My name is Stephanie Schafer and I am a Regulatory Engineer at Dell. What does that mean? I lead the sustainable materials program and responsible for using 100M lbs. of recycled content and other sustainable materials in Dell products by the year 2020. In other words, I do the science that turns “trash” into treasure.It’s a great job. I get to work with all sorts of crazy materials like scrap carbon fiber from aerospace, plastics from water bottles, and my favorite, gold from our own e-waste. In fact, I helped kick off the recycled gold pilot in our Latitude 5285 2-in-1 and the recycled gold jewelry line in collaboration with Bayou with Love.Here’s a video that will give you a glimpse into how cool my job is:With Earth Day around the corner, I’m excited to share that we’re offering an exclusive “gold” special. Purchase a select beautiful Rose Gold XPS 13, and receive a custom “One Earth” gold ring, designed by Nikki Reed’s Bayou with Love just for Earth Day. The collection is made from the gold responsibly extracted from computer motherboards recovered through Dell’s recycling programs and the blue stone is inspired by the beautiful blue that covers most of our planet.The jewelry is beautiful, but it’s certainly more than just that. It a reminder of the beauty that can come from our “waste” and the role we all play in ensuring responsible recycling. It also helps us fulfill our commitment to recycle 100 million pounds of waste in an innovative way.  So wear it proudly!I hope you take advantage of this promotion and I also hope you join me in spending Earth Day finding simple ways to clean up our planet and support sustainable design! read more

In response to low student attendance at games despite winning seasons, the Notre Dame Athletics Department announced all student tickets for men’s basketball and hockey will be free for the 2015-16 season.Assistant director of athletics Brian Pracht said the department is hoping free tickets will draw more students to the games.Michael Yu | The Observer “ … the early results, based on the past couple days, have been unbelievable. So now, our hope is that the show rate for those students is going to be higher than it was in the past,” Pracht said. Pracht said that in the past, student ticket plans for basketball have been made available for purchase in the months leading up to the season.“Men’s basketball had a season pass, which we sold to provide admission to all the home games. If tickets were still available on game day, students could still walk up to the box office and buy a ticket for the game that day,” Pracht said. Despite high ticket sales, however, many of these passes went unused during the regular season.“The challenge we were having is the low percentage of use on those tickets we sold. So last year, we had probably about 30% use by those students who had purchased tickets,” he said. “Now obviously that left a pretty big void. Some of those games were full, some games it was less than 30 percent. That average was actually just 30 percent, so you can imagine those big swings in tickets that left those huge blocks of seats open.”The athletics marketing department faced a similar challenge with hockey as well. In past years, students could purchase season passes for hockey games to ensure tickets, or show up on game day and get a limited number of student tickets for free, Pracht said.While this system worked well for the students, Pracht said it created a challenge because more students relied on day-of tickets than season passes, so there was no way of knowing how many students were planning on attending the game on any given day. “Sometimes we exceeded capacity and had to turn students away, which is not a great thing to do. Other times, we had a bunch of empty seats that we could have, quite frankly, sold to the public, had we known that students weren’t going to use them for that particular night,” he said. He said the athletic department’s ultimate goal was to create a system that would maximize student attendance.“Our first and top priority has always been trying to get as many students in the door as possible, so that was always our goal. As we started having those meetings with focus groups, that really remained our central ideal,” Pracht said. After several weeks of trying different ideas, the athletic department ultimately decided to eliminate the season pass altogether and make tickets complimentary across the board for both sports. “But that only solved one of the problems,” Pracht said.The other challenge the department faced lay in anticipating student attendance numbers, he said.“The athletic department was very willing to give up the season ticket revenue for the students to make [tickets] free, but we still needed to know — ‘Are the students coming?’” he said. Pracht said in order to have accurate estimates of attendance prior to games, students must claim their free tickets online roughly two weeks in advance of a block of games.“We decided to allow students to claim tickets on the website, so then they can request those tickets, and then we can distribute those tickets electronically, which we’ve been doing anyway,” he said. “ … We wanted to set these deadlines far enough out so that we could know, with some certainty, how many students were coming to each game. So we’re putting these games in blocks, and that gives us some time to figure out the demand for each game.”Pracht said the numbers so far have been encouraging but that it would take several months for the department to see if and how well the system was working . “The demand is so much higher already that we feel really good that ultimately, our new system is going to put more students in the student section, which was our goal,” he said. “We haven’t seen it in action yet, with the exception of fall break, but the first games coming up, we’ll see if it’ll work out.”Tags: Hockey, Men’s Basketball, student tickets read more

MGN ImageLITTLE VALLEY – The 49th case of COVID-19 was reported in Cattaragus County on Monday afternoon.The Cattaraugus County Health Department says the latest case is a male resident who resides in the southeast corner of the county, with recent travel history to Ohio.Officials say the man developed a headache but has been asymptomatic for the most part. He was tested for COVID-19 on May 8 as part of a pre-op exam for an upcoming elective surgical procedure and his test results on May 10 indicated that he was positive for the virus.The department says they have now begun a thorough contact tracing investigation for those individuals that he has been in contact with and the places that he has visited. “We would like to reiterate that if any resident experience fever, cough, shortness of breath or whole body aches they should contact their health care provider (and) avoid going directly to an Urgent Care facility, or the Emergency Room before calling,” said officials. “I an effort to determine the prevalence of COVID-19 in our community, any resident interested in getting tested, can register for a test at cattco.org/covid-19-test, call 716-938-9119 or 716-938-2265.”They continue to ask residents to hunker down, and avoid any non-essential travel, especially to areas where there is community wide spread of COVID-19.As of Monday afternoon, there are currently 16 active cases in Cattaraugus County, with 31 recovered and two deaths related to the outbreak. Share:Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window) read more

FacebookTwitterLinkedInEmailPrint分享St. Louis Post-Dispatch:President Donald Trump has had some trouble with his promise to “end the war on beautiful, clean coal.” Coal companies are doing well, but only about 600 of the 42,000 miners who lost their jobs between 2012 and 2016 have gone back to work, government statistics show. Trump has falsely claimed that 45,000 mining jobs have been restored.Lying didn’t work, so now the administration is considering direct taxpayer subsidies to the coal industry, and possibly the nuclear power industry. Bloomberg News reports the president may invoke the Defense Production Act of 1950, declaring that national security requires nationalizing the energy industry. Here’s an idea that tree-hugging liberals and free-market conservatives can all hate. The Defense Production Act was passed in 1950, at the outset of the Korean War, to give the president permission to seize vital industries in wartime—something presidents had done without permission during both world wars. The act has been invoked several times since 1950 for short-term emergencies. During the oil crisis that followed the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979-80, the act was amended to include “energy” as a “strategic and critical material.”But the United States isn’t at war today, not in any sense that would disrupt energy supplies. Thanks to shale oil and gas, and to the growing use of wind and solar power, the nation has a surplus of generating capacity. As older coal-fired and nuclear generating stations are taken out of service, new gas-fired plants and alternative energy sources have more than replaced their capacity. So if Trump were to declare that national security requires that taxpayers prop up coal-fired plants, coal mines and older nuclear stations, it would be for political reasons, not because of any threat to national security. Indeed, the opposite is the case. The Pentagon says that global warming—to which atmospheric carbon dioxide from burning coal is a major contributor—is a major security concern.Coal is not in trouble because of government regulation but because of environmental and economic factors inherent in the dirtiest of fossil fuels. Any bailout would be money up in smoke.More: Editorial: Struggling Coal Companies Are Not A National Security Issue Editorial: U.S. Coal Bailout Isn’t in the National Interest read more

“Traditionally during their first year of release they head down to Central and South America,” said John Stokes with Wings to Soar. “After their first migration they head back to the area in which they were released.”  LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN, Ga. Rock City has continued its partnership with Wings to Soar in an ongoing peregrine falcon restoration project to reestablish the breed to this region. A pair of siblings, one male and one female, have been in a hack box at Rock City since June 13 to prepare for release into the wild. This is only the second time a female has been released from Rock City. At 25 days old upon arrival, the birds are to remain in the hack box until their planned release at sunrise on July 3.  Rock City has held a naming contest for its social media followers over the last week to submit bird name suggestions on their Facebook page. The winner to be announced the day of the release, receives a free night’s stay at RiverView Inn on Lookout Mountain, as well as a family pass to see Rock City. Most of the previous names have also been chosen via social media: Garnet, Frieda, Rocky, Ted, Zenith, Chatty, Lookout, Fourscore, Orville, Wilbur, Lewis, Clark, Heckle and Jeckle.  This is the seventh pair of birds and ninth peregrine release from the hacking site, bringing the total number of birds released to 16 since the project’s inception in 2006. The falcons have come once again from Andy Kramer, a breeder in Minnesota. Live from the hack box, viewers can watch the birds anytime on the webcam feed at www.seerockcity.com/birds!  John and Dale Stokes with Wings to Soar also host Rock City Raptors Birds of Prey Shows every Friday through Sunday during the summer through Labor Day and daily June 28 – July 7.  Rock City Gardens is continuing a legacy of environmental efforts, sustainability and land conservation. Rock City, high atop Lookout Mountain is just six miles from downtown Chattanooga, Tennessee. A consistent stewardship program has preserved Rock City Gardens as a showcase of more than 400 different wildflowers and plants native in the mountain area. read more

Sign up for our COVID-19 newsletter to stay up-to-date on the latest coronavirus news throughout New York A homeless suspect was arrested for allegedly threatening to kill a man and shoot parishioners in a Baldwin church on Easter Sunday, Nassau County police said.Jose Rodriguez was charged with menacing, disruption or disturbance of a religious service, funeral, burial or memorial service, and making a terroristic threat.First Squad detectives alleged that at 6:32 p.m. the 50-year-old suspect approached a parishioner he knew at Inglesia Despirtar Church on Grand Avenue, put his fist up to the victim’s face and stated he was going to kill him.Rodriguez then placed his hand at his pants pocket, indicating that he had a weapon, and said out loud that he was going to come back to shoot the victim and other worshipers in the church, causing them to fear for their safety. Then he left on foot, police said.First precinct officers apprehended Rodriguez a short distance away. No weapon was recovered. He will be arraigned Monday at First District Court in Hempstead. read more

7SHARESShareShareSharePrintMailGooglePinterestDiggRedditStumbleuponDeliciousBufferTumblr,Pete Keers Pete serves as an Engagement Manager at OnApproach. He has over 20 years of management reporting, information systems, and project management experience. He has held leadership roles in both business … Web: www.onapproach.net Details Credit unions are ramping up their adoption of Big Data & Analytics. The frustration with valuable business information being trapped in multiple data silos has boiled over. Projects to integrate these disparate data sources into a single source of truth are being launched every day. Now, many credit unions have the ability to slice and dice their data and drill from individual transactions up to aggregated totals.Behind the scenes, a complex data structure has been constructed that is specially tuned to allow a multitude of questions to be asked. Experienced technical report writers who understand this architecture are able to mine the depths of these structures to handle a multitude of questions that were previously almost impossible to answer.The next natural step in the Big Data & Analytics evolution is pushing out ad hoc reporting to the broader organizational audience. Yet, this turns out to be more difficult than anticipated. Less technical personnel are faced with a blizzard of arcane data names and a mountain of hard-to-understand tables. They are forced to be dependent on the technical report writers for any new reporting. The nimble nature of the Big Data & Analytics opportunity is lost for them.These less technical employees make up the majority of the credit union’s workforce and, if they could do reporting themselves, would be the most valuable users of the Big Data & Analytics tools. Yet, those who are most in need of the information are the least able to obtain meaning from this incredible resource. It is as if a magnificent transportation system was built but ended a mile short of the where the travelers live.Does this mean credit unions are forced to rely solely on scarce technical resources to accomplish anything with Big Data & Analytics? Fortunately, there is a solution that can fulfill the goal of “self-service” reporting. A semantic layer can be developed to bridge the “last mile”.The definition of “semantic” relates to the meaning of something. Non-technical users have a difficult time deriving meaning through direct access of the data structure. The names of data elements are unfamiliar and the structure is purposely designed to perform efficiently using programming languages such as SQL.A semantic layer is created by the very technical folks who were previously forced to be the bottleneck. These are the experts who thoroughly understand the complexities of the data structure. They also know how to translate technical jargon into recognizable business names and organize them into a format that seems logical to the front-line business person. The result is non-technical users can create queries and build reports based on terminology that is familiar and meaningful.Creating a Semantic Layer is a virtual necessity if a credit union hopes to push the power of Big Data & Analytics out to the wider organization. However, it is far from trivial to construct. Despite the name, a Semantic Layer is not a monolithic object. It is better described as a technique for bringing the data closer to the user in a meaningful way.Also, multiple versions of a Semantic Layer usually need to be built based on subject matter. For example, a Semantic Layer of loan data would make it easier for ad hoc questions to be asked by the lending team. The Accounting and Finance group will need a Semantic Layer focused on the general ledger. Operations will need a version that focuses on branches. Marketing may need both a Semantic Layer that focuses on campaign management and one the is geared for geo-demographic analysis.To design and build these varieties of versions, developers will need very solid requirements from the business. Business users must be highly engaged in specifying the types of reporting and analytics they plan to do. This includes the required levels of granularity, the types of time series, and typical calculations used.Once in place, the beauty of the Semantic Layer is readily apparent. In most cases, typical reporting and analytics tools can easily access the underlying data. This is a pleasant surprise to many organizations that previously purchased expensive reporting software only to find there was a considerable amount of technical configuration necessary to make it work.It will take a strong organizational commitment to build the Semantic Layer, especially after an already large effort to implement the overall data structure upon which it is based. However, if credit unions want to complete the “Last Mile”, the Semantic Layer is the road that will lead to truly realizing the promise of Big Data & Analytics. read more

By raising the festival flag Libertas with verses Hymns of freedom on Monday, July 10 at 21:00 pm in front of the Church of St. Vlaho, the 68th Dubrovnik Summer Festival will be officially opened, which will traditionally be held until August 25 this year as well.In 47 days, at more than 15 ambient locations, approximately 2.000 artists from all over the world will perform about 60.000 drama, music, opera, ballet, folklore and other programs in front of an international audience of 80 domestic and foreign visitors. “The financial plan envisages a total budget of HRK 12,250,000, of which public funds are around HRK 8,5, and own revenue and ticket revenue amount to HRK 2 million, while sponsors and donors supported us with HRK 1,6 million. They contributed to the increase of the financial plan compared to last year, so I take this opportunity to thank the new sponsors Mastercard® and Tele2, but also HEP, Kraš, Adriatic luxury hotels and many other loyal sponsors support our artistic efforts and recognize our creative strength and potential. I will also point out the amount of additional 200.000 kuna for investments provided by the City of Dubrovnik, which is an incentive to strengthen this segment of the institution’s business in the next 4 years of my term, which is necessary if we want to be a strong partner to the city. ” pointed out the director of the Games Ivana Medo Bogdanović, referring to the stable financial structure of the 68th Games.67th DUBROVNIK SUMMER GAMES IN NUMBERSWhat is the significance, size and importance of the Dubrovnik Summer Festival is sometimes best shown in numbers, so let’s start in order… Dubrovnik Summer Festival last year brought together almost 2.000 artists from around the world who in 47 days from July 10 to August 25 at 17 stage and ambient locations of the city of Dubrovnik and its surroundings, in front of 60.000 domestic and foreign visitors performed 93 drama, music, dance, folklore, film and art programs.93 programs were successfully performed at 17 ambient locations, as well as 21 concerts featuring orchestras, chamber ensembles and soloists demonstrating skill in many styles and performing a variety of musical genres. A new program called Towards the Future was realized, which presented young virtuosos, winners of prestigious international music awards.Approximately 67 visitors saw the programs of the 60.000th Dubrovnik Summer Festival, and from July 1 to August 24, the official website of the Games www.dubrovnik-festival.hr recorded almost 40.000 unique visitors from countries from all continents according to the recognized methodology of “Google Analytics”. world, most of them from Croatia, the UK, USA, Italy, Serbia, Germany and Austria.In addition to a rich drama, film, dance, music, folklore and accompanying program, 9 press conferences were held and 118 press releases were sent. 223 media representatives were accredited to cover the Games, of which 122 were local journalists, 40 local photographers and cameramen, and 20 journalists and cameramen from foreign newsrooms.The Games were covered by numerous media and more than 500 articles about the Games were published in domestic and foreign newspapers, and over 1000 on news portals. The festival gained significant media space on national television stations and local television, and great interest from domestic and foreign media resulted is with almost 2000 media releases.67. Games recorded a 6% increase in online ticket sales compared to last year, as well as an increase in agency sales. The Dubrovnik Summer Festival was founded in 1950, when numerous theater and music events took place throughout Europe, and rightly bears the title of the leading cultural institution in Croatia and as one of the five most prominent European cultural festivals.Take a look at the rich program of events of the 68th Dubrovnik Summer Festival on the official ones web site read more

Topics : Up to now, the number of known asymptomatic cases has been classified, and it is not included in the official data, though the South China Morning Post newspaper, citing unpublished official documents, recently said it was more than 40,000.In an effort to dispel public fears about hidden cases of the virus, the government has this week ordered health authorities to turn their attention to finding asymptomatic cases and releasing their data on them.Health authorities in Liaoning province were the fist to do so on Wednesday, saying the province had 52 cases of people with the coronavirus who showed no symptoms as of March 31, they said in a statement on a provincial government website.Hunan province said it had four such cases, all of them imported from abroad, it said in a statement on its website. Chinese health authorities began on Wednesday reporting on asymptomatic cases of the coronavirus as part of an effort to allay public fears that people could be spreading the virus without knowing they are infected with it.China, where the coronavirus emerged late last year, has managed to bring its outbreak under control and is easing travel restrictions in virus hot spots.But there are concerns that the end of lockdowns will see thousands of infectious people move back into daily life without knowing they carry the virus, because they have no symptoms and so have not been tested. The National Health Commission is due to start reporting aggregate, national data on asymptomatic cases later on Wednesday.There is debate among experts about how infectious asymptomatic cases are but the commission has said all cases would be centrally quarantined for 14 days.It said 1,541 people with asymptomatic coronavirus infections were under observation as of the end of Monday.China has had more than 81,000 cases of the coronavirus and 3,305 deaths.  read more

10 Moana Park Avenue, Broadbeach Waters Qld 4218. Picture: Realestate.com.auA CANAL house in one of Queensland’s hottest locations has had its asking price slashed to $829,000.The three bedroom, single bath, four car garage home is on a large 746sq m block, has a pool and outdoor entertaining areas, water access and good proximity to shops, restaurants, transport, beach and casino.It was “reduced from (an) initial price of $888,000 in September 2017”, said SQM Research head Louis Christopher.“Some larger properties in the street sold for over $1 million,” he said. “No doubt the home offers loads of potential and it could be a great opportunity to purchase a property in a prestige cul-de-sac.” Ready for the next owner.“The area is looking promising for property investors,” Mr Christopher said.Gross rental yield was “currently sitting at 3.54 per cent, showing a slight increase from 3.51 per cent in early September and current residential vacancy rates at 1.2 per cent, a small decrease from 1.24 per cent in August 2017”, he said. More than enough entertainment space.More from newsMould, age, not enough to stop 17 bidders fighting for this homeless than 1 hour agoBuyers ‘crazy’ not to take govt freebies, says 28-yr-old investorless than 1 hour agoA home three doors down sold for $1.1m in September last year.Agent Rod Martin of John Reid Real Estate said the home at 10 Moana Park Avenue, Broadbeach Waters, had water and beach access but no pontoon to tie a boat up to.“Technically it’s not a waterfront property,” he said. “There’s a council grass verge behind it, so you can’t have a boat there. You could keep a tinny on your block and take it down the access though.”It was listed as having built in robes in all three bedrooms, one updated bathroom, modern kitchen with quality appliances, separate lounge and dining. It was also freshly painted, with new carpets and has water views and sandy beach access. HIGH LIFE: Penthouse sold for less than $1m COASTAL RISE: Sun, sand, surf ride property wave NEWS: Add your email to get The Courier-Mail’s real estate news direct to your inbox According to CoreLogic, the property’s most recent asking rent was $620 a week in June this year. It last sold in May for $720,000, underwent a major renovation and was put back on the market in September for $888,000 and now reduced to $829,000, the data said.Mr Christopher said it was important to “keep doing your research” with asking prices for three bedders in the postcode having decreased marginally (0.3 per cent) over the month and -4.9 per cent over the quarter – though they had grown 21.3 per cent over 12 months.*FOLLOW Sophie Foster on Twitter @SophieFoster or Facebook @SophieFoster.Journalist The pool looks out to the canal. The house was built in 1980 according to CoreLogic records. The facade is not ostentatious. read more