets, ask for app recommendations. People are always happy to share new things that help make life simpler.
11. Ask for help with your current writing project—such as naming a character or helping refine a non-fiction topic.
Share an image that inspires you.
12. Images are hugely popular, share one that inspires you.
13. Do a new take on What I Did Last Summer, and post what you did this summer, or fall, or last weekend.
14. If you like to cook (or even if you don't) share a recipe that you love or one you want to try.
15. Make a list and share your favorite people to follow on that specific social media network. For example, a list of favorite Instagram or Twitter accounts.
16. Share something from your bucket list, and ask for your followers to share something on theirs.
17. Post a funny video and ask others to comment or post one they love.
18. Put together a nonsensical list—like your favorite Dr. Seuss words or funniest oxymorons—and ask your followers to add to the list.
19. Post the link to a devotion that inspired you today and ask others to do the same.
20. On TBT (Throwback Thursday) post a picture from your childhood.
Take a vocabulary test and share the results.
22. Ask your followers for ideas of what to share on social media.
23. Post your favorite line from a movie, and ask people to guess which movie it's associated with.
As you can see, the list could go on and on and on. The key to always having something to say on social media is to keep a list of ideas of what to talk about. Otherwise, if you're like me, when you're ready to share something your mind goes blank.
So now it's your turn. What would you add to my list? Don't be shy, share your thoughts in the comments section below.
Twitter, as many of you already know, is my Social Media Sweet Spot—my easy button, if you will. It's my go-to place to send and receive information. Because of that, I compose all my social media updates from a Twitter mindset. So no matter where I'm sending the update, I compose it with Twitter in mind.
I know that Twitter is NOT the sweet spot for many of you reading this blog.
Part of that is because you're not really sure what constitutes a good tweet. You've heard just enough about hashtags and twitter etiquette to make you cringe at the thought of composing your own tweet. So rather than failing, you either stick to retweeting what others share or just pass on the whole thing.
Today, I'm going to break it down for you and share my tips to composing the (almost) perfect tweet every time.
I have four types of updates I share on Twitter (and all social media).
An insightful quote or thought.
A question to get the conversation started or make us think.
Something funny, because let's face it, we all need to laugh.
A link to information I find valuable and think will enrich your life.
But What IS a Perfect Tweet?
The definition can vary widely, depending on who you ask. But since you're reading my post, I'm going to give you my definition.
A perfect tweet makes someone's life a little bit better, and does so in a way that's easy to share with others.
There are certain things that good tweets have. Not every tweet will have every one of these, but here are the list of things that make a tweet good.
An attention grabbing headline—this is the main focus of your tweet and can be a statement or a question. It makes others what to learn more, take action, join the conversation and/or share what they've read.
A clear attribution—I'm a writer, so authorship is important to me. If someone says something brilliant, I really want them to get the credit. So when possible, I include the person's name and/or twitter handle. (A twitter handle is your Twitter user name. My Twitter handle is @EdieMelson).
Hashtags—stop groaning! You knew I was going to include this one. A hashtag is a number sign (#) that's put in front of a group of letters and/or numbers. This makes that particular topic searchable anywhere within the Twitter universe. There is a specific number of hashtags that's ideal. For the highest number of shares, use two. One is good, two is best, three or more is not so good.
A link—if you're referencing something you've found online, you'll want to include the URL. Be sure to shorten the link. Hootsuite will do it for you, but if you don't use Hootsuite or a scheduling program, I recommend www.bitly.com. If you're just posting a question or a quote, there's not always a reason to include a link.
There is a general order in the way you arrange the components of your tweet.
Do NOT start your tweet off with an @ sign (Like @EdieMelson) unless you are replying to something I said. A reply tweet will only be seen by those who follow BOTH you and the person you're replying to.
Hashtags can be used at the beginning, middle or end or your tweet. But the best way to use them is organically, within the body of the tweet. Second would be toward the end. Lastly, at the beginning.
Finally, we all know Twitter limits tweets to 140 characters. But I do NOT recommend you use all 140 characters. For one, if someone retweets your update, something will get lopped off the end of the tweet because the retweeters info will be added to the beginning of the tweet.
So ideally, keep your tweet to under 120 characters. But remember, this is just a guideline, not a hard and fast rule!
Tips for Composing Effective Social Media Updates—is my headline, my attention grabber.
#SocialMedia and #Writing—are the two hashtags I've chosen to use. They reflect the focus of the tweet and are popular hashtags.
@EdieMelson—is my attribution. I used it in this tweet because I'm composing the tweet for ClickToTweet, which means someone else will be sending the tweet out. If I was just sending this out, I would NOT use @EdieMelson because the tweet would originate with my Twitter account and everyone already knows it's me.
http://bit.ly/1LZyiMe—is my shortened URL or Link. This URL will take the person clicking on it directly to this post.
2. What if the person I'm referencing doesn't have a Twitter handle or I don't have time to research it? People who don't include their social media info is a big pet peeve of mine. If it's not easy to find, or you can't find it, just use the person's name.
3. What if I don't have room for everything? This happens frequently with Twitter. After all, we only have 140 characters. If I don't have room to include the author of the post and the blog name, I prioritize and use the author's name. If I don't have room to use two hashtags, I only use one. The key is to stay flexible and don't overthink this.
4. Do I have to always use two hashtags? No, use the hashtags that make sense and what you have room for.
Now it's your turn. What questions do you have about composing updates? Do you have format you like to use? Be sure to leave your thoughts in the comments section below.
Then I schedule the posts to post throughout the day. That takes me about 20 minutes.
Then, several times a day (about every hour or hour-and-a-half) I check my Hootsuite account to see if anyone has mentioned me, or answered a question. I can rejoin the conversation and have meaningful dialogue without being chained to the Internet all day.
Now, the best way to explain how to set up Hootsuite is to walk you through it, step by step.
First, go to www.Hootsuite.com and set up a FREE, personal account. Start with a free account and if you need more, you can move to the paid version. For most, the free account does everything needed. The only difference between the paid and free version is how many platforms you can have. The free version offers 3, the paid offers many more.
Once you have that done, you can move on to the steps below.
Adding additional social networks to your Hootsuite page is simple. All you need to do is click on your picture in the sidebar. This will give you the menu pictured in the screenshot below.
You can see that I currently have one Twitter profile, three Facebook profiles, and one Google + profile. If I wanted to add a profile, I'd first have to delete one of these because the free version of Hootsuite only allows you five profiles.
Deleting a profile is also simple. Click on a profile and a COG icon appears. Click the COG icon and you'll get the dropdown menu you see pictured in the screenshot below when I clicked on the BLUE RIDGE MOUNTAINS profile.
One other thing you can do with this dropdown menu is SYNC AVATAR. Your avatar is the picture that appears with a particular social media profile. You'll notice on the screenshot above that my Facebook Author Profile, doesn't have a picture. For some reason, it disappeared. All I had to do to get it to reappear was to click on SYNC AVATAR.
Another one of my favorite options in Hootsuite is the ability to decide what streams I want and where I want them. For those not familiar with Hootsuite, a stream is a column of information. It can be from any of your social media profiles, Twitter, Facebook. LinkedIn, Google +, whichever you choose. Below is a screenshot of how I have my first three streams set up.
A mention column that tells me when someone mentions me on Twitter.
All my scheduled social media updates.
Here's how to customize which streams you have show up on your page. There is a limit on the number of streams you can have on a Hootsuite tab. You can only have ten. But personally, I don't find a need for near that many.
To customize your streams, you'll first click on ADD STREAM. This will bring up a pop-up window. You can see mine in the screenshot below.
You can customize your streams within each of your social media profiles (Twitter, Facebook, etc) You can also do a search for a topic or keyword, and you can compose a list within this application. I recommend you take time to play around with this part of Hootsuite to get familiar with the hundreds of combinations and options.
You can change the order your streams appear on the screen by clicking on the blue header at the top of the stream and dragging them where you want them to go.
And, if you decide you no longer want a specific stream, click on the arrow on the right corner of the stream's blue header and choose DELETE STREAM.
With these basics, you'll be able to personalize your Hootsuite page to make interacting on different social media networks simpler.
Now it's your turn. Ask any questions you have in the comments section and also let us in on any tips you have when managing your Hootsuite account.