; Credit: Courtesy Randy Newman

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Oscar the Grouch. (Photo: Neilson Barnard/Getty Images); Credit: Neilson Barnard/Getty Images

Read the full article at LAist

In this file photo, job seekers line up to enter Choice Career Fair at the Los Angeles Convention Center on December 1, 2010 in Los Angeles, California. Overall, the number of unemployed Californians ticked up by 1,000 over the month to nearly 1.4 million for August 2014, but the rate remained unchanged, at 7.4 percent. The national unemployment rate is down to 6.1 percent.; Credit: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

California's unemployment rate is unchanged for a third month, holding at 7.4 percent in August.

The California Employment Development Department reported Friday that the state added 44,200 nonfarm jobs during the month, bringing the state total to 15.5 million in August.

Last month's gains mean the state has added 1.4 million jobs since February 2010, when the jobless number hit a peak of 12.4 percent.

Overall, the number of unemployed Californians ticked up by 1,000 over the month to nearly 1.4 million. The national unemployment rate is down to 6.1 percent.

Construction posted the largest increase over the month, adding 13,600 jobs. Manufacturing, financial activities, business services, education, health, leisure and government all added jobs in August.

Trade, transportation and utilities, along with information, posted job losses of 8,300.

Housing sales gain ground and green construction continues to grow.

Hampton Inn & Suites Atlanta Airport Hotel (North I-85) provides affordable accommodations to guests attending the Atlanta Camping and RV Show at Atlanta Expo Center South from January 25-27, 2013.

The Victorian Government has secured the right for Melbourne to continue to host the Australian leg of the world’s largest digital games festival, the Penny Arcade Expo Australia (PAX Aus), for the next five years until 2019.

Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Bullock

• bond markets pretty well behaved globally
• bond markets reflecting increasing government debt
• think we are restrictive enough, will stay there until confident on inflation

More:

• recent inflation had both supply- and deand-sdie components
• aim is to lower inflation
• prices not going back to pre-covid level, that would be deflation and not going to have that

The time for tough decisions is coming for the Colorado Avalanche.

A Manitoba priest accused of sexually assaulting a now-nine-year-old girl in Little Grand Rapids First Nation last year has had all charges against him stayed, a day after the girl at the centre of the case testified against him.

GSK will keep its existing portfolios while entering areas like oncology, said company officials at its centenary celebrations

Calls for a list of five to seven direct recruit IPS officers, including three women, who hail from other States but are now serving in Tamil Nadu cadre

GSK will keep its existing portfolios while entering areas like oncology, said company officials at its centenary celebrations

If you are someone running a business then you might be well-aware that it is no cakewalk. Let the times be any, running a business has never been easy. you do not only have to deal with the ever evolving needs of the consumers, market...

Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa avoided a concussion when he tried to make a tackle after throwing an interception in Monday night's win over the Rams, but it was hard not to think about his concussion history when he took a knee to the helmet in the process.

A survey of business owners finds small businesses may remain small to avoid employee health coverage required by the Affordable Care Act, commonly called Obamacare.

Oklahoma City-based staffing firm Express Employment Professionals surveyed business owners, hiring managers and human resource professionals on the ACA and its impact on hiring decisions.

The survey found that 70 percent of survey respondents whose companies have 45 - 49 employees said they would try to remain under 50 employees. Businesses with 50 or fewer full-time employees do not face a penalty for not offering health coverage under Obamacare.

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Small business owners know that rapidly changing technologies offer great potential for profit. But with countless technology offerings and few clear ways to weed out gems from the fads, it is easy to get overwhelmed.

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What defines a small business owner as successful? You might think the obvious answer is one who grows quickly and expands his or her operations. But a recent report by Emergent Research and Infusionsoft found that becoming a big business doesn't equal success for most small business owners.

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As a (new) small business owner myself, I am very much talking from experience with these stay sane tips. You will find that you can never prevent work from piling up but you can lay down some strategies that will help you manage the work.

You need to consider your own state of mind and do what is best for you. Whatever your goal is in a business, your dream will eventually turn into an illusion when you become overwhelmed. There are a few secrets to staying sane by breaking up stress. Here are a few tips to get you started.

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When it comes to turning business challenges into opportunities, small business owners are quick, nimble, and creative. With state governments around the country shuttering all non-essential businesses to combat COVID-19 still in full swing, this is truer than ever.

But, unlike years past, where such an unprecedented closure would have put many small businesses out of business permanently, today they’re turning to mobility and connectivity in large numbers to keep their doors open—if only virtually.

from Instagram https://instagr.am/p/DCA-nvtJdVa/ via IFTTT

The moment Steve Jobs’ and Apple’s work first came into my life was back in 2002. That first brush, I hated it. 

In time, I came to see him for the genius and pioneer that he was, and the work that Apple did - and does - as amongst the most extraordinary in the World today.

First some context:

In 2002, I was at the European BSD conference and Jordan Hubbard, founder of FreeBSD and then newly-employed release engineer at Apple, had secured for the “terminal room” a sponsorship from Apple which meant the room was full of the 2002 iMacs. The 2002 iMac was a little “alien” in that each machine was a dome with a flexible protruding screen. Installed on them was OS X, an operating system I had beta tested before its first release on an ancient iBook, and I had very mixed feelings about.

It was pretty. But was it really a Unix? The other developers of BSD Unix in the room needed very little convincing. The command line was Unix, but the desktop and applications on there were beautiful. It was what they dreamed a Unix should be. Many of them left that conference committed to buying Apple equipment and moving to OS X within the year.

I resented this “attack” on the community, but could see where they were coming from. It was - and remains - a key part of Apple’s renaissance: build great tools for developers and alpha-geeks, and in turn the developers will build an ecosystem that users crave. Instill in the developers an aesthetic and teach them a way to do the things they struggle with (human interface guidelines, for example), and they will reward you with loyalty.

In short: empower your customers, and they’ll empower you.

No technology firm had done this as successfully before as Apple were doing between 2002 and 2004.

By 2004, I had just about had it with the drain away from the community Apple had “caused”. On one mailing list I wrote a very angry email in response to somebody else’s request for configuration advice on their latest Apple laptop:

http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-chat/2004-October/002684.html

“Yes, of course. My advice is that you sell your over-priced fashion-victim toy with it’s Fisher Price Unix installed, and use the money instead to buy yourself a top of the range Thinkpad. It will outperform it, run FreeBSD, not look out of fashion next season, has been built by a company that is truly committed to the open source movement and whose execs don’t patronise you by assuming you travel to work on a skateboard in cargo pants or worse, pander to your girlfriend’s idea of what a computer should be.”

Ashamed by my petulant anger, about six month later I decided to reconsider, step back and think about what they were doing in a wider scheme of the industry I was in. This was when I started to “get it”. It was when I could see what others lauded about Apple and its founders.

Within 14 months of writing that email I had acquired a 12” iBook. It was all I could afford at the time, and even then it was subsidised by the fact that I was working in a University faculty and so got a discount.

I immediately loved the fact I had a Unix machine with WiFi and Bluetooth that I didn’t need to spend a week configuring. I loved the software I could buy, and that all the open source tools I loved would work too. I loved the thought that had gone into developing that code underlying OS X. I loved the developer tools and Safari. I found myself thinking more and more about aesthetics and craftsmanship as part of what I do as a developer. Suddenly programming wasn’t just a dry science of mathematics and engineering: Steve’s ideas were getting to me through the product of his and Apple’s work.

Two things then happened like thunderbolts. 

First, I had found a copy of Steve’s commencement speech to Stanford in 2005.

Steve’s speech stuck with me. I had studied rhetoric, and was pleased by the simple construct he had used - a structure I would begin to notice he used in product announcements - but the content had hit me somewhere deep.

In it he talked about three things:

• Follow your intuition, because in hindsight the dots will join up. You can’t plan to be great, you just have to let the intuition guide you.
• Do what you love, and change things if you find yourself not enjoying life
• Death is inevitable. It’s coming. Deal with it as an agent of change, and don’t waste your life.

The second thing that happened around then, was that I discovered the Ruby programming language, a language that was designed to be beautiful and enjoyable for programmers to work with.

It astonished me.

I don’t think it would have done if by that point I had not started to “get” aestheticism in software, the Apple way. It’s no secret that the Ruby on Rails framework is developed almost entirely on Apple OS X machines. A Ruby conference is basically a hang-out of Apple fans. The two seem to go hand-in-hand together, just like how in 2002 it was Apple and the BSD guys.

Last night as I watched the speech again on YouTube (on my iPhone, natch), I realised I was connecting dots back, and in hindsight the impact this speech and this discovery had on me was immense.

Coupled with the discovery of Ruby, what happened next was perhaps inevitable, but still surprised me.

I went and started my own business.

I had always wanted to, but right there and then, something clicked, and I got rid of all the fear and doubt and realised that when I looked back on my life I wanted to be able to say that for a while at least I had been an “entrepreneur”.

I made the decision that I would not work on projects in that business I did not enjoy. I would only work on things that brought me joy: that is to say, I would only write code in Ruby. A brave choice in early 2006 when Rails had yet to reach v1.0 and Ruby was still considered a “toy” language by many.

I had no money, no client roster, and survived the first six months coding away on that tiny, slow little 12” iBook for friends who had piece work for me. I had never been happier.

I ate noodles and beans on toast, drank donated Guinness and chose to love my work. Working from home I would love waking late on a Monday morning, but I could never lie-in: I always wanted to just get started.

I spent the next few years helping other businesses, talking about development as a craft, not just a science.

I went into schools and told kids that learning how to write beautiful software was the most powerful skill you could cheaply acquire in this generation. Like me, they could come up with an idea and with a laptop and internet connection share it with the World in a weekend.

In the years since, I have helped dozens of start-ups, spoken to thousands of teenage children (and hopefully inspired a few to give programming with an artistic flair a go), and changed my life substantially.

I am not the same man I was in 2005. The depression and anxiety I had suffered prior to then have more or less gone. I have a brilliant relationship with an amazing girl who I consider to be my best friend, and I do work that makes me excited almost every day.

The decisions I made in those few months in 2005 and early 2006, looking back, are what made me who I am today.

I had to call time on my main business in 2010 partly because I was finding myself looking in the mirror and not looking forward to the day ahead any more - just like Steve had said, I decided I needed to change something. As sales had dried up I realised I was doing something I no longer enjoyed.

I then turned down one job offer for another on a quarter of the salary because it felt right, it felt like more interesting work and ultimately I knew it might lead to an exciting adventure I had dreamed about.

Today I work on an amazing product with brilliant people and finding myself learning new things every day.

Looking back I realise I have developed a new sense of intense curiosity. I will wander in my work, inquisitively poking whole areas I know little about. I read more, listen more and learn more. I teach where I can, I play, and I explore.

I realise that my time on this little rock is limited, and I try and make sure every day I do something that makes me smile.

In hindsight then, Steve’s words and work have had a substantial impact on who I am today professionally. Because that impact made my work more joyful, pleasant and fulfilling, in turn, his words and work have made my life better than it would have been without his impact.

“This was a very typical time. I was single. All you needed was a cup of tea, a light, and your stereo, you know, and that’s what I had.”

It’s all the more impressive because according to “the rules” society is meant to work by, he should have been another liberal arts wash-up. As I said on Facebook earlier:

“I don’t think the economically right-wing anywhere - US, UK, Eurozone, China, anywhere - would be able to deal with the idea that the largest company on the planet was founded by a Buddhist counter-culturalist of complex family origins who made decisions based on intuition, aestheticism, love and curiosity.

Yet, it makes perfect sense to me.”

I never met him, never got close to knowing him the way that his friends and family did, or even his colleagues, but in my own way I learned to love him. His impact will be with me for the rest of my life, and late last night as the news broke here in the UK, despite it being on the cards for a while, the news came as a shock and I had to hold back the tears.

His critics’ words (and there are many!), sound very much like my own before I “got it”. Right now - today - though, it is petulant, angry, juvenile scribbling, and unworthy of any mature grown-up, given it is less than 24 hours since his dying.

Some call him a fascist, others a megalomaniac. In essence all he was trying to do was produce the best - and most human-friendly - technological products humanity was capable of producing right now. He did so within the rules shareholders gave him along with their money, because after being fired once, he didn’t want to mess up and be fired again. As ever, he exceeded their expectations and produced a company larger than any other on earth in terms of market capitalisation.

When you have a vision, as long as nobody gets hurt along the way, there’s no harm in following it ruthlessly. That’s what he did.

Some point to the fact that he didn’t donate much to charity in his life time, but I’m quietly confident that is because he didn’t want the ego stroking whilst he was still alive, and in coming years and months his wealth will quietly reach parts of the World that need it. He felt that shareholders’ money was their, and he shouldn’t give it away. He felt the best way he could help the World was by empowering as many people as possible. There’s no real shame in that. And in that, he was immensely successful.

He was also a subversive, and this is a point that his critics miss - or point to - the most. Biologically he was a half-Syrian Muslim, which when acknowledged in the last decade caused the conservative right in the US a huge problem: was the leader of the hottest thing on Wall Street one of them? They needn’t have worried - he’d discovered Buddhism many years ago. Adoptively he grew up to be a counter-culture Bay Area “hippie” and counter-culture type that worried some in the establishment even more.

His critics point to the consumerist message of Apple, without realising its founding principle was to go against the grain and to help people push further than the establishment wanted them to. The fact that he was able to make a living - a good living - as reward for that vision should not be seen as a fault or flaw.

Those unfamiliar with this background with questions to ask might want to start here. It might change your mind about him.

He wasn’t perfect. Nobody is. But regardless, he was an inspiration to millions who right now are working at building the next generation of technology. He showed us what we were capable of when we tried, and his death some 20-30 years “before his time” shows what a great leveller pancreatic cancer can be. So, if you are a critic: please shut the hell up and let us deal with paying tribute to him in our own way. You’ll reap the benefits as we march forward, inspired by his vision, into giving you the technology you deserve to make the World a better place.

I genuinely believe those who hate him haven’t given him - specifically what lay beneath his vision - a chance, in the same way I hadn’t.

The moment I did though and started to use the tools he and his company produced the way they were designed, my life got better and my attitude to what I wanted to do with my life improved.

I can’t think of another businessman I could say that about. I can’t think of another businessman anybody will be able to say that about when they die.

As I watched that commencement speech another time, the words were as fresh and as poignant as ever. His final few words seem particularly appropriate to me today, and so I will leave you with them. You may love him, you may hate him, but you can’t disagree that his vision was sharp, and worth sharing.

My thoughts and condolences today are of course with his family, his friends and colleagues, and all who were impacted by Steve from a distance the way I was. Steve was an amazing man, who inspired so many and has changed the World for the better, forever.

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960’s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

Enjoy a refreshing beach stay at our heritage 1920's beach bungalow. North Beach, Christchurch, New Zealand.

Exercise and remaining active for seniors.

Keys in life to staying fit, healthy and happy,

Staying healthy and fit in a workplace environment are key to healthy and happy employees as well as more productive ones.

Cultivate a postive mindset towards regular exercise and healthy eating and this will make you a healthy and positive individual.

Lifestyle tips and ways to stay fit and keep your heart healthy and fit.

Staying in shape through exercise for students in college.

Staying fit and healthy while in social isolation, self isolation during this COVID19 pandemic.

Get in shape and stay fit with these wide ranging and different types of bodyweight exercises.

Ways to stay active and lose weight or maintain ideal weight during the winter.

Empower yourself to live life without limits with these tips and tricks for staying active in a wheelchair. Learn practical advice to boost your confidence.

Uncover the secrets behind the vibrant energy and amazing physique of NFL cheerleaders. Discover how pro-NFL cheerleaders stay fit and train for their sport.

Discover how former NFL quarterback Tom Brady maintained peak shape using the foam roller. Learn how he used it as a powerful massage tool for injury prevention and faster muscle recovery. Unlock the benefits of using a foam roller.

Podcasts can make one feel less alone. By listening to the stories, anecdotes, or commentaries of others on everything from breaking news to popular TV shows, one can find company in the sometimes overwhelmingly digital world we live in and fill otherwise silent and solitary moments in one’s daily life. In an age when people lose hours to screen time, sometimes aimlessly scrolling on social media, podcasts can provide a welcome respite.

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Podcasting Continues Growing
Podcasting is mentioned above and has become a huge part of digital marketing. There are a number of different types of podcasts listed below:

Individuals or groups of people trying to build their personal brand. This could be a humorous podcast or professional one that helps a person establish themselves as an authority on a topic.

~ Companies that are looking to reach and educate current customers. Attracting customers in the industry in B2B situations will work far better if looking to have work contracted out to your business.

~ The sporadic podcast is of a company that sees the value in podcasting yet hasn’t dedicated time or money to the process. This could happen once a month or a few times a year. Generating listeners is about putting out content that is informative/entertaining consistently. Being able to rely on a certain podcast on a specific day provides comfort to loyal listeners.

~ Question and answer podcasts could be a favorite regardless of the ultimate goal of the podcast. Being able to answer specific questions from listeners is important. This can earn new customers and provide a sense of comfort to current customers that know they are in good hands.

~ Keep in mind that your podcast should have at least an outline to provide some kind of structure. Transcribing these podcasts can be a great way to turn these in-depth conversations into a searchable document.

It’s not every employee’s favorite task but it’s time for your online training course and you would rather sift through your emails than make the time to log on. But you know you have to get it done. Don’t let other work distractions get in the way of your course; here are 5 tricks to stay focused:

Schedule it: Depending on how long your online course is, schedule it into your calendar and set a reminder. Making time for it, instead of just finding the time, will help you actually complete the work. Adjust your day accordingly to fit around your training course.

Time it: Choose to take the course during your lightest time of the day and when you are most ready to work. Typically the first two hours after lunch or when you first arrive at work are good times. 

Close your door: Don’t be afraid to close your door and post a ‘do not disturb’ sign. Keeping your door closed will deter people from walking into your office and distracting you.

Log off: Log off your email and any other websites that are distracting, including your company's internal instant message application. Log off and stay off until your course is complete.

Turn off notifications: Turn your phone ringer off on both your cell phone and work phone until you complete your course. You can even turn off your email notifications to help you remain on task.

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[New Zimbabwe] Vice President Constantino Chiwenga's ex-wife, Marry Mubaiwa is seeking staying of her prosecution due to poor health.

[The Herald] The chief executive officer of Zimbabwe's largest integrated and diversified media house, Zimpapers, has said it is too early to write off the hard copy newspaper.

These are some of the most dangerous things that you can do whilst driving, and why you should avoid them.

The latest figures have revealed that, in the UK alone, there are over 3.24 billion gamers, with the majority of British adults regularly playing video games in their spare time. Today, there’s a video game for almost every kind of gamer too – whether you want to be creative, get the brain ticking or even compete […]

The post How Game Developers Stay Ahead Of The Curve appeared first on The Design Inspiration.

The post 5 Ways I Use Habits to Stay Creative and Productive When Working From Home appeared first on ProBlogger.

Folks, you’ll know today’s guest contributor author Gretchen Rubin from her bestselling books on happiness, habits, and human nature, her inspiring talks, and her popular daily blog GretchenRubin.com. Gretchen also shares practical, manageable advice on her podcast Happier With Gretchen Rubin. We are thrilled to have Gretchen on ProBlogger today, giving us ...more

The post 5 Ways I Use Habits to Stay Creative and Productive When Working From Home appeared first on ProBlogger.

Jesus confronts the people and the disciples when they can't heal a little boy!

Two summers ago (when people still travelled) I met a lady on the ferry who had come to the Isles all the way from North America because 'God told me to visit Scotland'. Apparently, God had told her to visit many places in the world and she was looking forward to wherever He would send her on her next holiday. This lesson is based on a very different story about St Macarius the Great who one day received the thought of leaving his cell to go and pray in the desert. After he waited for FIVE YEARS, fighting in prayer to discern if this is the will of God, he then went into the desert.