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If my business sponsors an overseas worker on a Temporary Skill Shortage (482) visa, can they work for another employer?

When a Temporary Skill Shortage (TSS) visa (subclass 482) is granted by the Department of Home Affairs it come with a mandatory condition, Condition 8107. This condition governs the visa holder’s employment arrangements and ensures that they adhere to the requirements of the visa. While holding a TSS visa the individuals work rights were generally […]

The post If my business sponsors an overseas worker on a Temporary Skill Shortage (482) visa, can they work for another employer? appeared first on Australian Visa Experts.




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Amusing Pieces Made with Shadows

Parfois, en levant les yeux au ciel et avec un peu d’imagination, on peut imaginer des formes dans les nuages. Une sorte de jeu qui parle à tous et qui aide à apprécier la beauté de ce qui nous entoure. Dans un autre genre, ce sont les ombres que Vincent Bal interprète. L’artiste utilise en […]




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Personal User Interfaces: A.I. Augmented Reality And The Future Of Personalized Advertising

Technology today loves making stuff just for you, and it's changing the game in how we get our digital kicks. In an era where personalization is paramount, ...




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Flickr announces new photo licensing Marketplace

Yahoo has announced a new upcoming Marketplace for licensing images on Flickr. Short on details for now, but certainly full of potential.




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Ecommerce business models: Which is best for you?

Which ecommerce business model is best for your idea? Long-term and short-term strategies for operations, profits, and a successful launch.




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Competitive analysis — What to do before you commit to your next great business idea

Planning a new online business? Conduct a competitive analysis to understand your market, beat your rivals, and position your brand for success.





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Setting up a Python Project Using asdf, PDM, and Ruff

When I was tasked with looking into alternative ways to set up a new Python project (not just using the good ol' pip and requirements.txt setup), I decided to try to find the tools that felt best to me, as someone who writes Python and Ruby. On this journey, I found a way to manage dependencies in Python that felt as good as bundler, among other great tools.

The Runtime Version Manager #

asdf has been my primary tool of choice for language version management for multiple years now. The ease of adding plugins and switching between versions of those plugins at a local or global level has saved me massive amounts of time compared to alternatives.

If you've never set up asdf before, follow the instructions here to get it set up. For reference, I use fish for my shell, so I installed asdf using the "Fish & Git" section.

Once you have asdf on your machine, the next step is to add the plugins you need for your project. Plugins are the actual tools that you want to manage the versions of, like NodeJS, Python, Ruby, etc. For the purposes here, I'll start with adding the plugin for Python:

asdf plugin-add python

Once you have added a plugin to asdf, you're ready to install various versions of that plugin. Since we just installed Python, we can install the version we want:

asdf install python 3.12.4
# OR if we want to just use whatever the latest version is
asdf install python latest

Once the version you want is installed, you can tell asdf to use that version in the current directory by running:

asdf local python 3.12.4
# OR 
asdf local python latest

depending on which version of python you installed.

The Dependency Manager #

In the past, I just used pip install and requirements file(s) to handle most of this. I knew of other options, like pipx or pipenv, but I still have never tried using them. I was more interested in finding a dependency manager that did these things in a significantly different way than what I was used to with pip.

Therefore, I wanted to find something that felt similar to bundler for Ruby. Luckily, very early on in my journey here, I found PDM.

Upon reading what PDM did, I immediately decided to try it out and get a feel for what it offered. Some key notes for me that piqued my interest:

  • Lockfile support
  • Can run scripts in the "PDM environment"
    • pdm run flask run -p 3000 executes the normal flask run -p 3000 command within the context of your installed packages with PDM.
    • In other words, it adheres to PEP 582 and allows you to run project commands without needing to be in a virtual environment, which to me is a big plus.
  • Similar commands to bundler
    • pdm run => bundle exec
    • pdm install => bundle install
    • pdm add <package> => bundle add <gem-name>
      • Note: My workflow was almost always to just add gem <gem-name> to the Gemfile rather than using bundle add, but there is no direct 1:1 equivalent of a Gemfile with PDM.

Installing PDM #

PDM has its own asdf plugin, so let's just use that here as well! Running:

asdf plugin-add pdm

adds the plugin itself to asdf, and running:

asdf install pdm latest 
# can replace 'latest' with a specific version number here too

installs the latest version of PDM. Finally, set the local version with:

asdf local pdm latest
Side note about asdf local
  asdf local creates a .tool-versions file (if it doesn't already exist) in the current working directory, and appends the plugin and version number to it. At this point, the directory in which you ran asdf local python 3.12.4 and asdf local pdm latest should have that .tool-versions file, and the contents should be a line each for Python and PDM with their associated version numbers. This way, if someone else pulls down your project, they can just run asdf install and it will install the versions of those plugins, assuming the user has the necessary plugins added themselves.

Now that we have PDM and Python set up, we're ready to use PDM to install whichever packages we need. For simplicity, let's set up a simple Flask app:

pdm add flask flask-sqlalchemy flask-htmx

This line adds Flask, Flask-SQLAlchemy and Flask HTMX. Flask is a web application framework, Flask-SQLAlchemy adds SQLAlchemy and its ORM, and HTMX builds on top of HTML to allow you to write more powerful HTML where you'd otherwise need some JS. Side note, but HTMX is really cool. If you haven't used it before, give it a go! I'm even a part of the exclusive group of HTMX CEOs.

Linting and Formatting #

Finally, I wanted to find a way to avoid pulling in multiple packages (commonly, Black, Flake8 and isort) to handle linting and formatting, which felt to me like it could be the job of one tool.

Pretty quickly I was able to find Ruff which did everything I wanted it to, along with being really fast (thanks Rust ????).

First things first, we need to install Ruff. Since it's a Python package, we can do it using PDM:

pdm add ruff

Once it's installed, we can use ruff check and ruff format to lint and format, respectively. Note that since we installed via PDM, we need to prepend those ruff calls with pdm run:

pdm run ruff check --fix

This runs the linter and fixes any issues found (if they are automatically fixable). The linter can also be run in --watch mode:

pdm run ruff check --watch

which re-lints on every saved change and tells you of any new errors it finds.

The Ruff formatter is similar to use:

pdm run ruff format

which will automatically fix any formatting issues that it finds and can fix. If you want to use this in CI (which you should), you can use the --check flag that will instead exit with a non-zero status code, rather than actually formatting the files:

pdm run ruff format --check

Bringing it all together #

Working with projects set up this way is much easier than how I used to do it. Using tools like asdf, PDM, and Ruff rather than pyenv, pip, and Black/Flake8/isort make both setting up projects and pulling down/installing existing projects more straightforward. I hope the contents of this article are helpful to anyone interested in setting up Python projects in a similar way.




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Agency Partnerships: A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats

For agencies like ours, success doesn’t come from being an expert at everything—a big part of it is complementing our expertise and working hand-in-hand with like-minded partners who share our values and standards.

These partnerships haven't just boosted what we can do, they've created opportunities for us to engage with new clients. Here's how these collaborations have made us—and our partners—stronger:

  1. Incremental Value: We have a deep respect for expertise. We believe If you try to be an expert at everything, it’s difficult to be exceptional at anything. By teaming up with partners who bring different skills and services to the table, we get access to all sorts of proficiencies we wouldn't have on our own, adding value to prospective and existing clients. Instead of “That’s not our area of expertise”, now it’s “Yes, we can help with that.” These alliances empower us to deliver a higher level of service and comprehensive results for our clients.
  2. Mutual Scalability: Sometimes, there’s a ton of demand for what we do, and it's hard to keep up. Strategic partnerships mean we can call in reinforcements when we need them. By tapping into our partners' talent pools, we can handle even the most time-sensitive client demands without sacrificing quality or speed. And it’s mutual. When our team has time available, we are the reinforcements instead.
  3. More Leads, More Growth: In a crowded market, having a steady stream of clients is crucial. Naturally, every knock on our door can’t be a great fit. Through our partnerships, we've built a network of agencies that share our values, quality standards, and culture. By working closely together and passing leads back and forth, we've created a symbiotic ecosystem where projects flow smoothly, keeping all of us busy and growing.
  4. Reaching New Frontiers: Exploring new markets or industries can be risky, especially if you don't know the terrain. That's where partnerships come in handy. With an experienced partner on your team, it cracks open a door to reach new customers that may have otherwise been too difficult to open on your own. By teaming up with others who know the ropes in different areas (e.g. machine learning, hardware prototyping, reputation management, etc.), we can expand our reach, and establish ourselves in new segments with confidence.
  5. Getting Creative Together: Innovation flourishes when different minds come together under a set of constraints. By teaming up with partners who bring fresh ideas to the table, whether through smaller things like adding feedback to a partner’s open-source library, or bigger things like discussing AI’s impact on the web, we create a space where new approaches can flourish. (And, well, it’s our namesake after all).
  6. Professional Development: Values like “learn & grow” are part of a rewarding career at Viget. The symbiotic ecosystem created in our partner network provides opportunities for knowledge sharing. Partners help us solidify new skills including teaching others. Our own expertise shared with our peers gets reciprocated—each agency broadening the other’s horizons and leveling up one another’s teams. 

In the end, strategic partnerships are an important ingredient in our recipe for success. They give us access to all sorts of perks we wouldn't have on our own, and they help us build a community of successful agencies and contractors who all value the power of teamwork. 




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Founders Welcoming Business Partners

When Viget was founded in 1999, Andy and I used the title “Founding Partner.” We were founders of the business and also committed business partners. Within a couple of years, we switched to more specific titles: Co-Founder and President (Andy) and Co-Founder and CEO (me), but “business partners” was always the key structure.

We divided responsibilities of leadership, delivery, and operations in ways that optimized our different strengths and weaknesses. Key decision making has always been a collaborative process, with healthy debate between the two of us. I know some incredible solo entrepreneurs, but for us, having a partner to lean on, leverage, and grow with has been not only rewarding, it’s been essential to Viget’s longevity and success.

Also key to our success has been a founding principle of hiring incredible people who share our values and vision, value longevity and lasting relationships, and take pride in their work and careers. As they’ve joined, we’ve shared the opportunities and responsibilities that come with running a healthy business. Empowering others to lead key parts of Viget has taken us further than we’d ever gone otherwise.

Being owners and partners in the business has always been a privilege, an honor, and, at times, a stressful burden. When things go well – clients are happy, the team is gelling, the finances are solid – I’m filled with pride, satisfaction, and calm. When things aren’t going well – projects are sideways, turnover seems contagious, and the metrics point in the wrong direction – I’m filled with anxiety, frustration, and self-doubt. In either scenario, having a partner to navigate the waters with has been vital.

In recent years, three key areas of our business have matured thanks to the overall strength of our team and especially strong leadership. Our sales and marketing systems, tools, and strategies have fed a much more predictable revenue engine with great clients. Our client delivery processes and best practices have helped us consistently deliver value for our clients with more clarity, less risk, and better results. Finally, through some very challenging years in our industry, our culture has grown stronger and more adaptable, still centered on meaningful human connections at the core.

These three business areas have been led by Zach Robbins (sales and marketing), Kelly Kenny (delivery), and Emily Bloom (culture). They are the pillars upon which all other aspects of the business are built. These leaders have truly grown up with the business, having joined more than 13, 14, and 17 years ago, respectively. Their impact first as individual contributors, then managers, and eventually strategic leaders has been immeasurable.

Viget is coming up on a major milestone: we’ll soon eclipse 25 years since our founding on December 27, 1999. As Andy and I looked out at the next decade and beyond of our business, expanding our partnership became a clear goal. Embracing additional partners to not just lead their area of the business but to weigh in on all major decisions would help Viget continue to mature into the business we believe it can be. We saw an opportunity to invite others into the deep water of business partnership – the good, bad, and ugly – so that our shared decision making can be sharper, more insightful, and more strategic in the years to come.

At our fall retreat last week, we announced that we're welcoming Emily, Zach, and Kelly as partners at Viget. They’ve each been here for more than half of Viget’s history, each shaping Viget into what it is today. As partners, they’ll have even more influence as we take Viget into our second quarter century and beyond.



  • News & Culture


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4 Business Scaling Strategies to Implement in 2023

Business scaling is setting the stage to support growth in your company. In other words, it means investing in cutting-edge technology, hiring top talent, and executing effective marketing campaigns to successfully grow your business. And while business owners often wish to achieve success overnight, scaling requires a long-term, sustainable strategy.  Scaling a business is often […]




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6 Tactics for Promoting Your Local Business

As a small business proprietor, you must establish connections with local patrons, integrate into the community, and differentiate yourself from your rivals. However, understanding how to market your business locally requires clever marketing techniques. Given the limited pool of potential customers in your vicinity, prioritizing local marketing endeavors is essential, especially when considering that your […]




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Mesin Judi Slot Online Multipayline Punya Keunggulan Berikut

Saat ini beragam tipe mesin slot online mudah anda akses di banyak bandar dan situs taruhan berkualitas. Anda harus tahu bahwa proses memilih mesin ini memiliki pengaruh besar pada peluang dan hasil taruhan. Memilih tipe mesin yang punya peluang menang besar adalah salah satu bentuk kemampuan yang harus anda miliki jika ingin sekses dalam bermain. […]



  • Judi Slot Online

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Innovative Branding and Visual identity using Google Slides assets

Innovative Branding and Visual identity using Google Slides assets

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Montag School’s branding fuses corporate trust with creative appeal, using Google Slides assets to reach diverse audiences.

Creating a brand identity for an educational institution like Montag School requires balancing the rigorous standards of corporate audiences with the appeal needed to engage a younger, learning-focused crowd. In this project by Monga Design, Montag School’s visual branding comes to life with a thoughtful, dual-purpose approach that reaches across the boundaries of institutional professionalism and educational creativity.

Montag School’s goal was to represent itself as a trustworthy, contemporary leader in personalized education. This meant moving away from conventional, corporate-heavy design toward a more flexible and approachable brand image. The resulting visual identity integrates both institutional authority and a fresh, dynamic appeal, capturing the trustworthiness expected in corporate circles while aligning with the openness and innovation desired in education.

One of the project’s standout qualities is its focus on balance. By addressing both institutional credibility and the youthful appeal needed for online and in-person classes, the branding reinforces Montag’s positioning as a leader in educational innovation. The design combines strong visual cues—such as clean lines and modern typography—with a vibrant color palette, adding depth to both the brand’s academic and professional facets.

Leveraging Google Slides for Visual Consistency

An innovative aspect of this project is the use of Google Slides as a foundational tool for asset creation. This choice reflects an understanding of Montag’s operational needs and the educational landscape’s demands for accessibility and efficiency. By designing custom graphics within Google Slides, Monga Design created a versatile, cost-effective solution for maintaining consistent visuals across various educational materials. Google Slides not only provides easy customization but also aligns with the widespread use of this tool in both corporate and learning environments, allowing Montag to produce branded materials in-house without requiring extensive software training.

Montag School’s branding thoughtfully considers its diverse target audiences. For in-company courses and corporate conventions, the brand maintains a polished, professional tone, ensuring credibility and trust in a business context. Simultaneously, for students attending online and in-person classes, the brand incorporates a more engaging, youthful look. The graphics, colors, and animations appeal to students by creating an approachable and modern learning environment.

Monga Design introduced animations for key assets to add a layer of interactivity to Montag’s branding. These animations, crafted by Clint Studio, enhance the brand’s visual appeal while ensuring they resonate with both young learners and seasoned professionals. This visual dynamism strengthens the brand’s reach by making it adaptable to the changing demands of the educational landscape.

The design team approached this branding project with a detailed, collaborative process. Their “Visual Thermometer” meeting—a strategy to explore visual possibilities rather than set rigid creative guidelines—proved essential for crafting a design that was both client-centered and creative. By aligning client preferences with design expertise, they established a visual identity that resonates on multiple levels, providing a cohesive experience for all audiences.

Montag School’s branding successfully bridges the gap between education and business, providing a clear, attractive, and credible visual identity that aligns with the brand’s values. By balancing a contemporary, accessible aesthetic with the professionalism expected in corporate circles, Montag School positions itself as a modern leader in education, with a visual identity that can grow with its expanding audience.

For more on this project, you can view the video case here.

Branding and visual identity artifacts

Credits

  • Visual identity: Monga Design → Mateus Yuzo and Michel Refatti
  • Motion: Clint Studio → Gustavo Brazzalle, Lucas José Galego e Luciano Burger





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WP Cron has broken since 2.9 update

Did you make the update to WordPress 2.9? Well you may want to check out this post regarding an issues with WP Cron, which controls you auto (scheduled) posts. I know one of my sites has an issue, so I installed the three files and it fixed the issue.

The post WP Cron has broken since 2.9 update appeared first on WPCult.




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Grow Your Real Estate Business With Pinterest

Pinterest is a social media website where users share their favorite images from around the web with their followers. Rather than using words to express themselves, Pinterest users use images and photographs instead. Like other forms of social media, Pinterest offers a unique opportunity for real estate agents looking to grow their businesses. With so […]

The post Grow Your Real Estate Business With Pinterest appeared first on WPCult.




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Generating Unique Random Numbers In JavaScript Using Sets

Want to create more randomized effects in your JavaScript code? The `Math.random()` method alone, with its limitations, won’t cut it for generating unique random numbers. Amejimaobari Ollornwi explains how to generate a series of unique random numbers using the `Set` object, how to use these random numbers as indexes for arrays, and explores some practical applications of randomization.




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Why Anticipatory Design Isn’t Working For Businesses

Anticipatory design, powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine learning (ML), and Big Data (BD), promises to transform user experiences by predicting and fulfilling needs before users even express them. While this proactive approach seems revolutionary, many businesses struggle to meet the high expectations it sets. Joana Cerejo delves into the challenges of anticipatory design, highlights key failures, and offers a framework to help designers and businesses succeed in this complex landscape.




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How To Build Custom Data Visualizations Using Luzmo Flex

Bringing data to life in your application can be done without the usual headaches. Paul Scanlon shows you how you can build beautiful data visualizations using the Google Analytics API, and you won’t have to spend any time “massaging” the data.




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Using Multimodal AI Models For Your Applications (Part 3)

In this third part of the series, you are looking at two models that handle all three modalities — text, images or videos, and audio — without needing a second model for text-to-speech or speech recognition.




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Humanity ‘Sleepwalking Towards the Edge of a Cliff’: 60% of Earth’s Wildlife Wiped Out Since 1970

By Julia Conley Common Dreams “Nature is not a ‘nice to have’—it is our life-support system.” Scientists from around the world issued a stark warning to humanity Tuesday in a semi-annual report on the Earth’s declining biodiversity, which shows that … Continue reading




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101+ Best AI Tools for Business & Marketing 2024

Looking for the best AI tools & resources? We're actively compiling the ultimate list of the best artificial intelligence tools & resources.




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✚ Make the Chart: Scatterplot Using Text Instead of Dots

I made a chart about Halloween candy. Even dumb charts need attention and require that choices are made.

Tags: ,





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Crossing Lines


Crossing Lines, originally uploaded by !efatima.




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Eight Things to Consider when Building a Business

Building a business is a long and difficult process. It’s a time filled with uncertain ups and downs – so you need all the support and advice you can get, even if it’s not your first time creating a successful money-making business.  So, here are eight things you should consider, which you might not have […]

The post Eight Things to Consider when Building a Business appeared first on Snap2objects.




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How a Business Degree Can Help Business Owners Succeed

Starting a small business is a different kind of career move, since you don’t need to have any educational achievements to get started. Unlike applying for employed job roles, where employers might state the degrees or other qualifications that they expect candidates to have, anybody can start their own small business, even if you dropped […]

The post How a Business Degree Can Help Business Owners Succeed appeared first on Snap2objects.




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Why Invest in Digital Advertising: The Path to Explosive Growth and ROI

“They say you have to spend money to make money,” goes the saying, and nowhere is this more relevant than in the digital landscape. As businesses continue to vie for consumer attention online, Google has steadily shifted its strategy, prioritizing search ads over organic results. If you’ve been observing your website’s organic ranking take a […]

The post Why Invest in Digital Advertising: The Path to Explosive Growth and ROI appeared first on 3.7 Designs.




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How to Sell Videos Online Using the Sell Media Plugin on Your WordPress Site

Are you one of the 55% of people globally who watch online videos every single day? Video has become an incredibly popular format for consuming content, and it’s now as ubiquitous as images within our social media news feeds and timelines. Despite this, the ability to sell videos online is difficult than many other forms of static media – […]




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How to Set Up Test Purchases Using PayPal on Your Sell Media Powered Website

Setting up a trouble-free payment process can be nerve-wracking. It must be completely secure and fully tested before going live in order to give the customer zero problems and total confidence in their purchase. Any issues with the checkout process, and it could end up with a potential refund to the customer, or no sale at all. Sell Media incorporates a testing […]




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How to Build a Stock Photo Business With WordPress

Selling your photography can be a great way to funnel your passion into a business. However, the web is awash in stock photography sites that curate photos from thousands of photographers. To stand out, you might be better off going your own way. And with the right tools—such as WordPress and Sell Media—you can build your own stock photo […]




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How To Sell Photos Using Squarespace (In 3 Short Steps)

Making a name for yourself as a photographer is hard enough without having to deal with all the minutia of setting up a self-hosted website. Often, the thought of purchasing hosting, developing the design, and creating your content feels like extra hassle you simply don’t need. That’s where Squarespace comes in. It’s an easy-to-use platform with some simple […]




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How to Improve Sales Using Photo Keywords in WordPress

When it comes to browsing a stock image website, user experience is key. Effective navigation is vitally important, and it’s imperative that users have a clear and easy way of searching for images. If they struggle at any point in the process, they are likely to go elsewhere, resulting in the loss of a sale and potential repeat business. Fortunately, […]




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How to Improve Sales by Offering Coupons Using Sell Media

Running a successful business should be your ultimate goal, and offering coupons to your customers is a key aspect of strengthening sales. However, it’s important to also devise a plan of action – without one, you could essentially hamstring your overall campaign. By harnessing the power of Sell Media (and elements such as the Discount Codes […]









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NRC Receives Perfect Grade on Small Business Scorecard

NRCgov posted a photo:

The U.S. Small Business Administration hosts an event at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building this week to recognize agencies that received an A+ for fiscal year 2023 for their efforts to contract with small businesses. NRC Chief Acquisition Officer James Corbett celebrates at the event with SBA Administrator Isabel Guzman and others.

Visit the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's website at www.nrc.gov/.
Photo Usage Guidelines: www.flickr.com/people/nrcgov/
Privacy Policy: www.nrc.gov/site-help/privacy.html.
For additional information, or to comment on this photo contact us via e-mail at: OPA.Resource@nrc.gov.




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Harnessing Automated Insulin Delivery: Case Reports from Marathon Runners with Type 1 Diabetes

How can machine learning help individuals with type 1 diabetes (T1D)? This is what a study presented at this year’s Annual Meeting of the European As



  • Cell &amp; Molecular Biology

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Using Genetics to Reveal the History of Rapa Nui

The fascinating and remote Rapa Nui or Easter Island, is ~2,000 km from the nearest Polynesian island and 3,700 km west of South America.



  • Cell &amp; Molecular Biology

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Full guide on drawbacks and benefits of Node.js for making the perfect choice for your business

  Node.js is by far the most popular platform for creating JavaScript applications. According to a recent infographic published by Statista, more than 49% of app developers frequently utilize Node.js, making it the platform of choice for mobile app development. That is because of the Node.js advantages.  This article will discuss the benefits of Node.js […]

The post Full guide on drawbacks and benefits of Node.js for making the perfect choice for your business appeared first on 404 Tech Support.




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Using sound to measure wind speeds on Mars

The planet Mars has several similarities with Earth, including extinct volcanoes, dry lake beds, and active dust storms, the last of which is governed by t



  • Space &amp; Astronomy

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Revising the Early Universe: Black Holes and Bright Galaxies Unraveled

What were galaxies like in the early universe? This is what a recent study published in The Astronomical Journal hopes to address as an international team



  • Space &amp; Astronomy

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From Seagrass to Antibiotics: The Breakthrough Potential of Small Molecule In situ Resin Capture

How can oceanic microbes help produce antibiotics? This is what a recent study published in Nature Communications hopes to address as a team of researchers



  • Earth &amp; The Environment

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Using Genetics to Reveal the History of Rapa Nui

The fascinating and remote Rapa Nui or Easter Island, is ~2,000 km from the nearest Polynesian island and 3,700 km west of South America.



  • Earth &amp; The Environment

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The Single Gene Knockout that Causes Autism in Mice

This study has added to evidence that the cerebellum has important roles that are underappreciated.



  • Genetics &amp; Genomics