#you don’t need to be able to react quickly at any retail job in the uk. in fact it’s probably a detriment

[fingertipsmp3]

This place I applied for a job at keeps emailing me (automatic emails not a real human being) asking why I haven’t done the tests they asked me to do and I don’t know how to explain to them it’s because their tests feel like psychological warfare

[belphies-cuhm-sluht]

Fun Zone (Belphie x GN!Reader)

(Random fic that came about because I was talking to a friend about chaperoning a field trip at a Discovery Zone. Also, the sisters name is just my two favorite sisters names blended together. Enjoy!)

Belphie hated his job, he really, really hated his job. Sure, retail sucked and he’d killed quite a few shitty customers for being a pain in his ass, but this… this was hell. Actual hell was nothing compared to where he was working now. Lucifer had threatened him with this shit hole multiple times if he didn’t get his act together while working at Target, but he just laughed in the face of the oldest brother. It wasn’t until he got fired for almost getting into a fight with some guy who was complaining about the price of every item that Belphie had scanned that Lucifer finally put his foot down.

There was nothing, absolutely nothing, that was more awful to him than the constant sound of children screaming. Everyone knew that, even Lucifer knew, and maybe that’s why his brother had sent him there in the first place, but this was a nightmare. This was torture.

“Slow the hell down.” He grumbled to the group of kids that ran by him, an exhausted looking woman following behind them, probably too tired to even apologize to him for the children’s reckless behaviour. “Fucking hell, I need a nap.” He mumbled to himself, turning away from the exhibit that he was stationed to so he could finally take a break. It was his lunch break, and he never needed one more than he did today.

“Leaving so soon, Belph?” One of his coworkers called after him, and he could hear them walking faster behind him which made him speed up. It’s not that he actually hated them, they were just irritating. They loved their job, they were too peppy, too excited, it made him sick. How could anyone enjoy being in a place like this for eight hours or more a day? It didn’t make sense to him. “Hey! Can ya hear me?” They came up right beside him, and he fought the urge to snap at them, clenching his teeth and balling his fists in his pockets as he grunted in response. “I don’t know why you’re so grumpy. Don’t ya just love working on field trip days?!” They slapped his back, and although he knew it was a kind gesture, he tensed up, whipping his head quickly to look at the employee.

“No. I hate it, actually. And you… you scare me. I’ve seen a lot of scary shit, but your excitement with all of this…” He motioned his hands around the park before dropping his hands at his sides. “It scares the shit out of me. I’m taking my break now. Have fun or whatever. Leave me alone.” He didn’t really care how they reacted to what he said, and even if they went to the boss about it, the worst that could happen is that he’d get fired. Actually… that would be the best thing to happen. There couldn’t possibly be any place that’s worse than this. He’s actually hoping that they do go to the boss.

“Mister, can you help me, please?” Belphie didn’t know how, or why this kid singled him out as soon as he was coming back in from his break, but here it was, staring up at him expectantly… and he hated it. Could they not find literally anyone else? Why couldn’t they have gone to literally any other employee? It would have been simple, and anyone else would have been far more receptive to this nonsense than he is right now. “Please… They’re stuck in the thingy…. They can’t get out.” The kid pointed to the massive jungle gym contraption that climbed up almost to the ceiling in the center of the building.

It wasn’t the first time someone older than the age of twelve had gotten stuck in there, and most of the time he’d push off the task of saving another helpless parent onto one of the other employees who actually cared. He wanted to say no to this kid, but another part of him wanted to actually see this person. See how it was possible for someone to actually get stuck in the jungle gym. He might even find some sort of amusement in it. “Fine. Where are they?” The tone of agitation in his voice didn’t seem to affect the kid at all as they started walking towards the massive jungle gym, rambling about how their group chaperone got stuck while climbing up, and that the other kids in the group couldn’t get them out. “Yeah yeah, whatever…” He mumbled, rolling his eyes at the kid as they climbed back in.

“Don’t worry! I got one of the people to help!” The kid called to the person, and he couldn’t help but laugh when he heard their sigh of both annoyance and embarrassment. That was probably going to be the best part for him, seeing how embarrassed this person will be once he gets them out. Shit, maybe his boss will see it and give him some time off, or at least a raise, even though he feels he should be making more money anyway considering the shit he has to deal with on a daily basis.

“Move. Move it. Scoot over. Would you move?!” He basically yelled at the kids as he climbed down from the second floor of the jungle gym. This was a lot more physical activity and a lot more work in general, than he wanted to actually do today. He’s really hoping that once he gets to this person that their shame and humiliation would make his extra work worth it. It’s not that he particularly enjoyed the suffering of humans, but today just hasn’t been his day, so it would be kind of… nice.

When he got to them, their head was down, still looking at the children below them trying to pull them out from the bottom. The space was cramped, very tight, and now he could understand why so many people got stuck in there. Although now he couldn’t understand why anyone over the age of twelve would even attempt to climb in the thing. Their head finally lifted, looking up at him and he actually froze for a second. They were… cute, really cute. “Sorry about this… dang kids forced me into this thing.” Their flushed cheeks were a sure sign of their embarrassment, but it brought him a different feeling when he saw them. It wasn’t particularly enjoyable, it just made him smile, which felt weird. Genuinely smiling at work? What the hell was wrong with him?

For a second he just stared at them, and it didn’t even feel awkward, or maybe it was the fact that they hadn’t really pushed him to help pull them out. They were still smiling up at him, that is until one of the kids above him started yelling. “Hey! You need us to help ya?!” Within seconds the kids that were a floor above him had surrounded him, making it almost impossible for him to even move. He wouldn’t have tried so hard to hide his anger and irritation if the human didn’t start laughing, moving one hand up to motion to the kids behind him to get out of the way, and they actually listened.

“So uh… which one is yours?” It was a strange question to ask, but what was he supposed to do? It would have been more awkward to do this in complete silence. There was nothing wrong with a bit of small talk. They smiled proudly, looking up at the little girl who was peaking over the side of another ledge, watching as Belphie pushed the humans shoulders. “Oh… nice…” He was kind of disappointed, although it felt silly to feel that way. Of course one of the kids would be theirs, they were chaperoning on a field trip. What other reason would they have to be here?

“My sister, Audrah.” Sister… it was only their sister. He hoped that they didn’t hear the small sigh of relief that escaped him at the revelation. Not that there was anything wrong with them if the kid was theirs, he just dealt with kids all day, could someone blame him for not wanting to deal with them any more than he was paid to do? They waved to their sister and he turned around to see the kid waving back, smiling happily and letting out a little laugh as the human tried to wiggle free again, bringing his attention back to actually freeing them.

“Oh… right, yeah. I uh… I’m sure she’s happy that you’re here…” He mumbled, pushing on their shoulders again. He didn’t know what was more awkward, the small talk that he was trying to make or the fact that every time they spoke he would momentarily forget about freeing them, elongating the time it took to actually get them out. At least they weren’t complaining though.

They nodded up to him, still smiling even under these circumstances. “She’s very happy… and she’s the best kid in the group. Don’t tell the other kids though.” They teased, even though Belphie was pretty sure that they’d think their sibling was the best kid in the group no matter what. Sibling bias existed in all realms, so he understood the feeling.

With one final push he finally got the human free, watching from the little ledge as they wiggled their way all the way to the bottom before climbing out. He quickly followed after, not wanting to be stuck in that little space surrounded by those kids any longer. The human was still waiting at the bottom, most likely expecting one of the kids in their group to come out just based on their expression when he was the one who popped out. There was a lot that he wanted to say, they were attractive, and their smile was kind and genuine. It was usually something that would turn him off from anyone really, he just couldn’t see himself even being able to stand being around someone like that… Hell, that’s why he couldn't be around his coworker for more than five seconds. There was something about this human though… He didn’t want to let them go. “So… uhm…”

“Come on! We don’t have lotsa time!” One of the kids shouted, and he quickly turned around, making sure it wasn’t their sister before glaring at the little brat who had cut him off. He turned back to face them, but their group had already swarmed around the human, dragging them off somewhere else. He wouldn’t see them again, he already knew that much. It was weird to feel so disappointed about it too… And while he was usually hoping that the day would go faster so he could have some sort of peace and quiet, this time he just wanted a little more time. Maybe by some chance he’d be able to see them in passing… He just wanted to talk to them for a second.

Sitting in the little lunch area, he watched as the groups of children and their chaperones filed out of the building. His eyes scanned over everyone, but he couldn’t seem to find the human that he really wanted to see. They couldn’t have possibly left before he would have noticed… right? It would have been impossible… he’s been watching the whole time.

“Hurry, hurry! This is why I told you all to go to the bathroom twenty minutes ago. We’re gonna miss the bus and be stuck here.” His head had never turned so quickly, but that voice… It wasn’t coming from the line of people in front of him, but it was them. They were standing by the restrooms, anxiously rocking on their heels as they waited for the rest of the kids in their group to finish.

“Yay! Let’s get stuck here!” One of the kids shouted, and he almost snorted at their reaction. He could see their eyes roll, and their patient demeanor was definitely wearing thin by now. “Y/N doesn’t wanna be stuck! You wanna go home and take a nap, right?” Their sister said proudly, holding tightly onto their hand. He watched as they nodded, smiling down to their sister before turning back to the bathroom doors. Now was his chance, it was his only chance.

He got up, taking a deep breath as he walked over to where they stood. All the children surrounding them noticed him first, and their eyes on him almost made him turn right back around. “Oh! I’m sorry, I’ve got one more kid in there. They’re taking forever.” They said, sheepishly smiling to him. There was a reason that they got stuck, and maybe it was a sign that he should talk to them… or maybe that one kid drank way too much juice… Either way, he wasn’t going to let this opportunity pass by him.

“It’s alright… The kid couldn’t possibly take much longer.” He joked, and it felt… weird… to joke with them about the kid. That was something that one of the other employees would do, but not him… not in any other situation. They let out a small chuckle, shaking their head. He was sure that they were about to disagree until the bathroom door flew open and the kid walked out. He knew that he didn’t have much time, and they were already lining the kids up and counting heads. They were about to leave.

He grabbed a napkin and quickly scribbled his number on it, hoping that they’d be able to read it. They were already walking towards the door, and if it was for anything or anyone else, he would have just let it go. Nothing was worth running for, but them… they were worth it. He sprinted to the door just as they were about to walk out, grabbing their hand and placing the napkin in it. “Text me after your nap.” He didn’t even care how forward he sounded, but he could also feel his cheeks heating up just from saying it. They would know that he was listening and he wasn’t sure how they’d feel about it.

“Sure…” They looked down at the napkin for a second and then back up at him, letting out a small giggle as they folded it and slid it into their pocket. “I’ll text you later…”

[anxiouslyfred]

Lockets and Emo’s

Summary: Virgil can guess a lot about their soulmate from the knife locket they were drawn too, and the portrait within, but they’ll wait for them to visit the shop he works in.

/\/\

People always talked about how accurate the portraits in their lockets were, and that they'd never have been able to find their soulmate if not for the picture held inside. Frankly, people talked a lot of nonsense and no matter how accurate a painting was, it was still limited by the paint, the artist and the amount of space available in how detailed it could be. Even photographs suffered that limitation.

When Virgil first got their locket, they had been far more interested in the process of the caravan, being blindfolded in the room with the lockets until one called his hands to them, and afterwards sitting with the soul artist as though for their own portrait but actually so they could get their energy to reveal the image of their soulmate. They'd been lucky enough that the locket in their hands filled them, providing more space for the image to appear in. That gave him more details to look for in the faces of others alongside the reflections of who their soulmate is in the design of the locket.

Remus hadn't cared when he was taken to get his locket. It wasn't that he didn't want to meet them, but that he'd spent the week reading about the soulmates who didn't work out, and just wanted to discuss with all the workers there if there's anyway to know how soulmates will actually react to each other. After all, even in fiction there were soulmates like Heathcliffe and Cathy who were perfect to destroy each other, as well as political ones, where the soulmates might try to be romantic, or friends, but their connection really only grows when they work together as colleagues and nothing more. Surely the different types of soulmates had been studied and the people in the caravan should know if he could tell just what he was heading to having.

He had kept asking those questions while blindfolded and being led from the room with a rather bland looking lockets and even while sitting with the artist as the tiny thing had his soulmate painted inside it. None of the staff replied or even spoke to him beyond gentle words to guide him through the process, no matter how many times Remus insisted they could throw him through the areas if they wanted to.

It wasn't until a week later than Remus looked at his locket and found the spider webs and checked patterns engraved into the locket, only visible in some lights. It at least made him more interested in the soulmate that was supposed to be portrayed within it, with dark eyeshadow showing from beneath a long fringe. At least it wasn't any of the emos he'd been through school with, none of them had worn eyeshadow underneath their eyes and almost all of them hated his rebellious punk style.

Virgil wasn't going to go out socialising to try and find the guy with a wild smile, a fringe bleached white and green-brown eyes, but they could just about cope with a retail job, so long as the shop was small and wouldn't insist he speaks to people as they enter. That would at least give them a change to people watch in case someone similar to their portrait wandered through.

Well, that and they could hopefully watch for anyone causing a scene because whomever the locket represented definitely would grab attention quickly. Virgil wasn't quite sure what they were most amused by when looking at the locket, just how gaudy it was or how intricately made  it was. The main body seemed to be made out of a dagger, cut in half width ways and blunted just enough to be safe to wear, although still functional if they wished to stab someone. There was even a hilt instead of a normal ring to attach it to the chain.

Remus had tried visiting all the normal areas he'd heard of emo's hanging out in, making a scene and sometimes getting into fights at all of them. They might agree that the police needed to be shut down and capitalism was a burden but apparently got very protective over the bands they claimed. It wasn't Remus's fault he sometimes was looking for something with a bit more of a dancable beat to it.

He only decided to try to shops in local towns that emos might visit on a whim, or rather after Roman had gone on a long speech about “It's not merely fashion Remus, any fool could follow that, it's about aesthetic and truly reflecting the prince within me.” All he had asked was just why his brother was dragging them around shops that seemed to sell mostly steampunk accessories when his brother usually preferred swords, leather and ruby jewellery.

Seriously, Remus could and would make anything his style within a day of climbing around in it. A few tears, a bit of dirt and perhaps some thorns from the bushed he scrambled through and the jobs done, but it definitely made sense that someone who's locket reflection hid the details probably wouldn't be out around the town regularly.

When he first entered an out of the way shop, Remus had been torn between making a scene and just trying to steal a couple of the spiked piercing they had in a display case. It was always more fun to steal things that were locked to normal shoppers, but he actually knew the words to the song that was playing so obviously had to make a display table his stage and sing along. Checking the staff out for patchwork clothes or under the eye eyeshadow could wait a while.

He made it halfway through the song before someone caught his arm and essentially through him to the floor as they yanked him down. “If you're going to dance on the merchandise you had better get to cleaning it up right the hell now, Maniac!” The store assistant who'd yanked him down demanded, glaring and waving a hand at where he'd been dancing a second before.

Remus would have argued, except he could recognise that long fringe anywhere. They eyeshadow just underneath them only cemented that his was his soulmate, and the shaking in their hands was probably because they were realising the same thing.

“Hi, I'm Remus, he/him, and sure thing. You gonna give me instructions on what to do, Spiderpatch?” He asked instead, bouncing up, as close as he could to the other, pouting a little when he was still looking up at them.

“Virgil, they/them, and if that's what it takes then yes, but I think you're smart enough to figure it out yourself.” They growled out.

Mentally Virgil was still freaking out. Usually when people started making a scene to that degree they would actually wait until they finished and then clean up after them. This was way too close to a confrontation for them to be comfortable with, but the man was more accurate to his mental image of his soulmate than anyone they'd ever seen and it at least gave them something to say without bringing that up.

“Smart enough, sure, willing to do it without my soulmate or some kind of threat to motivate me, yeah, I don't wanna.” Remus teased, not expecting a knife to be pulled from Virgil's hoodie and held up towards him.

Virgil smirked at the blink that flickered between their face and their hands. “Well I've got both thanks to your locket, so how about you get folding?” They asked, gesturing once again to the ruined display, although thankfully there were no footprints on any of the tops. Glancing around they saw why as Remus had apparently thrown his shoes across the room while climbing onto the table.

“It's a knife locket? Oh my god, I have the most awesome reflection in locket form ever! I'm in love with this locket even if you're making me fold shirts to get a date with you.” Remus was bouncing even as he finally turned to start tidying up the display, already rattling of other thoughts and well aware Virgil was stood watching him.

“So what's mine like then, if you're so enamoured with the one for you?” They hadn't decided about going out with Remus yet so decided to ignore the offer when they finally spoke up again.

Remus barely paused, grabbing the locket from his pocket to shove into their hands. “Really interesting. The best light to look at it in is like night club strobe lights. They bring out the designs on it perfectly. I bet in here you can barely make out there's even any pattern on there. Seriously, date? Hang out as friends? Phone number? Can I have something to say I'm seeing you again? Hell if you'd prefer just to make me work here I'm down for it.”

Virgil snickered at the ideas but shook their head playfully horrified when Remus mentioned them working together. “I'm not giving you more chances to damage the merchandise. How about we text for a while, get to know each other and see what we'd like from there?”

“Phone number then.” Remus turned around pulling his phone out only to pout and exaggeratedly deflate when his realised they were no longer holding the knife locket out at all. “Come on, I liked having you ready to cut me. A bit of pain is brilliant.”

“Not what I meant when I said getting to know you, but noted, if we ever get to a sexual relationship, you have a pain kink.” Virgil remarked, quickly typing in their number before waving towards the staff area. “I can't have my phone out on shift since I got too grouchy with my co-workers so text me and I'll reply when I get out of here.”

Remus took his phone back with a grin, “Sure, I'll go and see what mischief I can get into before I come to walk you home.”

“Didn't agree to that.” Virgil tried to call after him, but Remus had already turned to race out of the store.

[socialandmentalhealth-blog]

Interpersonal Intelligence | Health Psychologist | Social and Mental Health

Interpersonal intelligence is nothing but social intelligence. In another word, Interpersonal intelligence is people’s skills deals in influencing people.

You may have seen people/persons who have magnetic energy. once they enter everyone gets joyful and excited.

Everyone wants to spend time with them. People get curious about them.

People get easily impressed with them within the primary or second meetings. as an example, some politicians, influences, actors, business leaders or the opposite person in your acquaintances, their character may resonate with the above-stated description.

In older days only academic intelligence was known to us. Interpersonal intelligence could also be a recent finding but vital to steer a cheerful and fulfilled life.

Even within the professional and company world, interpersonal intelligence is extremely important to climb up the board hierarchy. lately, it is the foremost rewarded skill for jobs.

There are many kinds of intelligence known to us lately like academic intelligence(IQ), interpersonal intelligence or social intelligence, Interpersonal intelligence, linguistic intelligence, visual-spatial intelligence, logical/mathematical intelligence, body kinaesthetic intelligence, existential intelligence, etc.

It is not necessary that one person has just one kind of intelligence. One person can have one or many kinds of intelligence.

STERN-BERG THEORY OF INTELLIGENCE

This theory is given by Robert j. Stern-berg, researched in intelligence. He uses a cognitive basis rather than a psycho-logic approach to put forth his triarchic theory.

As per Stern-berg, there are three kinds of intelligence.

Componential or analytical intelligence.

People who have these kinds of intelligence are good in academics but may or won’t good at producing creative ideas or choose. generally, we call IQ.

Experiential or creative intelligence.

People having this type of intelligence are highly skillful and innovative. they’re creative and artistic. they have the facility to innovate and solve the matter. it’s seen that these people aren’t good at academics.

Practical or contextual intelligence.

People having these kinds of intelligence are good at making decisions, deciding situations quickly and choose what’s a subsequent step, good at adapting with the new intelligence. These people are successful in every work they’re doing.

Here we’ll see about interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligence,

WHAT IS INTERPERSONAL INTELLIGENCE

This is people’s skills and one who has it is often called “people smart” or “Social Smart”. People with high Interpersonal intelligence are good at people’s skills, reading their minds, emotions, temperament, and habits. They know exactly what to say during which situation.

During the conversation with others, they know what people want to concentrate on and say something that changes people’s moods and gets impressed with them. they have the facility to understand and interact with people.

This explains how some people can seduce others with mare talking or with quick interaction. But some people can’t do that instead of trying hard and end up distancing peoples from themselves.

Examples of people with high interpersonal intelligence are

Mahatma Gandhi, Luther KING JR, Abraham Lincoln, Nelson Mandela, etc.

Opposite of interpersonal intelligence is interpersonal intelligence. INTERPERSONAL INTELLIGENCE Interpersonal intelligence nothing but awareness about self. People with high interpersonal intelligence have total awareness about their feelings, emotion, motivation, goal, personal needs, beliefs, strengths, and weaknesses.People with high interpersonal intelligence have control over their emotions, feelings, needs, desire, and beliefs. They neither overestimate nor underestimate themselves. they’re ambitious and guaranteed.INTERPERSONAL INTELLIGENCE VS ACADEMIC INTELLIGENCE Academic intelligence(IQ) can’t decide your success at work, healthy relationship alongside your spouse, family, and friends or social contacts but interpersonal intelligence do.No matter how intelligent you’re in academics but if you are not good with social skills like communication, presentation and speech making you’ll lag behind in work culture. But interpersonal intelligence will give this all to you.If you are not good at social skills your relationship alongside your wife won’t flourish or may take an extended time to open up. you will have a careless relationship with people with family and friends.WHY INTERPERSONAL SKILLS ARE MOST REWARDED SKILL IN WORKPLACE THESE DAYS?In the corporate setting interpersonal skills are the first thing interviewer checks. Because it’ll decide how will you handle people, will you be able to lead the people in your team or how are you getting to be your rapport alongside your team leader.Interpersonal intelligence directly affects your decision-making work. Therefore, People with low interpersonal intelligence will end up making poor decisions like end up in not so good job, uncomfortable and non-compatible relationships, cumbersome friendship and losing relations with a colleague.Interpersonal skills cause you to a man with a sweet mouth. it’ll help to make an honest relationship with retailers and consumers. People will respect and trust you.Interpersonal skills assist you in project presentation and speech making. This skill may also be a requirement for people working in human resources and the PR department.QUALITIES OF PERSON WITH HIGH INTERPERSONAL INTELLIGENCE If you’d like people to like you, believe and trust in you or you’d wish to form a rapport with people.Interpersonal intelligence helps you to form a rapport with people. once you deed it people start thinking that you simply are like them only.And as per the law like attracts like, they start attracting towards you. Here are some social skill that makes you social smart,1. COMMUNICATION You may find several kinds of communications like verbal, non-verbal, written, telepathic, etc. but here we’ll consider only verbal and non-verbal communications related to our topic. True communication happens once we consider both of them together.It is the foremost important social skill to possess to urge in connection with people. Verbal communication is through conversation, presentation, simple talk or speech.A person with high interpersonal intelligence knows how to keep the conversation going. They know what to mention next to remain the conversation going. What to say and what to not say while talking.They have a skill of story-telling. They convert their speech or presentation into nice and humorous stories so that folks should understand the thing in simple words and while doing that they need to remain excited and interested till the highest of the conversation or session.A book “CAPTIVATE” written by “ELIZABETH VAN EDWARDS”.She’s a behavioral investigator and runs an academy name “Science of People”. this is often one of the most recommended books so far for verbal communication.Non-verbal communication includes your expressions, movements of your eyes, how you stand, conscious and unconscious reactions, movement of your hand and legs, movement of your head.A person with high interpersonal intelligence is nice at non-verbal communication skills. Expressive with the eyes, as an example, looking straight into the eyes of the person ahead while talking, not reacting to people if not necessary or giving the right reaction at the right time. Expressive with hands and legs, empathetic listening so as that folks feel heard.Non-verbal communication is as important as verbal communication. Because we’ll say and guess many things with non-verbal communication.True communication happens once we combine both verbal and non-verbal. It goes hand in hand. once you acquire this you’ll suddenly become likable and center of attraction in your group.This is a skill and it is often learned. Now every day online courses are available. Join the courses, attend toastmasters and practice it with people.A former FBI counterintelligence officer Joe Navarro was an expert in non-verbal behavior specialist. He solved tons of cases on the basis of the behavior and expressions of criminals. He noted these tricks in a book. this is often the only of a kind book on non-verbal communication.2.EMPATHETIC LISTENING Deep listening sympathetically. Deep listening makes a one ahead feel heard and important, thanks to that they start respecting you and liking you.You can win people mare listening to them. You don’t get to impose your opinion on them or just shut one’s mouth, and listen. Respond in between nodding with head or repeating the important line or words from their conversation.People feel relieved when someone listens to them.People with high interpersonal intelligence are good at listening. The simplest example we’ll give. “Alfred Sloan Jr” his employees used to call him “Silent Slone”. Because he used to talk less and listen more.3. CONFIDENCE People with high interpersonal intelligence are confident about themselves. they’re confident about what they’re doing, what they talk, their flows and communication.This makes them look charming and trustworthy. Everyone like confident people. 4. CONTROL OVER EMOTIONS.People with high interpersonal skills know when, how and to what extent to express their emotions before people, especially anger.This quality makes them more approachable.People wish to share their problems with such a person.If you keep bringing your emotions in between, people will distance them from you and avoid you.You need to seek out and regulate your emotions. Control it but don’t repress it.5.PROBLEM-SOLVINGA person with high interpersonal intelligence specializes in problem-solving and has the facility to hunt out a solution to any problem. This quality attracts the people toward them. When people get troubles they approach him for a solution.6.DECISIVE POWER People with high interpersonal intelligence have high decisive power. they’re going to make quick decisions in emergencies and in difficult times.       7. INTEGRITY A person with high interpersonal intelligence has integrity. They respect colleagues, partners, and friends. Also respect others’ political, religious and other views.They don’t differentiate people from the thought of caste, creed, ethnicity, language, sex, and profession.These people are brutally honest about themselves and with others.8. NEGOTIATION SKILLS You will never fail in life if you’re a skilled negotiator. May you be a boss, HR manager, employee, spouse, some shop owner or salesperson. you’d wish to negotiate something.People who are bad negotiators have chances of ending in low paying jobs, end up getting into a nasty deal or they’ll end up buying low-quality products for the upper price.People with high interpersonal intelligence are good negotiators. This skill certainly attracts people.There isn’t any test for measuring interpersonal skills but you’ll feel it from that person once you’re available in touch with them.Interpersonal intelligence or interpersonal skills or social skills or social intelligence whatever you call it, you would like to understand that it is a skill and you will learn it with honest practice.WHAT IS INTERPERSONAL INTELLIGENCE?This is people’s skills and one who has it is often called “people smart” or “Social Smart”. People with high Interpersonal intelligence are good at people’s skills, reading their minds, emotions, temperament, and habits. They know exactly what to say during which situation.

Mahatma Gandhi, Luther KING JR, Abraham Lincoln, Nelson Mandela, etc.WHAT ARE THE QUALITIES OF PERSON WITH HIGH INTERPERSONAL INTELLIGENCE?People with high interpersonal intelligence may have several qualities and they may have different intelligence associated. I will mention some of them here, 1. They are good at communication. 2. They are good at listening. 3. They are confident about themselves and about what they do. 4. They have control over emotions. 5. They are good at problem-solving. 6. They are good at negotiation. 7. They are good at decision making. 8. They have moral values and integrity. WHAT IS INTERPERSONAL INTELLIGENCE? Interpersonal intelligence nothing but awareness about self. People with high interpersonal intelligence have total awareness about their feelings, emotion, motivation, goal, personal needs, beliefs, strengths, and weaknesses. People with high interpersonal intelligence have control over their emotions, feelings, needs, desire, and beliefs. They neither overestimate nor underestimate themselves. they’re ambitious and guaranteed.DIFFERENCE BETWEEN INTERPERSONAL INTELLIGENCE VS ACADEMIC INTELLIGENCE.Academic intelligence(IQ) can’t decide your success at work, healthy relationship alongside your spouse, family, and friends or social contacts but interpersonal intelligence do. No matter how intelligent you’re in academics but if you are not good with social skills like communication, presentation and speech making you’ll lag behind in work culture. But interpersonal intelligence will give this all to you.WHAT ARE MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCE ?There are many kinds of intelligence known to us lately like academic intelligence(IQ), interpersonal intelligence or social intelligence, Interpersonal intelligence, linguistic intelligence, visual-spatial intelligence, logical/mathematical intelligence, body kinaesthetic intelligence, existential intelligence, etc

[burnouts3s3]

Anthem, a review

(Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit unprofessional blog post written by an unprofessional blog poster. All purported facts and statement are little more than the subjective, biased opinion of said blog poster. In other words, don’t take anything I say too seriously.) Just the facts 'Cause you're in a Hurry! Publisher: Electronic Arts Developer: Bioware Platform Required: Origin Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP): 59.99 USD How much I paid: 14.99 USD for Origin Premiere Access, a subscription service for Electronic Arts Rated: Not Rated as of the writing of this review. Can I play offline: No. Anthem requires a constant online connection to play. Controller Support: Yes. It was compatible with my Rock-Candy Xbox 360 controller.  Keyboard and Mouse controls are also available. How long I played: 16 Hours to complete the main story mode on Easy mode while watching the (skippable) cutscenes. Microtransactions: An in-game Store to purchase skins, individual paint jobs or emotes for various Javelins, suits in the game. Purchases can cost up to 20 USD. What I played on: My PC. Performance Issues: I would use many words to describe Anthem, but "optimized" is not one of them. With V-Sync turned on, the Framerate dips wildly between 30-60 FPS. Several instances of clipping and pop-in textures. 3 Game crashes requiring me to restart the game. One instance of the game not loading the forge yet and me walking into the bottom pit while the forge spawed up ahead and I got stuck so I had to reset the game. But hey, the facial animations are pretty passable this time around. My Personal Biases: I am a Biodrone/Bioware apologist. I’ve played every Bioware game since Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. However, I’ve been having doubts on the company since the buggy release of Mass Effect: Andromeda. My Verdict: Less like a complete game and more like a prologue to hook early adopters in, Anthem feels like the first time in a long time that doesn't have Bioware's roleplaying there. With no romance options, very few conversations with side characters with limited choices and a ho-hum story, Anthem feels sorely lacking in several areas. Wait until Bioware puts in more content and a price cut before picking this one up. Anthem, a review

And so it's finally here. After years of Development, Bioware finally releases its new IP: Anthem. After the critical and financial flop that was Mass Effect: Andromeda from even hardcore Bioware fans, will the developer be able to get back into the good graces of their fanbase? Let's find out. This is a review of "Anthem". You are a Freelancer. Riding around in your mechanical jet suit, a Javelin, you adventure outside the world collecting artifacts of, what else, the remains of an ancient and mysterious race of creators that shaped the world through the Anthem. Alongside your friends, a veteran Javelin pilot Haluk and a Cypher (psychics who can listen and understand the Anthem), Faye, you adventure into the Heart of Rage, a dangerous location where even the most hardened of veterans fall. But when the expedition goes horribly wrong and most of the other Freelancers have been killed, you pull Haluk out of the Heart of Rage and retreat to Fort Tarsis. While I can safely say that Anthem isn't nearly the disaster Mass Effect: Andromeda was, it leaves a lot to be desired. It's less of a full game than it is a prologue to something else. Then again, in the age of the ongoing dumpster fire that is Fallout 76, I suppose a less than optimized game isn't nearly as terrible as a continuing PR disaster. Two years pass and you are finding any sort of work given to you. People have begun to lose faith in Freelancers and you and your new friend, Owen, try to make ends meet. However, Tassyn, an informant from the Capital, comes with you with a job offer. However, as you continue your adventure, you meet up with the enemy faction, the Dominion (those who believe they can control the Anthem and reshape the world) as well as its bloodthirsty leader, Monitor. In order to defeat the Monitor, you'll have to reunite with your estranged friends, Haluk and Faye, improve your Javelin, pass trials and re-enter the Heart of Rage. Can you finish the mission you ran away from two years ago? Anthem is a third-person shooter in which you complete quests to earn gear. As you level up and do more difficult missions, you'll receive better gear. This is where Anthem shines: the level of customizing your Javeline is immense and there's a lot of room for originality. There are 4 classes of Javelins: the Ranger, an all-around, versatile mech, the Interceptor, a light mech focusing on Melee attacks, the Storm, a mage type class that can fire elemental attacks and the Colossus, the tank class capable of soaking up damage. While each of the 4 Javelins can equip any weapon, specific Javelins are limited to certain parts. You'll gather and accumliate parts and salvage the parts to get components. You can use components to craft new parts ranging from Common to Uncommon to Rare to Legendary. If you earn a blueprint, you can craft some Legendary gear. Earning items can be done by playing story missions, doing side-quests, participating in Strongholds (this game's version of Dungeons) or going into Freeplay, an open world element in which you fly around the vast world and look for 'World Events' random missions that have specific objectives and reward a treasure chest full of loot. Flying around in the mech is a highlight. Being able to soar through the air and water while watching for overheating is probably the best we'll get to an Iron Man experience. Combat and mission objectives aren't quite as compelling. It's mostly doing the same thing over and over again: defeat waves of enemies, collect echos or fragments, wait until the Signal is decrypted, etc. And while the Javelins have different playstyles, abilities and Ultimate attacks, it does little to change defeating wave after wave of enemies for the umpteeth time. While Customizing your Javelin is vast, customizing your player avatar is sorely lacking. There's no character creator as the game only gives you preset faces to pick from. Worst yet, the majority of the game while in Fort Tarsis is set in first-person, meaning you'll almost never see your character for the majority of the game. The lack of roleplaying bleeds out into Fort Tarsis. Frankly, compared to the vast world to explore in Anthem, Fort Tarsis is claustrophobic. It makes Dragon Age 2's Kirkwall seem big by comparison. There's very little to explore and not helping matters is the snail's pace you're forced to walk while traveling around it. For Tarsis is filled up with NPC's in which you can have conversations. To advance certain conversations, you'll either have to do missions or enter freeplay. Unfortunately, your dialogue options are VERY limited. The infamous Bioware Dialogue Wheel is nowhere to be found and you'll be left with two choices to respond. Not helping matters is that most of these conversations go nowhere and do very little to define your character. (Though there are some exceptions. For example, I liked listening to Zoe talk about her son and why her motherly instincts lead her to take extra care of Javelins or helping an old woman who confuses you for her dead child). While the results may differ depending on what choices you choose, all the major stuff is being done off-screen. It's one thing to have a veteran Javelin pilot reminisce about the old days but when other characters are having adventures and bringing you up to speed on taking your advice, you can't help but feel a disconnect. The main story doesn't really help either. You don't even get to pick dialogue choices at all and you watch as your Player Character does all the acting. It truly feels like the first time the game is on-rails and you're not voicing any input at all on how to react. Worst yet, certain points in the main questline FORCES you to do tedious grinding to advance. When Faye asks you to do trials, they can only be accomplished by doing in-game achievements (i.e. Kill X enemies with a Melee Attack or Revive X players). It feels needlessly tedious and only bogs the game down. This is (and I'm speculating here) only there to extend the playtime so that gamers who payed for the 10 hour trial do not blitz through the main storyline.

After that, you need to craft the Dawn Sheild and must help either Matthias, an Archanist who might be seeing triple or Sentinel Dax, a princess turned guard who's recklessness might get you killed, in order to do so. Worst yet, even after helping one of them, the game insists you help the other one to lower the crafting cost of the shield. The main questline is short and full of cliches. Not helping matters is that the Monitor is a completely generic big bad with no real personality and idiotic reasons for wanting to access the Anthem. I know Bioware is hardly the arbiter of original characters, but the Monitor is woefully lacking after the specific threats that were Mass Effect's Saren and Dragon Age's Loghain. And after it's done, the game 'teases' you with an after-credits scene that only exists so that Bioware can state "Don't worry; we have more content coming soon". Even after you complete the story and unlock the two other Strongholds, there's a woeful lack of content. You can repeat missions and do quests on higher difficulty levels to gain better gear, but it quickly becomes repetitive. Who is the audience for this game? In a world where Warframe is free to play, Borderlands 2 has a healthy player population and Destiny 2 has had its price cut, Anthem feels like a latecomer to the genre. But, even loyal Bioware fans (i.e. the people who bought Mass Effect: Andromeda on the first day and still defend said purchase), aren’t feeling this game. In fact, one of the Youtube creators I follow quit the game after he received a bug in which after unlocking his second Javelin, he was unable to access the account.

Why would Bioware change its formula now? And it's not as if Anthem is a priority for Electronic Arts, either. With Apex Legends continuing to dominate Twitch ratings and Playerbase, Anthem will probably be pushed to the sidelines. The game requires constant online connection and has an in-game store. Fortunately, said microtransactions are purely cosmetic and do not feature loot boxes plaguing the industry. And while it isn't as rediculous and allows you, the player, to buy the items with in-game currency, it's still a bad precedent. But I could even forgive the game as a service model as long as I got to roleplay. For example, (and I’m aware this is a very subjective opinion that is not shared by other people), I really like Star Wars: The Old Republic. Even though many gamers criticized the game of being a World of Warcraft rip-off (and rightly so, I might add), there was a sense of roleplaying and seeing my character on screen. Plus, it was cool seeing how different the class stories differed from one another. I could tell you how my Twi'lek smuggler who romanced Akaavi differed from my Pureblood Sith Inquistor who romanced Ashara. If you asked me what differentiated my Male Javelin Pilot from my Female one, I couldn't possibly tell you. (I suspect that the game will inevitably follow the footsteps of Star Wars: The Old Republic, go free to play when the playerbase dwindles while walling off things such as Strongholds for subscribers). And it's very telling how developers and animators were pulled from Mass Effect: Andromeda to help work on Anthem. CAVEAT: As a developer, Bioware has always put things like inclusion and diversity first and foremost, even at the cost of things such as quality assurance or facial animations. "Strong Alone, Stronger Together," says Haluk. And for a lot of consumers, myself included, they feel conflicted on criticizing something they view as a positive force for the games industry. But whatever the consumer is, whomever they love, whatever the color of their skin or what they identify themselves as, Electronic Arts is pulling out scummy tactics to milk them out of their money. There’s still an ongoing debate of where things like representation, inclusion, exclusion, diversity and egalitarianism have in the industry. But wherever you find yourself on the culture war, the one thing we can agree on is that the last thing required are for giant publishers co-opting those social issues in order to scam its customers out of their money. Verdict: Wait for a sale or Rental.

[icequeenoriginal]

The Proposal (Nero x Kyrie Fanfic) Part 1

Nero wasn’t one to brag about the things he accomplished. In fact, he didn’t enjoy it. Even after saving Kyrie from the Order, he wouldn’t tell people about his heroic deed and even get flustered by any and all praise. It seemed too selfish for his liking.

Today was an exception.

Everything started four weeks before, when Nero had asked Morrison if he had any extra cases lying around that Dante was too lazy to complete. He needed the extra money and a little fighting could help relax his nerves. Morrison was happy to have someone complete them. Nero was only slightly dazed by Morrison’s sudden happy mood but he figured (sentence just kinda cuts off here)

Turns out it the most of the jobs were actually terrible. Half of them involved small, easy to kill demons that the customer was either too lazy or too much of a chicken, as Nero thought of them, to deal with them. The other half had no demons whatsoever. Guard jobs, babysitting and even a fake date for some wedding. That one was the worst for the person tried to kiss him. Though the screaming toddlers weren’t any better.

It was worth it. Anything was. For her.

After three weeks of self-inflicted torment, Nero finally had the money he needed. He walked down the streets of Redgrave with his head held high. His Devil Bringer seems to glow brighter as his smile widened. He confidently walked up to retail jeweler and simply pointed to the ring he wanted.

He didn’t need to look. He knew it was the one. He’s known for years.

Exactly a week before Dante had appeared in Fortuna, Nero was walking Kyrie to the front of the Headquarters of the Order of the Sword so that she could meet with Credo. They spent the day making sandwiches for the children at the orphanage. Nero would admit it was nice, even though there was an annoying little girl constantly asking them when they were getting married.

After all the children had their lunch, Nero took Kyrie to get her something to eat. She tended to focus on feeding everyone else than feeding herself. On the way there, Kyrie became fascinated by the sparkly jewelry in the display window.

The ring had fairly simple gold band with two small diamonds. The diamonds are next to each other, connected by the band itself, completely the circle. Kyrie smiled and then continue walking.

Nero wasn’t dumb, he knew that was her way of telling him she wanted it. Kyrie never believed in asking for things since there always is someone who’s in need. So, to find a gift for her, Nero would watch what made her eyes sparkle, that she would smile at or even just comment on how nice it looked. He didn’t mind, it gave him an excuse to watch her.

Their lunch was interrupted when Credo ran up to them smiling. It honestly a terrifying sight to Nero. He brought the news that Kyrie would be singing at the Mass next week. Nero couldn’t help but smile when Kyrie became excited over it. She paid for her meal and left with Credo.

After he finished eating, Nero headed back over to the jewelry store. However, all the assurance he had before, disappeared the second he walked into the store. It was replaced with doubt he could actually give it to her, they were too young to be engaged, and fear of Credo killing him.

He decided then a necklace would be better.

After Fortuna was destroyed, the jeweler had to sell all his pieces to rebuild his home. Nero cursed himself for not buying it earlier. Luckily, with the help of the internet, he was able to track the movement of the ring to this very shop in Redgrave City.

He quickly paid for the ring and ran out of the store. His plan was to go home, ask Kyrie if she would like to go out for dinner, and then he would propose. Simple and sweet, just how they liked it.

His plan was doomed the second the old man called his name.

“Hey kid! Nero, turn around!” He turned to see Dante with his arm around Lady. Nero figured they were probably on a date and just stopping him to say hello.

“Hey.”

“Where are you running off to? A job?”

“Nothing like that.” He couldn’t help but blush at the thought of asking Kyrie to be his bride.

That’s all Lady needed. “Wait a minute...are you going to propose?!”

Nero quickly shushed her, even though Kyrie was on the other side of town. Dante smiled widely at him, the Sparda family continued to grow.

“Looks like someone’s becoming a man, good job kid.”

“Thanks. Now I got to go.” He really wanted to escape this conversation and get home before Kyrie who spent the entire day volunteering.

“Come on kid, at least tell us what you have planned.”

Nero sighed and gave in. “Well, I’m going to take her to dinner then propose at desert.” Nero couldn’t help but smile at his plan.

“That’s so lame kid!” Leave it to Dante to make him down himself and his ideas. As Dante laughed, Nero’s insecurities began to bubble up. What if she didn’t like it? What if she wanted more? Maybe he didn’t pay attention as much as he thought.

It was only when Lady spoke did he stop beating himself up. “Oh like you could do better.”

“As a matter of fact, I can.”

“Oh really? I doubt that. Considering you proposed to a mop at 3 in the morning drunk.”

“Ignoring the fact that you still haven’t let that go, when I propose, I’m going to take you up to the top of the tallest building where I’m gonna have Trish set up a picnic and then when you say yes, I’ll get a helicopter to fly us around the city!” He suddenly picked her up and spun around. He couldn’t stop the blush from appearing in her face. Not because of the sudden contact, she had gotten used to it, or the thought of how the hell he was going to get money for a helicopter but because he said when not if.

Nero would never admit that he was impressed by Dante’s idea. It might be the perfect proposal. He shook his head, it was the perfect proposal. For them. They loved loud and exciting, he and Kyrie enjoy sweet and simple. “That’s nice and all, but I got it covered.”

“Now kid…” Before Nero could react, Dante had put Lady down and had his arm around Nero’s shoulder. “You got to trust your uncle Dante on this.” Nero rolled his eyes at the statement. “This is very important, mainly to her and if you screw this up, Kyrie will hate you forever.”

“I highly doubt—”

“Trust me, I know a lot about women.” The silence confused Dante as he turned to his girlfriend and nephew. A few seconds went by before the two people near and dear to his heart began pointing and laughing at him.

“What?”

“Dante, I of all people know you have the worst luck with women.” She cupped his face in her hands and smirked. If there was any moment in his life that he hated her, it was now.

“I’m pretty sure the whole world knows that Lady. Everyone is still trying to figure out how he got with you.” Nero, his own flesh and blood, how could he?!

Unlike Dante, Lady laughed at Nero statement. “Well to be fair, I don’t—”

“OKAY I GET IT!” The outburst only made the two laugh more. “AsI was saying before you both rudely interrupted me…” He turns to Lady with a smirk, his cockiness and confidence had returned. “Babe, we have to help Nero.”

“You really don’t have to do that.”

“Too late, we are.”

——————————————————————————————————

Nero sat annoyed on the couch inside Devil May Cry with his chin resting on his palm. Dante, Lady and newcomer Trish who was more than happy to help.

Too happy in Nero’s opinion.

“No! No! Doves are way too cliché for them.”

“That’s your issue with it? Not that we could never afford that?”

“Oh love doesn’t have a price.”

“Who are you and what have you done with Trish?”

Trish brushes off her comment. It was true that this stuff wasn’t usually her style. It did however peak her curiosity. As a demon, she didn’t feel that many emotions. She craved to learn how to truly feel. It was the closest thing she had to being human. She blamed Dante and Lady for not being able to learn love right away. She enjoyed watching Nero and Kyrie interact,,they were much more about their feelings than some people.

[easiestmobileappbuilder-blog]

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[nickgerlich]

Going Forward From COVID-19

The Road Ahead:  After COVID-19 Five weeks in to a pandemic, and the amount we have learned and changed thus far is enough to fill volumes. We have learned about how the human animal reacts when confronted with the very real fear of being locked up for weeks. We have seen shoppers go crazy over basic items the likes of which were taken for granted the week before this all happened. We have seen people struggle with boredom and ennui, to the point of gathering at the playground anyway for an impromptu game of hoops, or the sudden urge to stroll the aisles of Lowe’s just to get out. We have tried to shelter-in-place, but it’s tough. We’ve seen 16 million people (so far) furloughed from jobs. We have started to wonder how many of those jobs will come back once the curtain of disease is lifted. We wonder how many abandoned restaurants and retail shops will litter the landscape down the road. If we are among the lucky, we have worked from home, having realized the offices in which we once congregated are luxury and probably not all that necessary. We have started pondering if there will be school and university this fall like we once knew it, or whether all academic institutions will be virtual. We have taught from home, we have studied from home. We have Zoomed like a boss, held office hours in our pajamas, and typed profound lectures and essays for our students. Like this one. We have cooked with reckless abandon, and more than we did in the previous five years combined. We have baked bread and added the word “artisanal” to our vocabulary. We now know more ways to cook beans than we ever thought imaginable. We have cauliflowered, Brussels sprouted, and squashed to the point that everyone is at least half-vegan now. We have gloved, masked, and covered to the point that no one recognizes us in public. We can visualize six feet now, we know that we shouldn’t reach in over someone else’s shoulder (well, most of us), and we are aware that we should give way on the bike and hike path so we can all safely pass without inhaling another person’s exhaust. We have found the end of Netflix, cleaned out the garage and basement, organized old photos, and alphabetized our closets. We’ve mowed, mulched, and planted (even if we did violate shelter-in-place orders to go to Lowe’s). We’ve clicked “Add To Cart” to the point of getting a blister on our right index finger. We’ve got enough empty boxes around the house now to start a small shipping company. I could wax poetically for many more paragraphs, but suffice it to say that this is only the beginning. Sure, someday the virus will have run its course and we will be free to carry on. But we will emerge into a very different world once more, one unlike we are experiencing right now mid-pandemic, but also unlike the one we left behind in February. If you’ll pardon me while I slip on my crystal ball gazers, here’s what I see in that brave new world post-COVID, and if you look at these through the correct lens, you will see a wellspring of opportunities for savvy businesspersons. What We Will See All buildings will be reimagined so that people can come and ago with little or no physical contact. We’re all going to be germaphobes anyway, so now is the time to start preparing. Entry ways will have optical sensors to automatically open and close doors, or, at minimum, doors will have handles that can be in such a way that does not require people to use their hands. Public restrooms do not need doors at all; instead, they can be designed or reconfigured to have L-shaped doorless entries. This does not solve the problem of doors on the stalls, but it is a move in the right direction. Beverage coolers and freezers will have automated doors as well. The same goes for office doors; there’s no reason we can’t use retina scanners or ID cards that can be scanned or tapped. Companies able to ramp up to this new reality will do well in the future. And don’t get me started on mass transit and airplanes. Those are going to be tough, but precautions can be taken, even if it means having crews disinfect everything on a regular basis. In addition to soft drink and candy machines, as well as cologne and condoms in public restrooms, we will see vending machines for gloves, masks, hand sanitizers, and other disinfectants. While supplies of these will hopefully be better in the future, it is inevitable that people will be caught out in public without one or more of these new survival essentials. Having them available, and, most importantly, knowing that these machines are ubiquitous, will ease fears wherever we may roam. This change does not require any advances in technology, other than machines that do not require any touching, especially if people have a special tool with them at all times for when they have to revert to old-school. Oh, and the mass transit and airplanes I mentioned a minute ago would be well-served by these machines at train and bus stations, as well as airports. Which brings up devices like the CleanKey, being promoted heavily on Facebook and Instagram right now. It is a handy little tool that attaches to your keyring, and functions either as a door puller, or like an iPad stylus to push buttons or sign names. Until contactless payment systems are installed, products like this will serve as an effective bridge.

Better yet, though, would be the proliferation of stores like Amazon Go, the one currently still in west coast prototype that allows people to enter, check-in to an app, and then shop without ever having to touch a thing other than the products they are adding to their basket. Cutting out the payment gateway, whether it be with a clerk or a self-check, will cut down on virus vectors. But until then, though, we will see more stores with self-check options. Yes, I know this means the elimination of many cashier jobs, but who wants to be a cashier these days anyway? Yes, the pay has historically been among the highest in the store, but you are exposed to hundreds of people and their germs every day. Self-check, along with the CleanKey, allows us to take care of ourselves and once again cut down on contacts. Speaking of stores, once the pandemic is over, I surely hope that everyone offering online ordering and curbside pickup has perfected this process. It’s a great idea to order online and pick up the order later, but there has gotten to be such long wait times, as in multiple days, that it is hardly worth it anymore. I am certain that people would happily allow for the potential germs of the order picker in lieu of having to share space and oxygen with dozens or even hundreds of other shoppers. Efforts will no doubt be made to get turnaround times back to a couple of hours instead of early next week. Education will forever be changed. While we in the College of Business have been teaching online since 1997, the same cannot be said of other parts of my university, and certainly at many other schools. Professors and Instructors will have to rethink everything in the future, including how quickly a class could be flipped to online should the need arise. Furthermore, the entire K-12 curriculum will change, since that environment seldom if ever involved online teaching. While the use of Zoom for class meetings is a laudable short-term adaptation, everyone will have to consider how to make everything asynchronous, just as the online pioneers did from Day 1. It defeats the purpose of being online if you have to be somewhere at 11:00am every Monday and Wednesday, even if that was the original class meeting time slot. The pandemic has thrown everyone’s worlds upside-down, and that 11:00 reference point may no longer be viable. Manufacturers and their supply chains will work better in the future to try to avert shortages in the event of panic buying. While it has been widely reported that toilet paper manufacturers have long been running 24/7 at full capacity, that left zero room for any shift in the demand curve. While it is laudable to not have any unused capacity, it is just as unlaudable to be caught unable to respond. The ability to produce and distribute more toilet paper suddenly became as complicated as the Titanic trying to avoid an iceberg, and it shouldn’t be. Shifting gears between consumer and commercial production must be easier in the future. Similarly, supply chains for agricultural crops must be able to turn on a dime. The state of Florida is now reporting massive amounts of vegetables that are either being plowed under or allowed to rot, all because commercial contracts dried up. While there are indeed big differences between foodservice and institutional users on the one hand, and supermarkets on the other, once again rigid thinking has made it impossible for growers and distributors to change gears quickly. Since we’re talking about food, buffets have got to go. They are a pandemic waiting to happen. Think about how careless people have been in the past, at everything from Golden Corral to massive Las Vegas casino buffets. In fact, restaurants in general will have to rethink everything, from sit-down dining to takeaway and drive-through. Everything from filthy-dirty menus to tables wiped with the same nasty rag the bus boy used yesterday needs to be revisited. Gloves and masks for everyone, regardless of whether they work as well we would hope, because they at least instill a little confidence in customers. Every kind of event will have to work through the reality of a pandemically-aware population. From churches to concerts, sports arenas, bars, and anything else that attracts large numbers of people, heightened attention must be paid to allowing participation without putting everyone in peril. It’s going to be tough. I think back to all of the concerts I have attended, from the mosh pits of the 1970s to more sedate seating in my later years, there’s still a lot of humanity all sharing the same space. I will think twice before I go to church or another concert again. New home construction would be wise to include expanded pantries so that people can stockpile their pandemic stash. My 1980-ish house may have a lot of cabinets, but could sure use a walk-in pantry. We will all need a place to inventory toilet paper, paper towels, disinfectants, non-perishable foodstuffs, and more. The pantry will become a very important room in the house, almost as important as the kitchen to which it is attached. Everyone must embrace e-commerce, not just Walmart and Amazon. This means even the smallest of shops, the mom-and-pop stores who for too long have dismissed technology and are now wondering how they can ever survive. If you want to make the sale, you must go where the people are, and I suspect that post-pandemic, more of us than ever before will be online. One somewhat scarier proposition is that contact tracing will become a way of life, whether we like it or not. This means that government bodies, working in partnership with cell phone carriers, will easily be able to track us, our comings and goings, and people with whom we may have come in contact, even strangers. Given that this is an enormous invasion of a privacy we once took for granted, we will have to weigh the benefits of trying to shorten infection vectors with less personal privacy. This is not going to be a fun one, as we are already finding out with some states moving in this direction. But the most important thing we will see from the COVID era is an emphasis on agility and preparation. Many companies have already learned their lesson the hard way. In many regards, we were all caught flat-footed and empty-handed. From PPEs to toilet paper, from inability to process and fulfill online orders for curbside pickup to restaurants too stuck in place to consider converting to takeaway, the survivors will have figure out all of this, and will continue to refine their operations so that they can adapt on a moment’s notice. It’s OK to be a sit-down restaurant with perhaps only a small portion of orders sold to-go, but the ability to pivot on a dime is needed to be able to modify operations quickly to react to a changing environment. The same goes for manufacturers and supply chains. No amount of whining and complaining is going to fix things in the short-run; only those prepared and willing to make major changes now, not in a few years, will continue to stay in business. Five Weeks And All This Yes, this is a lot to process after just five weeks, and the changes confronting businesses in many regards pale compared to the divisions within broader society. People either accept the statistics, warnings, and precautions as gospel, or they defy and deny everything, living their lives as if nothing has happened, and fearful that our liberties are gone and a totalitarian state is imminent. I’ll let the social scientists worry about the people part; my concern is how to prepare future business leaders for the road ahead. I hope and pray that all of my charges pay heed to the seriousness of the matter, the implications, and how they should respond. I’ll see you on the other side. Dr “Stay Safe, Stay Healthy” Gerlich

Audio Blog

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The shocking truth about sugar!

The shocking fact about Sugar Worried you’re consuming an excessive amount of sugar? Wondering how a lot is suitable for eating? Or whether or not it’s dangerous for you… it doesn't matter what? It’s time we took a clear-headed take a look at this subject. It’s time you heard the reality about sugar. ++++ Is sugar “good”? Is sugar “bad”? It’s onerous to know for positive lately. Which is attention-grabbing as a result of… Sugar is a basic molecule in biology. Human our bodies want sugar.

Sugar Sugar makes up the spine of our DNA. It helps energy our cells. It helps retailer vitality for later. Plants convert daylight into sugar. We convert sugar into gasoline. Molecules like glucose and fructose (simply two of the numerous kinds of sugar) are so primary to our organic wants, even microorganisms love them. Indeed, sugar’s the breakfast of champions, chemically talking. Yet, someplace alongside the way in which, sugar grew to become the dangerous man. Why did we begin hating on sugar? When did we begin eager to purge it from our bodies? Why do a few of us concern it a lot? At this level… will we simply want a little bit of relationship counseling? Or is it a poisonous relationship? Is it time to half methods? The fact is, that is a tough dialog to have as a result of… Almost all of us are emotionally invested in our place on sugar. How a lot of sugar is OK to eat? Yes, we’re biased too. At Precision Nutrition, we usually contemplate ‘nutritional agnostics’. (Case in level: our view on the very best eating regimen.) We assist individuals to turn out to be their healthiest, fittest, strongest selves—in an approach that works for his or her distinctive lives and our bodies. In our work with over 100,000 shoppers, we’ve realized a number of issues… … that one dimension doesn’t match all, … that an all-or-nothing method doesn’t work for most individuals, … that health and health habits must be doable on your worst day, not simply your finest. So right here’s our bias in this article. We observe the complexities of vitamin proof as finest we are able to, all the time decoding them by means of the lens of: But first, let’s get to know our sugars. What is sugar? Most of us consider “sugar” because of the white stuff we put in espresso, or possibly what makes up 90% of these colored marshmallow cereals. However, “sugar” is definitely a gaggle of molecules that share the same construction. So we would truly name them “sugars”, plural. This group consists of a number of members reminiscent of: glucose fructose sucrose, aka desk sugar (which is glucose + fructose) maltose (which is glucose + glucose) galactose lactose (galactose + glucose, present in dairy) And so on. Sugars naturally happen in biology and in most meals (even when simply in hint quantities). For instance, right here’s what the breakdown of sugars seems to be like in a banana: There is, after all, far more sugar in processed and refined meals than in less-processed and unrefined meals. (We’ll come again to this vital level in a second.) Sugars reside below the bigger umbrella of “carbohydrates”. Along with the candy stuff, this macronutrient group additionally consists of: starches (like in potatoes or rice), fiber (just like the husks of entire grains), and structural constructing blocks like chitin (which makes up the shells of crustaceans) or cellulose (which makes up issues just like the trunks of bushes). The extra advanced the molecule, the slower it digests. Sugars, that are less complicated, digest extra shortly. Starches and fiber, that are greater, extra sophisticated molecules, digest extra slowly, if in any respect. (This is why consuming extra fiber may also help us really feel fuller, longer.) Most carbohydrates are literally damaged down into less complicated sugars as soon as they’re digested. Other carbohydrates (reminiscent of insoluble fiber) don’t actually get damaged down nor absorbed absolutely, though our intestinal microorganisms usually love munching on them. So: Sugars are a sort of carbohydrate, however, not all carbohydrates are sugars. And some carbohydrates break down shortly/simply into sugars. Others don’t. This level is vital to know, as a result of it tells us that not all carbohydrates do precisely the identical issues in our bodies. Evolution has helpfully given us the flexibility to “taste” sugar. Sugar-type molecules react with receptors on our tongue, which then informs our mind “OM NOM NOM DELICIOUS!” Sugar tastes good to us, as a result of in nature, candy meals like fruits are sometimes full of excellent stuff like nutritional vitamins, minerals, and vitality. But we differ in our physiology and habits. In all issues, people are numerous and variable. Some of us like and hunt down sugar greater than others. This could also be genetic. Or we might have realized it as we grew up. Or each. For instance, a few of us like sugar in small doses; we are able to solely eat a little bit earlier than pushing the dessert plate away. While others prefer it lots; the extra we eat the extra we wish. The concept of “too much sugar” doesn’t compute. Likewise, a few of our bodies appear higher suited to sugar than others. For instance, a few of us can eat sugar all day lengthy and really feel high-quality. While others can solely tolerate a little bit earlier than our pancreas (which secretes insulin, a hormone that helps sugar get into the cells) tells us to knock it off. In common, most of us like no less than some sweetness. When we’re younger, we have a tendency to love sweetness extra and keep away from bitter meals extra. Yet every particular person’s response to sugar and candy style is exclusive. With that mentioned, let’s get again to the questions at hand. Starting with… Question #1: Does sugar trigger weight problems? The time period “obese” (or “overweight”) is, like sugar, a contentious factor. In this text we’ll use it only for the aim of debate, so bear with us. The World Health Organization defines “obese” as having a Body Mass Index larger than 30. Of course, some match athletes (like heavyweight boxers or rugby gamers) may need the next BMI however nonetheless have a low physique fats proportion. However, for most folk, having a BMI larger than 30 signifies that they have a higher-than-average degree of physique fats.  (Indeed, some research that correlate BMI with physique fats testing counsel that BMI might even underestimate how a lot physique fats an individual has.) When it involves weight problems, there have all the time been people who find themselves heavier, and/or who've extra physique fats, than most people like them. However, over the past, a number of a long time, “average people” in industrialized international locations have gotten heavier, greater, and gained extra physique fats pretty quickly. It’s now statistically “normal”. Although this shift is going on worldwide, and there are variations by ethnic group and socioeconomic class, it’s significantly noticeable as a common pattern within the United States.  Along with physique weights, we are able to take a look at modifications in physique fat proportion and total health ranges. Here, we additionally see that over time, physique fat proportion has gone up, and health ranges have gone down. Currently, within the United States, the common physique fats proportion for males is around 28%, and the common for ladies is around 40%. For comparability: In common, 11-22% for males, and between 22-33% physique fats for ladies, is taken into account a “healthy” vary. Lower than that's nonetheless “healthy” (to a degree), however usually thought of “athletic” or “lean”. Does elevated sugar consumption clarify physique weight traits? Could sugar be liable for altering physique weights and physique compositions in industrialized international locations? By reviewing information from the USDA Economic Research Service, National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES), in addition to Food Frequency Questionnaires from the long-running Framingham Heart Study, we are able to observe meals consumption from a number of angles. These various streams of information all present pretty constant traits. They inform us that, since 1980, Americans: Continued to eat the identical whole quantity of fats. (Though they often ate much less naturally-occurring fat, like in entire fats dairy, and ate extra added fat, like oils.) Ate extra carbohydrates. (Especially refined ones that included added sugars.) So, as a p.c of whole energy consumed, fats dropped. But we didn’t find yourself consuming much less fats. We simply added extra sugar and different carbs on high of the fats we have been already consuming. This added as much as roughly 200-400 additional energy per day. In phrases of energy, that’s like consuming an additional McDonald’s hamburger or a double cheeseburger, on high of your current meals, daily. Whether this energy got here from sugar might be irrelevant. This elevated vitality consumption alone, mixed with reducing charges of each day bodily exercise, might be sufficient to clarify individuals getting heavier. Yes, however, how would possibly sugar play a job? We can’t say that sugar particularly was the wrongdoer behind the weight problems surge for everybody. (Remember, people, fluctuate.) But our elevated sugar consumption does appear to correlate with continued weight problems ranges… up till lately. For about 4 hundred years, human beings have been having fun with increasingly more sugar. Once Europeans found tropical buying and selling routes and arrange low-cost slave labor economies to lift sugar cane, sugar grew to become increasingly more obtainable to the common particular person. Indeed, sugar shortly grew to become the meals of the poor. (It was mentioned that the whole working class of the British Isles lived on jam and sugared tea through the Industrial Revolution.) As a primary colonial energy, the British as soon as claimed the title of greatest sugar shoppers. Per yr, the common Brit consumed: Four lbs (1.Eight kg) in 1704. 18 lbs (8.2 kg) in 1800. 90 lbs (40.Eight kg) in 1901. However, as soon as they obtained rolling as a rustic, Americans weren’t far behind. Per yr, the common American consumed: 6 lbs (2.7 kg) of sugar in 1822. 40 lbs (18.1 kg) in 1900. 90 lbs (40.Eight kg) by the 1920s. There was a subsequent drop as a result of the Great Depression & World War II. 90 lbs per particular person once more by the 1980s. Then they actually took off: By 1999, the US reached peak sugar consumption of almost 108 lbs (49 kg) of sugar per particular person per yr. Between 1980-1999 Americans ate extra sugar. And weight problems charges obtained larger. But then one thing modified: Our sugar consumption truly began to lower. Interestingly, since 1999 by means of 2013 (most up-to-date information obtainable) consumption of added sugar has truly declined by 18% (or as a lot as 22%, relying on the info). This drop has introduced Americans’ present added sugar consumption again all the way down to 1987 ranges. And throughout this time, whole carbohydrate consumption has dropped as effectively. (Makes sense, as this was the daybreak of the low-carb phenomenon.) Nevertheless, although sugar and carb consumption has declined over these 14 years, grownup weight problems have continued to climb—from 31% of the American inhabitants in 1999 to 38% as of 2013. (Diabetes diagnoses have continued to climb as effectively, which we’ll handle in a second.) So, regardless of decreasing sugar consumption by almost 20% over a 14 yr interval, weight problems (and diabetes) charges have continued to climb. Along with intercourse, ethnic, and socioeconomic variations in weight problems charges, this implies that altering physique sizes and compositions might be a posh, multi-factored phenomenon. The bottom line right here: No single factor—together with sugar—causes weight problems. Many elements work collectively to contribute to a constant vitality (calorie) surplus, which finally results in fats acquire. One of these issues is usually sugar, however not all the time, and never alone. Question #2: Does sugar trigger us to realize weight/fats? So, we are able to’t unequivocally blame sugar for elevated weight problem charges. But many people are nonetheless questioning whether or not sugar is a gateway to fats acquire. It appears logical. Carb and sugar consumption are the principal drivers of insulin launch. Insulin’s job is to assist retailer vitamins, together with fats. Therefore, it appears apparent. Carbs and sugar trigger fats acquire, proper? Once once more, our scientist pals reveal that it’s a bit extra sophisticated than that. Let’s check out a few research that discovers this query. Study 1: How do carbs, sugar, and/or insulin launch have an effect on physique fats? In 2015, a small pilot research was performed by Dr. Kevin Hall to analyze the carb/sugar/insulin mannequin of weight problems. What occurs if we preserve energy and protein the identical, however, play with dietary sugar and fats ranges? Here’s how the research labored. 19 contributors needed to reside in a metabolic ward, the place the researchers managed nearly every part about how they lived, what they ate, and so on. The contributors tried each decrease carbohydrate (LC) and decrease fats (LF) diets. They adopted every eating regimen for 2 weeks, separated by a 2-Four week interval throughout which they returned to regular consumption. All contributors spent the primary 5 days of both the low-carb or low-fat diets following a baseline plan of 50% carbs, 35% fats, and 15% protein. This was executed so that every one contributor began on a good taking part in the area with an consumption that nearly matches what the common American eats. Each participant needed to train on a treadmill for one hour daily for the complete two weeks, to ensure bodily exercise ranges have been constant and equal. After the primary 5 days, each team had their energy lowered by 30% from the baseline eating regimen (1918 energy vs 2740 energy). They then ate a decrease in calorie eating regimen for six days. With each diet, vitality consumption (i.e. energy) and protein have been saved identical. Only carbs and fats went up or down. Lower carbohydrate: 101 g protein (21% of calls). 108 g fats (50% of calls). 140 g carbohydrate (29% of calls). Lower fats: 105 g protein (21% of energy). 17 g of fats (8% of energy). 352 g carbohydrate (71% of energy). Let’s take a more in-depth take a look at how a lot the research contributors truly ate. On the decrease carbohydrate eating regimen: Of their carbohydrates, 37 g was sugar. This signifies that 8% of all energy has been coming from sugar. This is far lower than the common American eats. On the decrease fats eating regimen: Of their carbohydrates, 170 g was sugar. This signifies that 35% of all their energy has been coming from sugar. That is a lot of sugar. So what occurred? Insulin manufacturing: On the Lower Carbohydrate eating regimen, individuals produced 22% much less insulin all through the day. The Lower Fat eating regimen didn’t change insulin output in any respect, because it had the identical whole carbs and even barely extra sugar than the baseline eating regimen. Bodyweight: People on the Lower Carbohydrate eating regimen misplaced Four lbs (1.81 kg) of physique weight, and 1.16 lbs (0.53 kg) of physique fats. People on the Lower Fat eating regimen misplaced Three lbs (1.36 kg) of physique weight, which included 1.29 lbs (0.59 kg) of physique fats. Note that physique weight loss doesn’t essentially equal physique fats loss. We may also lose physique weight from dropping glycogen, water, and/or physique protein—and that’s precisely what occurred to the individuals on the Lower Carb eating regimen. They misplaced extra total physique weight, however, they truly misplaced much less fats. (Though a distinction of 0.13 lbs is irrelevant within the large image. Who would discover that?) Meanwhile, the parents on the Lower Fat eating regimen misplaced extra physique fats however much less whole weight as a result of their physique was busy burning fats (relatively than glycogen or lean physique mass) to satisfy its calorie wants. After these outcomes have been in, the researchers then ran validated mathematical fashions that confirmed over longer intervals of time (say, longer than 6 months), the fats loss between the 2 teams could be roughly equal. In different phrases, there was no explicit physiological benefit to both eating regimen when it comes to physique weight, nor physique fats loss, over the long term. Study 2: Fine, let’s go decrease. For this second research, the sport obtained hardcore: Drop the carbs and sugar a lot decrease for the Lower Carbohydrate group, simply to ensure the minimal variations discovered within the first research hadn’t been as a result of the carbs and sugar weren’t low sufficient. Here’s how this second research labored: 17 obese or overweight individuals participated. First, they adopted a high-carb however calorically-restricted baseline eating regimen for Four weeks (with 25% of energy from sugar). Then, they spent four weeks on a very-low-carb ketogenic eating regimen (with 2% of energy from sugar), with equal energy to the baseline eating regimen. So what occurred? The researchers discovered that everybody misplaced weight and fats all through the research. However, when topics switched from the high-carb, 25%-sugar baseline eating regimen to the ketogenic, 2%-sugar eating regimen, fats loss truly slowed down for the primary few weeks. Much just like the earlier research, this occurred as a result of as individuals our bodies tailored to the ketogenic eating regimen, they have been extra more likely to break down fat-free mass and protein shops (e.g. muscle). Thus: Weight loss went quicker through the ketogenic section, because of dropping glycogen and water. But physique fat loss was truly much less throughout this section (although not tremendously so, and it possibly wouldn’t make any vital distinction over time). Overall, the researchers acknowledged that primarily based on the present proof, in addition to their validated mathematical fashions, long-term physique fats loss would possibly be very related between the excessive sugar (high-carb) eating regimen and the low sugar (low-carb) eating regimen. In different phrases, the quantity of sugar didn’t appear to affect the outcomes. In the top, these, plus different research, appear to assist the concept that: Sugar, carbohydrate consumption, and/or insulin alone most likely aren’t the principal drivers of weight acquire. Other analysis evaluating low-carb diets to low-fat diets has discovered related outcomes. The similar outcomes have additionally been discovered with: Meta-analyses: Big opinions of different research. These kinds of information are thought of among the many most sturdy as they discover plenty of experiments from a wider perspective, pulling in proof from dozens and even a whole bunch of research to attempt to attract conclusions. Systematic opinions: Methodologically rigorous comparisons and important analyses of different research. These sorts of opinions are additionally thought of helpful, as a result of they take a skeptical perspective, on the lookout for errors. There have been no less than 20 managed in-patient feeding research the place protein and energy are saved equal, however, carbs are diversified from 20% to 75% of whole energy (and sugar intakes ranged considerably as effectively). Of all this research, none of them discovered any really vital variations in physique fats ranges when individuals have been consuming both excessive carb (and excessive sugar) or low carb (and low sugar) diets. In different phrases, so long as protein and energy have been equal, the quantity of sugar individuals ate didn’t make a distinction. There have been no less than 12 different systematic opinions and meta-analyses revealed over the previous 10+ years on long-term low-carb diets (that are invariably additionally low-sugar diets). Of these 12 opinions: Three have been in favor of low-carb Three have been in favor of non-low-carb comparisons (e.g. low fats, Mediterranean, vegan, low glycemic index, and so on.) 6 have been impartial, which means they concluded that numerous approaches may be equally legitimate and efficient. Yes, however, how would possibly sugar play a job? Sweet meals might enhance vitality consumption. In 2013, an evaluation commissioned by the World Health Organization investigated how sugar affected fats acquire. It discovered that growing sugar consumption can enhance physique weight, and decreasing sugar consumption can lower physique weight… however solely by altering vitality steadiness, not by any physiological or metabolic impact of sugar itself. In different phrases, if we eat extra sugary meals, we are likely to be consuming extra vitality (i.e. energy) in total. Sweet meals are sometimes processed and extremely palatable. This is particularly true as a result of most high-sugar meals are refined, tasty, and onerous to cease consuming. We digest and soak up the vitality they include shortly and simply, they overstimulate the reward/pleasure facilities in our mind, and we are inclined to overeat them. Plus, hidden sugars in processed meals (like yogurt, granola, juice) and even so-called “health foods” / “fitness foods” can add up quickly without us even realizing it. These meals and our mind’s response to them, not the sugar by itself, can usually result in overconsumption. So the sugar itself could also be much less of a wrongdoer than the truth that many people simply can’t give up at only one gummi bear or sip of soda. What else is occurring, in addition to sugar consumption? Most of our shoppers who wrestle with their weight, physique fats, consuming habits, and health inform us: It’s not simply in regards to the meals. There are many elements concerned: stress, sleep, metabolic health, way of life, social surroundings, and so forth. Sugar alone doesn't clarify the complexity of our bodies’ health, perform, fats proportion, nor weight. Metabolism is sophisticated. And, as all the time, do not forget that individuals fluctuate in response to explicit diets. Some individuals do higher with larger carbohydrates and decrease fat. Some do higher the opposite approach spherical. This is probably going because of genetic variations, particular person satiety variations from fat vs carbs, private preferences, and probably even variations within the bacterial populations in our GI tracts. The above research doesn’t present onerous and quick guidelines that can all the time apply to everybody. This is particularly true on condition that many research populations have been small and possibly related when it comes to age, intercourse, ethnicity, and different vital elements that may have an effect on our physiological response to a given eating regimen. But they do point out that sugar is not some form of unusually evil substance that causweightthe ht to acquire oppreventsat statistics Question #3: Does sugar trigger diabetes? Diabetes is an illness the place we are able to correctly regulate the sugar in our blood. It appears logical, then, that consuming extra sugar would possibly enhance our danger for diabetes, significantly Type 2 diabetes, also referred to as adult-onset diabetes. Unlike Type 1 diabetes, which usually begins in childhood and is taken into account an autoimmune illness (through which our personal our bodies assault wholesome cells of our pancreas, which usually produces insulin), Type 2 diabetes usually begins later in life and (amongst different elements) is linked to long-term meals and train behaviors. Type 2 diabetes usually begins with insulin resistance or impaired glucose management. This signifies that over time, insulin is much less and fewer in a position to do its job of transferring glucose into our cells for protected storage. Your physician would possibly check this with numerous blood assessments, reminiscent of an A1c check, which measures how a lot of sugar is being carried around on hemoglobin, a blood protein. Type 2 diabetes (in addition to different metabolic ailments) is additionally associated with how a lot of fats we now have in our livers and in or round different organs (reminiscent of our hearts and kidneys). There does appear to be a hyperlink between how a lot of refined sugar we eat and insulin resistance. Eating an excessive amount of sugar may also enhance fat accumulation within the liver. For instance, current research discovered that for each 150 calorie enhance in each day sugar consumption (primarily a 12 oz soda, or ~37 g) corresponded with a 1.1% elevated danger for diabetes. Other elements form our illness danger, too. That danger above would possibly sound scary, nevertheless, it’s vital to maintain it in perspective. Other analysis has proven that dropping 7% physique weight and doing about 20 minutes of each day bodily exercise decreased diabetes danger by 58%. And many different research has corroborated these findings, telling us that dropping a little bit weight/fats and doing a little bit extra train, constantly, will considerably decrease our diabetes danger. In reality, a current meta-analysis supplied some compelling info on diabetes danger: ~60-90% of Type 2 diabetes is expounded to weight problems or weight acquire, not sugar consumption. Having a major quantity of extra physique fats/weight can enhance diabetes danger by 90 occasions. If people who find themselves within the overweight class lose about 10% of their preliminary physique weight, they dramatically enhance their blood glucose management. Weight administration (not sugar discount) seems to be crucial therapeutic goal for most people with Type 2 diabetes. This is sensible if we perceive how adipose (fats) tissue works: It’s a biologically energetic tissue that secretes hormones and different cell indicators. If we now have an excessive amount of it, adipose tissue can disrupt metabolic health, together with how we regulate and retailer blood sugar. Does fructose contribute? Some researchers have steered that fructose, a selected sort of straightforward sugar (aka monosaccharide) present in fruit in addition to many processed meals, would possibly play a particular position in diabetes. We know that fructose is digested, absorbed, and utilized in particular methods in our bodies. Does that imply that fructose may need distinctive properties that might enhance our diabetes danger? Let’s have a look. One meta-analysis checked out 64 substitution trials (through which fructose changed one other carbohydrate with no change in whole energy), and 16 addition trials (the place fructose was added to regular consumption). In the trials the place fructose was substituted for one more carbohydrate, the common fructose consumption was 102 g per day. In the trials the place fructose was added on high of the contributors’ regular consumption, the common fructose consumption was 187 g per day. Compared to the common American fructose consumption of ~49 g per day, these are extraordinary intakes. To obtain these sorts of intakes would require as much as 13 cups of ice cream or consumption of 10 cans of soda. Possible? Yes. Daily norm? Sure hope not. A current evaluation paper summed up the state of the proof on fructose properly, primarily stating: The best-quality proof up to now doesn't assist the idea that fructose consumption instantly causes cardiometabolic ailments. The evaluation added that fructose-containing sugars can result in weight acquire, together with will increase in cardiometabolic danger elements and illness, however, provided that these fructose-laden meals present extra energy. Overall, analysis does counsel {that a} excessive consumption of all sugar (together with fructose) would possibly barely enhance the chance of diabetes improvement by itself. However, this analysis additionally signifies that the majority of this danger is as a result of excessive sugar consumption resulting in extra calorie consumption, and due to this fact elevated physique fats (which ends up in irritation, and finally insulin resistance). A completely immense quantity of analysis constantly and strongly signifies that the principal causes of diabetes are: extra physique fats, insufficient bodily exercise, and genetic predisposition. On that final level, we all know that diabetes danger, in addition to the danger of metabolic ailments and propensity to realize physique fats, differs considerably by ethnic group or genetic subgroup. For occasion, many teams of indigenous individuals are vastly extra more likely to wrestle with these points, as are individuals of African ancestry dwelling in North America, or individuals of South Asian ancestry. So your private danger of those ailments additionally depends upon the place your ancestors got here from, what genetic make-up they gave you, and/or how that genetic make-up interacts together with your surroundings. The backside line right here: Managing your sugar consumption is only one small device in your diabetes-fighting’ toolbox. However, far and away, probably the greatest tool is weight (and physique fats) administration, nonetheless, you handle to perform it. Question #4: Does sugar trigger heart problems? The time period “cardiometabolic disease” refers to a broad group of associated ailments, just like the Type 2 diabetes we point out above, together with different ailments associated with the advanced phenomenon of: metabolic disruption, modifications in hormonal and cell signaling, irritation, and an incapability to manage regular physiological processes (like DNA restore). These ailments can seem in lots of organs or organ techniques. When they hit the guts and/or circulatory system of blood vessels, we name them “cardiovascular disease”. They present up as issues like coronary heart assaults, strokes, clogged arteries, and so forth. A coronary heart assault, or coronary heart illness, was once a loss of life sentence. With higher therapy and new medicines, individuals are surviving longer and dwelling higher with heart problems. Over the previous 50 years or so, deaths from coronary heart illness have declined by over 60% regardless of sugar consumption growing by about 20 lbs per particular person per yr over that point (and by greater than 30 lbs per particular person per yr on the 1999 peak consumption). Researchers estimate that about half of that 60% lower is likely to be from higher medical care. The different half possible comes from lowering the chance elements, reminiscent of: decreasing blood strain smoking much less decreasing blood levels of cholesterol Of course, as we’ve seen, consuming extra vitality within the type of sugar can enhance physique fats. And, due to its chemically energetic nature, extra physique fats positively will increase heart problems danger. So consuming plenty of sugar can definitely play a job. But heart problems, as with different metabolic ailments, are advanced. It’s not only one factor. It’s all of the issues. It’s how we reside, how we work, how energetic we're, how harassed we're, what’s in the environment, and the varied different elements that affect our health. There are different elements in addition to sugar in metabolic illness. Indeed, if we take a look at elements that we all know for positive are associated to the chance of metabolic illness, solely about 3% of Americans uphold 4 important wholesome way of life behaviors constantly: Not smoking. Maintaining a wholesome physique weight. Eating 5 or extra servings of fruit and veggies per day. Being bodily energetic no less than 30 minutes a day 5 occasions every week at an average depth. On high of that, let’s contemplate two different recognized preventative strategies for metabolic illness… Keeping stress ranges average. Sleeping effectively, 7-9 hours per night time, constantly. …now we’re most likely at 1% of Americans. Once once more, sugar consumption might be one piece of the puzzle. But it’s only one piece—and possibly a really small one. Question #5: How a lot of sugar is OK to eat? Let’s get actual right here. Sugar will not be a healthy meal. It doesn’t nourish us. It doesn’t add plenty of nutrient worth: It doesn’t give us any nutritional vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, antioxidants, fiber, or water. Eating plenty of sugar doesn’t make our bodies higher, stronger, more healthy, or extra practical. Sugar doesn’t add worth, definitely not when in comparison with different meals or macronutrients like protein or omega-Three fatty acids. But biology is advanced. Diseases are advanced too. We can’t blame one chemical for all of the health issues we now have. Good health is neither created nor destroyed by a single meals. Again, human beings are numerous. We fluctuate broadly in every kind of how together with: How a lot of carbohydrates we have to thrive or carry out effectively.   How effectively we digest, soak up, and use sugars, in addition to how successfully and safely we retailer or eliminate the surplus. How sugar impacts our urge for food, starvation, fullness, capacity to cease consuming it. How we really feel about and behave around sugar.   How sugar “spins our brain dials” and offers us a way of reward. So we are able to say that “X amount of sugar is always best for everyone, all the time” or that “People should never eat any sugar.” It simply doesn’t work that approach. Some individuals would possibly select to chop out sugar fully. Some individuals would possibly attempt to micromanage their consumption all the way down to the gram. Some individuals can simply roll with a common “eat less-processed foods” guideline, and be high-quality. Some individuals do discover {that a} low-sugar, low-carb or perhaps a ketogenic eating regimen works for them. While others thrive on high-carb diets. Read the full article

[pedroscurls]

Title: The Moon (Part 19.)

Character(s): Negan and Luna  Summary: Negan and Luna finally come to terms with their relationship. Word Count: 2,782 Author's Note: Wow! I can't believe this story has come to an end! I know, I know. There wasn’t any smut, but I actually enjoyed writing a story that didn’t involve smut whatsoever. Anyway, I want to thank everyone who stuck with me throughout this story. It was so much fun writing it!  Taglist: @miiraal | @clinicalkayla | @ronweaselz | @heartfulloffandoms | @warriorqueen1991 | @dead-head-joker | @eliselulu23 | @may85 | @negantrashlucille23 | @myheart4ever47 | @almostinwonderland | @isayweallgetdrunk

The next morning, Luna had awoken earlier than Simon. Given that his shift started later than usual, he took this time to get more sleep. She finished in the bathroom and changed into a pair of leggings, an old flannel that belonged to Simon (and looked incredibly big on her) and her boots.

She was tying her laces when Simon grunted, glancing in the direction of his bed to see Luna awake and ready.

“You’re talking to him this early in the morning?” he mumbled sleepily.

“What? No. I figured I’d walk around today. Get a head start and this time, I can bring you breakfast.”

He chuckled, sitting up and rubbing the back of his head. “No can do. Kitchen staff won’t give you anything if your name isn’t on the list for points or on the list for Saviors. But, you can accompany me if you don’t mind waiting for me to get ready.”

“Sure. Yeah. Gives me more time to think.”

Simon stood, grabbing a fresh set of clothes on the way to his bathroom. Stopping in front of her, he gently rested a hand on Luna’s shoulder, gripping it tightly.

“Big day, huh?”

“I’m a bit scared,” she admitted.

“What for?”

“That he’s going to shoo me away…”

“He’d be stupid to,” Simon smiled, walking into his connected bathroom and shutting it behind him.

When Luna heard the water running, she sighed and lied back against the bed, draping an arm over her eyes as constant thoughts entered her mind. She wondered what she was going to tell Negan, how he would react, and certainly if he was going to take her back or not.

They never established their relationship, but both knew the attraction was there. Learning about Lucille (his wife and not the bat) made her wonder if he was simply pining after her to make up for things he had done to Lucille. Though, deep down, she had thought the same in terms of her ex-husband.

Life was giving them both a chance to right their wrongs.

Just as soon as she was drifting to a light sleep, Simon exited the bathroom with his hair damp and fully dressed. He flashed Luna a big grin and motioned to the door, running a hand through his dark locks.

“Ready?” he asked.

“As I’ll ever be.”

The walk to the cafeteria was a quiet one. Though, she assumed that Simon wasn’t telling her that there was a possibility she could see Negan. She tried to think of ways to avoid him until she was ready to talk to him that night, but couldn’t come up with an idea whatsoever.

Upon entering the hall, Simon motioned for her to take a table and she quickly sat at the edge of one of the empty tables. Within minutes, Simon sat next to her and handed her a plate of food. She could smell the fresh eggs and fruit that was on her tray.

Simon had already begun to eat, not bothering to wait for her. Luna smiled, picking up her plastic fork and began to eat the contents of breakfast.

“So, think of what you’re going to say?” he asked.

“No… I don’t know what to say actually.”

“Maybe the truth.”

“Oh, right. That didn’t even cross my mind,” she giggled.

Simon grinned, “I’m liking this version of you, Luna.”

Immediately, she blushed, looking down at her plate.

“Oh, don’t do that. You’re opening up to me. Kinda think that this was how you could be if you got past the anxiety,” he admitted.

Luna shrugged, looking up at Simon. “I feel safe with you.”

“Well, that’s a relief. Though, you kick ass better than me so I should be saying that to you.”

“Uh huh,” she smiled, biting her lower lip.

Suddenly, Luna glanced around when people around the hall began to kneel. She cleared her throat, glancing at Simon who motioned for her to do the same.

Slowly, she obliged, keeping her eyes downcast. Luna knew that he was aware of her presence and the fact that he hadn’t said anything proved that he already knew aside from last night’s events.

Luna glanced up at him just to see his boots walk past her, his eyes not meeting hers whatsoever. She wondered if he was ignoring her purposefully or if he truly did not recognize her. Once he left the hall, everyone stood and resumed their breakfast.

“Simon…” she mumbled.

“What?”

“He knows I’m here even before he saw me last night, doesn’t he?”

Simon cleared his throat. He didn’t know whether to lie or not, but instead, he decided to go with the latter. “He does… I’m sorry, okay? I convinced him to give you time and to be patient until you were ready to talk to him.”

“Does he know I’m going to talk to him tonight?”

“No. I didn’t tell him that.”

“Why did you lie to me when I asked if he was aware of me staying here?”

“Because if I told you the truth, would you have stayed or would you have just left, Luna?” he asked seriously.

“I would have left…”

“Exactly. I’m doing this for you and I’m also doing this for him. It’s time you both buck up and talk to one another. I told him to be patient with you, okay? He hasn’t talked to you for a reason.”

“You shouldn’t have lied to me.”

“I had to do it or else we wouldn’t be here.”

Luna sighed, continuing her breakfast. She glanced over at Negan who was chatting with one of the kitchen crew members and when his eyes swept the hall, his eyes immediately met with Luna’s. There was a sense of relief and guilt that flashed through his beautiful orbs, but she quickly looked away.

After breakfast, Simon led her outside where he had to work to make sure the Saviors were counting the inventory correctly. There was a mishap that happened a few days ago and Negan put him in charge to make sure it perfect.

“So, you’re going to walk around,” he said.

“Yeah. I think I’m going to check out the commissary.”

“Well, whatever you get, tell Denise it’s on me.”

“What?” Luna asked.

“On me. My points.”

“All right. If you say so. I’ll see you later?”

“Mhm. I’ll catch you later. Don’t start trouble,” he teased.

“Right. Me. Start trouble. Okay.”

Simon chuckled, watching Luna walk back into the building. He wondered how tonight would turn out with her and Negan, but he just hoped that the both of them would be able to resolve their situation and make up.

Luna bit her lower lip, looking around the busy main floor of the Sanctuary. As she neared the commissary, Denise immediately glared, watching her carefully once she began to look further throughout the small aisles.

There was nothing that caught Luna’s interest, but when she neared the clothing section, she wondered if she should dress up tonight. Thinking better of it, she aimlessly went through the undergarments, hoping Simon wouldn’t mind if she used his points on bras and panties.

As she was looking for her size, Denise seized her up, purposefully bumping into her.

“Oh, you were in my way. So so sorry,” she laughed.

Luna tightened his jaw, simply nodding her understanding and not uttering a word.

“So, you still think you’re better than everyone else here, huh?” she taunted.

“No, that’s not –”

“Oh, sure it is. You come walking in here, thinking you’re too good that –”

“Denise, I have had it about here with you. I tried to keep my mouth shut, tried to go about my own business, but I am tired of you treating me like we’re in high school. Cut it out. We are both here to make a living in this new world,” Luna interrupted.

“No, no. I am here to make a living, you are here as Negan’s new whore, right? Heard that you left and he went looking for you. Does he even know that you’re back?” she grinned.

“I don’t think what I do is your business.”

“I like to make your life miserable, Lily.”

“It’s Luna. If you’re going to act obsessed with me, at least get my goddamn name right.”

Denise stepped into Luna’s personal space, glaring daggers at her threateningly. She wasn’t aware of how skillful Luna was, but it didn’t matter. Denise always needed to have the upper hand. She always needed to be in control.

“Oh, all of a sudden, you’ve grown some balls to stand up to me? Is that it?” she glared.

“If you don’t step back, Denise, I will make you.”

“All you are is Negan’s whore, ready to open your legs anytime whenever he asks. Before this world, I’m sure you were just as pathetic as you are now. Retail, huh? Sounds like a perfect damn job for someone like you,” Denise spat.

Luna tightened her jaw, stepping forward. Her hands curled to fists and one more taunt from Denise and she was going to find herself on her back.

“You don’t know me, Denise, so don’t try and act like you do. I wonder how many people you have under your finger just because you’re such a goddamn bully that no one wants to stand up to you,” Luna retaliated.

“I think I’ve got a good idea of who you are, Luna.”

“Wow. Would you look at that? She remembers my name.”

“Bitch. Why don’t you run along and be a good girl by staying on your knees for Negan? Pretty sure that’s all you’re good for,” Denise grinned.

“You know, you talk awfully a lot about Negan. Got a crush on him, Denise?”

Without replying, Denise raised a hand to strike Luna across the face. Though, Luna saw it coming before she even made contact with her jaw. Quickly, she grabbed Denise’s wrist and turned it painfully, using her free hand to wrap around Denise’s throat.

“This is where I put you in your goddamn place. You run the commissary, that is fucking it. You don’t run the Sanctuary, so stop acting like you do.” Luna snarled, pushing her away roughly with strength that Denise didn’t think she had.

Suddenly, Denise tackled Luna to the ground, immediately bringing her fists to connect with Luna’s face. Luna lifted her off her body with the raising of her hips, delivering a hard punch across Denise’s jaw, rendering her unconscious.

“Stay fucking down,” Luna mumbled.

Then, she heard a distant clapping from behind her. Simon was standing next to Negan who looked to be watching the entire thing unfold. Luna immediately scrambled off Denise, standing up and avoiding Negan’s eyes.

“It’s about time you stand up for yourself,” Simon grinned. “And I won’t lie. That was pretty hot to see you all angry.”

Negan glanced at Simon, his eyes turning to Luna before glancing over at Denise. “Simon, pour some water over her. Make sure she’s still fucking alive. In the meantime, I’m going to take Rocky Balboa here back to my fucking office.”

“But –” Luna mumbled.

“But nothing.” he interrupted, motioning her to follow him.

Simon nodded at Negan’s order, offering Luna an apologetic glance. Luna sighed, following Negan to his office. The entire walk to his floor was uncomfortable and awkward. The only sounds that echoed the halls were the sounds of their footsteps against the ground.

Finally approaching his office, Negan held the door open for Luna and she quietly walked inside. She turned to look at him when he shut the door and locked it; no one was coming in to interrupt their long awaited conversation.

Luna watched Negan carefully, following him around the room with her eyes. She noticed him set Lucille down onto the desk before approaching her, immediately wrapping his arms around her in a tight embrace.

She wasn’t expecting this reaction, but instead, Luna leaned against his chest and brought her arms to wrap around him as well.

“I’m so fucking sorry,” he mumbled.

“Negan…”

“No… Just – Fuck, let me hold you.”

Luna shut her eyes, reveling in the close proximity. She had never been this close to him and she found his scent to be intoxicating and addicting. She didn’t want to let go and the fact that his grip around her frame only seemed to tighten made her smile.

He wasn’t angry.

He was relieved.

“We have to talk,” she mumbled.

Negan sighed, removing his arms from around her. He motioned for her to sit at his desk and she obliged, watching Negan grab his chair to sit next to her.

“I didn’t mean to leave,” she mumbled.

“Yeah, you did… You wanted to leave and I get it. I fucking understand now.”

I didn’t want to leave.”

“But you did anyway,” Negan sighed. “I didn’t know how much I’d miss you until you left, Luna. There was a part of me that was fucking missing. I just –”

“I look at you and I see potential for you and I. I look at you and I just – I smile because I know the true you. The you that not everyone gets to see but Simon and I. You holding me just a minute ago made me realize that I feel safer in your arms than I did with my ex-husband. Life is giving us a chance to fix our mistakes with our past loved ones and I know… I know you’d never forget Lucille, and I would never ask that of you. But, maybe this is our second chance,” she interrupted.

Negan bit his lower lip. “I wanted you the minute I met you, but it started to change from it only being about sex into something much more. I tried to deny the feelings I had for you, tried to brush them off like it was fucking nothing, but I couldn’t. Goddamnit, my wives? They don’t mean shit to me as long as I’ve got you, Luna.”

Luna sighed, keeping her hands on her lap as she listened to him speak. Everything he was saying was exactly how she was feeling and it made her excited to know that the feeling was mutual. She just didn’t know where this made her stand with him.

“It stopped being about the man that I killed in Alexandria and it started being about you and hearing you and your wives and … I left because of you, Negan. I left because I didn’t have the courage to leave my ex-husband, so I thought I was making up for that mistake…”

Hesitantly, Negan reached a hand out and placed it over hers, gently rubbing her knuckles with the pad of his thumb. “I never meant to hurt you…”

“But you did.”

Negan sighed, looking into her eyes. His own had softened a great deal and it was the first time that Luna noticed the emotion behind it. He was being serious.

“I want you, and only you. Whatever I have to fucking do to prove that, I will do…” he admitted.

“I can’t leave again,” Luna whispered.

“Good because I’m never letting you go.”

“Negan…”

“Yes, Luna?”

“I see myself falling in love with you and it scares me.”

Negan smiled, dropping his eyes and slowly lacing his hand with one of her own. “I don’t think being in love with me is that fucking bad.”

Luna giggled, blushing immediately. Negan looked at her, his smile simply broadening at the sound of her laughter. It had become so important to make her happy and comfortable in the Sanctuary that seeing her smile and hearing her laugh had been his main priority since she arrived to his compound.

“That’s not what I meant…”

Negan sighed, “I know, but does it help if I said that I see myself falling for you too?”

Luna widened her eyes. Since hearing his situation with Lucille, she thought he would never fall in love again, but the fact that he was admitting it to her had to have meant something.

“Really?”

“You’re right, Luna. This is our second chance. I’m not going to fuck it up this time around.”

Suddenly, Luna wrapped her arms around him and placed her soft lips against his. It was their first kiss and both felt a sudden surge of current run through their bodies. Luna never felt this way, not even with her ex-husband.

When they pulled away, Negan looked into her eyes and grinned. “Oh, you’re fucking mine now.”

Luna smiled, pecking his lips lightly. “And you’re mine.”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way, doll.”

THE END

[aicelab]

Probing suppliers: 5 strategies for a better DropShipping

DropShipping is regarded by more and more Internet companies as the innovative trading form of the future. The advantages of the model speak for themselves. However, suppliers play a crucial role in drop shipping and are of considerable importance. In the following article you will find out what you should consider here and which strategies have proven successful in dealing with manufacturers and wholesalers.

DropShipping: Perhaps the Best Trading Model in the World

One can only be surprised at how many founders in the e-commerce sector are still plunging into classic trading and at the same time are avoiding the drop shipping trading model. One could almost think that the majority of prospective shop owners have never heard of this direct form of trade. If this were the case, the proportion of drop-shipping start-ups would be significantly higher. The fact that this is not the case naturally leaves much more room on the market for the clever shop operators who opt for this concept. It seems, therefore, that DropShipping is an elitist model that is mainly used by founders and entrepreneurs who can think thoroughly and calculate excellently.

After all, there is no other form of trade in which you do not have to invest a cent in the purchase of your own inventory. Consequently, no warehouse, no packaging material and no warehouse personnel is required. Since suppliers take care of storage and shipping in drop shipping, many tasks that make life much more difficult for conventional dealers are eliminated. The DropShipping trader therefore not only benefits from significant savings and can set up his business without special capital. He also has much more time to focus on the really important disciplines in e-commerce. These are above all the marketing of shop and offers and customer care.

The supplier plays an important role in DropShipping

If you think briefly about the DropShipping model, you will quickly come across a very important factor. The connected suppliers play a major role here. Why is that? With DropShipping, the supplier forms the direct and immediate interface between your shop and your customers. Since the manufacturers and wholesalers you select send the goods directly to the customer, you as a retailer must be able to rely on the suppliers to do their job properly and flawlessly. After all, you don’t see the goods or the packaging yourself.

Against this background, it is very important that you select your suppliers particularly well, check them thoroughly and constantly optimise your cooperation with them. The best way to do this is to take a consistently strategic approach. In the following, we introduce you to five suitable strategies that are used by the most successful DropShipping dealers. Read through the individual instructions thoroughly and carefully and, above all, take into account the practical tip that we provide at the end of each strategy.

Strategy 1: Define concrete requirements

The cooperation with suppliers is a very individual matter for every DropShipping dealer. In principle, no standards can be set here, since you must personally determine what you attach particular importance to with your manufacturers and wholesalers, which requirements they must fulfil and what you want from the partners in detail. Important in this context: You should be able to define very precisely what your suppliers should do for you. Without such a definition, it is hardly possible for your wishes to be fulfilled.

Therefore, prepare a detailed list of all requirements for your suppliers now. First insert the points required for the actual business transaction and then think about interesting additional services. This could include, for example, that the supplier points out exciting new products and attractive promotions to you on his own initiative or that a technical connection is provided that allows direct communication between your shop system and the IT of the manufacturer or wholesaler.

Our tip: We advise you to always work out the catalogue of requirements for the selection and evaluation of suppliers with your entire team. You can assume that you will receive valuable suggestions on this topic from your employees. In addition, your people will have to work intensively with the requirements catalog later on anyway. The more each team member can identify with this important document and the more they are familiar with the content, the better they will be able to do this.

Strategy 2: Use appropriate supplier search options

One of your most important tasks at the beginning of your DropShipping activities is to search for suitable suppliers. Here you are confronted with a problem: Not every manufacturer or wholesaler is willing or able to offer DropShipping features. It is therefore important to select partners who are already familiar with DropShipping and who offer the corresponding services. But here the next problem already arises. Many manufacturers and wholesalers do not advertise offensively with this orientation.

The reason for this is obvious. Suppliers fear that with an open commitment to drop shipping, they may be able to annoy their conventionally working customers. Finally, they perform a number of additional tasks for DropShipping dealers and are prepared to deliver each product in individual quantities at the same time. In order not to prolong the search for suitable partners too much, you should not limit yourself to the free search for suppliers on the Internet, but instead use special directories and databases in which drop shipping suppliers are listed.

Our tip: When searching for suppliers for your DropShipping project, it is best to rely directly on the most proven solutions. At this point we recommend the database of DropShipping.de. This is the largest directory of drop shipping suppliers in Germany. Here you will get to know around 700 different suppliers and have direct access to more than 4.2 million products that you can use via drop shipping. In this way you can quickly put together a convincing assortment for your shop.

Strategy 3: Thoroughly examine potential suppliers

We have already made it clear that your business model depends on reliable and professional suppliers when you choose the DropShipping trading model. You will only be successful if the affiliated manufacturers and wholesalers carry out their tasks exactly as you agree and agree with them. Now a company can promise you the blue sky, especially in the start-up phase. Who will admit on their own that they have problems with reliability or adherence to delivery dates? It is therefore very important for you to strictly check the individual suppliers with regard to their performance.

On the one hand, have conversations and use the information that the potential supplier provides about himself and his company on the Internet. On the other hand, you should also carefully search for experiences that other companies have already gained with the candidate. Last but not least, you should also carry out one or two test orders in order to critically check the supplier in practice in this way.

Our tip: It is best to get used to the idea as early as possible that every supplier with whom you intend to cooperate must be thoroughly checked by you in advance. This can be achieved particularly easily and also very fairly if you develop a uniform test routine. Determine exactly what information needs to be obtained about the manufacturer or wholesaler in question, what requirements it must meet and what needs to be taken into account when making a selection.

Strategy 4: Review and optimize workflows

The vernacular says very aptly: New brooms sweep well. In any case, this also applies to business partners with whom you have only been working for a short time. In the beginning the motivation is very high and the concern to do something wrong and to lose the new customer directly again is pronounced. In the course of time, however, familiarisation effects creep in and it is very possible that the supplier’s performance will deteriorate significantly.

So that this does not happen unnoticed, it is very important that you do not restrict the assessment of your manufacturers and wholesalers to the beginning of the cooperation. Instead, you should test again and again whether everything is still in order when it comes to performance. It would be best if you also set fixed dates for this area of responsibility. You should also create a plan according to which the partners can be checked. For this you could, for example, use discussions with the supplier, customer surveys or further test orders. In this way, you will know immediately if there is any deterioration and can react in good time.

Our tip: We’ve already been quoted several times: You have no direct control over the affiliated suppliers, as the shipments are sent directly from the manufacturer or wholesaler to your customers. This makes it all the more important that you have an open ear for complaints, criticism and comments from your buyers. Pay particular attention to whether there is an accumulation of negative feedback. These often provide a clear indication of mistakes made by your suppliers or things that could be better managed within the process.

Strategy 5: Use regular contact for negotiations and exchanges

Ideally, the selected suppliers will not only do a reliable and professional job, but over time will also become valuable consultants for product range development. After all, it is the manufacturers and wholesalers who are directly at the source when it comes to considering new products, trends or innovations. If the partners provide you with relevant information, then this is a very valuable support.

But in order for such an exchange to take place at all, regular contact is necessary. For this reason, you should always meet with the various suppliers to ensure that the connection is not broken. By the way, you can also use such discussions directly to negotiate the conditions at which you buy. You should always do this when the purchase quantities have increased and the business volume has increased accordingly. But be moderate and always remember that the supplier must also be able to make a living from his work.

Our tip: It is very important that you meet your suppliers on a regular basis and stay in close contact and exchange. This can be made much easier if you set specific dates for joint meetings well in advance. Start with an annual meeting and set the resulting dates so that they fit in as well as possible with your own work processes. In this way, you and your partners can prepare for meetings in good time.

It has now become clear to you how you can put potential drop shipping suppliers through their paces. If you want to further optimize your business model, you should work as directly as possible with producers. How to get to the Addresses of the best manufacturers you will find out from us.

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[hobimygawd]

Against the Odds Part: 6

MASTERLIST

PART: 1 2 3 4 5 6

“Y/N, do you have any friends that you could visit for the day?” Yoongi broke the silence abruptly, and it threw you off for a second because you were truly enjoying just sitting next to him.

“Huh?” You scrunched your eyebrows at the question.

Yoongi let out a small, but noticeable laugh as he took his thumb and smoothed the tiny wrinkle in your forehead. “I was just wondering if you wanted to leave this house for a little bit. I've been pretty unfair to you, and I trust you. At least I think I do, and I do think you've earned a day out.”

You don't know why you said it, but it was the most honest thing you could've said; “I’m okay just sitting here with you.” To emphasize your point, you slumped back into the side of his body, but you also couldn't help but ask yourself, since when have you been this comfortable with him? When did things change?

You couldn't see his face because he was behind you, but he was kind of shocked at your response. It took him a second to regain his composure, but he did and he kissed your temple as he replied, “then I’ll take the day off.” How is it possible that he can make your heart do things you never knew it could do? How is it possible that you were genuinely happy that he said that? Why did you feel the urge to turn your head and kiss him? You didn't know the answers to these questions, but it didn't matter. You wanted to kiss him, so you did. “What was that for?”

“Just as a thank you.” The blush that was creeping up your cheeks was enough to have you fanning your face, but the obvious embarrassment kept you from doing so, trying to salvage what dignity you had left.

Yoongi was fighting the urge to laugh at your expense, so he decided to shift the subject. “So, do you want to go shopping, or something? I feel like you deserve some retail therapy.”

“I don't really need anything.” You we're trying to turn down his proposition to buy you anything because it's not like you were actively trying to impress anybody. But he was soon shaking his head, having none of your refusal.

“Come on, you’ve been wearing the same sweats for the past week and a half. Plus, I really want to buy you something.” He looked at you with the biggest puppy dog eyes he could manage, and you weren't sure if that was something he should even be able to physically do, but he continued to beg with his eyes. “Please.”

“Alright, fine. But I get to pick the store.”

“Deal!”

***

You saw the playful judgement before you heard it. Yoongi groaned when he saw that you had picked a hole in the wall resale shop, but he wasn’t about to be the person that made the smile fade from your face, so he followed you silently. “What?” You asked, looking at him as though you didn’t know that this choice of retail was driving him crazy. You saw, on a daily basis, what he liked to wear, and it appeared to be on the higher end of clothing; brand names and everything of the like. He dresses expensively, but he could afford to after all.

You, on the other hand, could not, and you didn’t think that you were up for wearing something that cost more than your entire life savings plus. So you were glad that he settled and let you literally drag him into the cute little thrift store.

His eyes followed your every movement through the store as he tried to figure out what was so captivating about you. Was it the way you scrunched your nose at something you didn’t agree with or the way you flicked your hair out of your face, or maybe it was the way you doted over the little things. Yoongi watched as you folded another oversized sweater over your forearm. “How many of those things do you really need?” He gestured to the growing pile of clothing to which you glanced at and actually noticed that seven of the ten articles were, in fact oversized sweaters.

“Oh, um. I didn’t really notice.” Just as you were going to put some back, he stopped you.

“If it’s what you want, then I’ll buy it for you. I was just pointing it out.”

The way he was looking into your eyes, made you want to hide in one of those sweaters, but you fought the urge and let the blush creep onto your face. “Thank you.” You touched his hand, but pulled away quickly as a pair of ripped jeans caught your attention.

The two of you made it out of the store with an impressive haul, and you even managed to convince Yoongi to buy a couple of t-shirts that you caught him staring at for himself, but what you were most impressed at, was the fact that the total came out to be less than two hundred dollars.

You wouldn't be surprised if Yoongi admitted to spending just as much on one shirt just because he could, but you really didn't want to have to think about the amount of money that he would spend on the things that shouldn't even cost that much in the first place.

“What do you think of this one?” You walked out of the bedroom in a graphic tee that you absolutely had to have, and a pair of ragged looking jeans. The outfit was a very minimalistic look, but you were a very minimalistic girl. You did a little twirl as to give Yoongi the full effect of the look.

“It looks good, but I just have to ask,” he paused, all of a sudden serious. “Did you have to get the shirt with a giant hippopotamus on it?” He gestures at your shirt as if it somehow affected the way he lived.

“Why? What's wrong with it?” You were almost honestly offended by the comment. It was one of the few things that was making you feel like you weren't living in a nightmare. This little piece of normality was keeping you from breaking down completely, and you really wanted Yoongi to support the way you were trying to assimilate into his life.

“Nothing. It's cute.” Yoongi, treading lightly, began to move towards you. “It just looks a little too cute.” You looked up at him, taken aback by his comment. Was he feeling playful today? He reached out and grabbed the hippo by the face, balling the fabric in his fist, and tugged lightly to pull you flush against him. “I feel like you'll attract too much attention if we went out in that.” He began to lift the hem of the shirt over your frame, and your breath hitched as he made contact with one of your many scars. The scar that stood out the most. The scar that made Yoongi see red. But it was a part of you, and he wouldn't want to change you in any way.

His thumbs began to idly draw circles on your hip bones, moving to his very own rhythm, but it was a rhythm that you were slowly growing familiar with. You inhaled his scent as you wrapped your arms around his neck. “Yoongi.” You finally exhaled, his name on your lips.

The way you said it affected him in a bigger way than he ever thought anybody could. He growled in response. “Y/N.” Just when your body was seriously beginning to feel the effects of being so close to him, the door from the kitchen swung open, and then you remembered exactly where you were. The main room seemed to shrink to the size of the toy chest, because the person that walked through the door wasn’t just one of Yoongi’s goons. It was Jungkook.

You had done pretty well at keeping your distance, and avoiding him. You didn’t want to make things between you guys more awkward, but it seemed like that was no longer going to work. Jungkook acted before he thought about what the consequences would be, and before you had time to react, he was storming over to Yoongi. He grabbed Yoongi’s shirt in both fists, a violent hold on him as he brought his face mere inches away from Yoongi’s. “What gives you the right to put your hands on me like this?” Yoongi remained calm, eerily calm. The whole atmosphere began to feel suffocating as you watched the scene in front of you.

Jungkook was speaking so quietly, you almost couldn’t make out what he said, but it was also the only sound in the whole house. “The moment you kidnapped her and then brought me here, you gave me the right to reclaim what is mine.”

You saw a shift in Yoongi, and then you realized that he was no longer Yoongi, Min had come out to settle things. “You have no idea who you’re fucking with.”

“I don’t care who you are, or who you think you are. All I care about is Y/N, and finding a way out of here.”

“There is no way out of here. I should know. I created it. I created all of it. This is my world, kid.” Min released himself from Jungkook’s grip. “I’m the reason why everything is happening. Why everything has happened.” The smug look on Min’s face caused shivers to run down your spine. This was definitely not the person you were growing closer to. Min was a seriously demented person that you would be thankful if you had never met, but that was no longer your reality.

“You mean,” Jungkook wasn’t sure how to form the words, but Min understood.

“Yes. I organized your first job. And, I could’ve paired you with an extremely dominant woman, but what fun would that have been? Huh?” You felt like throwing up as the realization hit you. As if he hadn’t done enough damage, Min spoke again. “I really wasn’t worried about Y/N, but that was before I heard about how scared she was for you. The loyalty was so alluring, I just had to have her.”

“You shut your goddamn mouth!”

“You’re pretty fucking brave, or is it stupidity? I’m not really sure, but I like you kid. I hate to say this, but if you keep going down this path, your bravery can quickly be the reason for your death.”

You honestly couldn’t handle how tense everything had become. It felt like you were trying to breathe underwater, and as soon as you inhaled, your lungs filled with water. You tried for air one last time before you felt completely dizzy and fell to the floor as you passed out.

The two men in the room were almost oblivious to your presence, but the loud thud as you hit the floor, was enough to snap them out of their staring contest. “Shit, Y/N!” Jungkook was by your side first, but Yoongi was quick to push him out of the way.

“Get out, I’ll handle this.” Jungkook hesitated, not wanting to leave you. “Get out! Did you not just hear what I just said? I can end everything you know, make you watch as it happens, and then end you. Do you not get that? Now leave before I help that Hoseok friend of yours get what he wants.” 

Jungkook didn’t know what to think at Yoongi’s threat, but the Hoseok part most definitely threw him off. Hoseok was one of the few people he could trust, but now he wasn’t so sure.

[johnmkenney]

Game of the Year 2016

With 2016 in the books, it's time to look back at some of the strongest games of the past twelve months.  Developers continued upon the success of 2015, as 2016 once again had tons of high quality releases to be considered.  Usually each year has three or four games that are held in higher regard than the rest, but this year this could be said about so many more games than that.  So, let's jump in!

As with always, the rules are as follows:

The game must have its final retail release in 2016.  Thus, anything in an alpha/beta state or Steam Early Access does not qualify.

In the case of episodic games, they must have their final episode delivered in 2016 to make the list.

While this list is comprehensive, I haven’t played everything.  The Last Guardian and Owlboy came out too late in the year while I was already catching up on other games.  Hyper Light Drifter and Darkest Dungeon are two others that unfortunately are still in the backlog.

Most importantly: the game has to be really good.  No-brainer there.

Honorable Mentions: Ultimate Chicken Horse - Unique local multiplayer will cause you to create traps and challenges as you do your best to conquer levels while at the same time making sure your friends cannot. Asemblance - The twists and turns that build in this 90 minute psychological thriller do a fantastic job keeping the player on edge. Doom - An in-your-face thrilling campaign and great resurgence for a franchise that definitely needed the kick.

10. Final Fantasy XV (Square Enix - PS4, XBO)

After a decade of development, the seemingly mythological RPG finally released in 2016. The most recent Final Fantasy is a potpourri of ideas and genres where the stitching can clearly be seen, but the sum of its parts help to create an enjoyable experience.  Square Enix's ambition with this game is something to be appreciated, as they certainly spent a lot of time trying to create something unique.  The battle system is engaging and fun, and this succeeds most during some of the towering beast battles that take place in the game's tucked away dungeons.  There's a lot to see in this world, and the team did will to allow the player to always return to explore this sandbox even during pivotal story sequences later in the game.  The game's core cast is also quite strong, as the group of four may not each appeal to you at first, but each have their time to shine during the story.  

9. Firewatch (Campo Santo - PC, PS4, XBO)

The thing to take away the most from Campo Santo's debut is that this is an honest tale of how humans react to situations.  The game starts with an effective "choose your own adventure" type opening that shows people go through adversity no matter what you try to do. The world that artist Olly Moss helped bring to life is vibrant, and Chris Remo's soundtrack sets the tone perfectly as you wander the forest.  Most importantly, the game builds a solid relationship between two characters that haven't even met face-to-face yet as they both oversee their respective areas.  Some games spend dozens of hours trying to build this type of character and emotion, but Firewatch is able to do it with success in the four hours you'll spend in the wilds.

8. Virginia (Variable State - PC, PS4, XBO)

A title that flew under the radar for most, this mystery tells a fascinating story without even saying a word in the journey.  The story follows a character that has just been accepted into the FBI to help investigate a missing person, but the way the story is told makes the ride a great one.  Dream sequences and time jumps create a mystique to the narrative that would be hard to appreciate as just a linear timeline of events.  It's one of the few story based games that makes you want to hop immediately back in upon finishing to see what you missed as everything unfolds.  There isn't quite much like it, and that helped it truly stand out.

7. Inside (Playdead - PC, PS4, XBO)

Playdead's second game may look similar to their breakout hit Limbo, but it's very much a tale of its own.  While you are dropped in a mysterious world as a child with no explanation or tutorial, the game does a fantastic job of showing you the ropes through trial and error from the beginning.  The graphic ways your character can die help build tension while you sneak around guards, dogs, and other hazards to try to piece together what's going on.  As with Virginia, there isn't a word spoken throughout the entire experience, but the world here builds itself with the environment.  Things can be pieced together in your surrounds, both relating to the story and how to solve the next puzzle.  The amount of detail that Playdead put in to what seems like such a tiny package is mind-boggling, as the setting is fleshed out in an eerie and amazing way.  The end may leave you with a few questions, but sometimes that's the way it should be.

6. Titanfall 2 (Respawn - PC, PS4, XBO)

The original Titanfall was an entertaining multiplayer game, but it didn't seem to catch on with enough people and left others wanting single-player content.  Respawn made good on this in the sequel, by creating one of the most surprisingly evocative campaigns to come out of a first person shooter in recent memory.  In all media, creators often struggle to make robots and mechs seem like real characters, but Titanfall 2 succeeds in creating a strong personality with your titan, BT.  Small quips back and forth between the character and BT are engaging, and you even get the opportunity to slightly guide the conversation with dialogue trees that don't impact the story but lead to personalized conversations.  That isn't the sole success of this game though, as the combat is a blast.  Movement is quick, and the ability to run and jump on walls leads to intense combat in both single and multiplayer.  While Titanfall 2 wasn't the standout FPS on the sales chart, it was certainly the most enjoyable of the big three this year.

5. Superhot (Superhot Team - PC, XBO)

This unique project has been intriguing people for years ever since it was initially available as a web demo three years ago.  It's an FPS with a mechanic you haven't seen before the genre: time only moves when you move.  When you enter a room, you'll see all the enemies and can plan your attacks.  However, the second you move your body (or even your head), the other characters and objects will move.  If an enemy has a gun, you're able to stop the second he pulls the trigger and quickly figure out where to move to ensure you don't get shot.  It's a mechanic that brings depth to every situation you encounter and you plot out where to move and when to attack.  The game's presentation also helps set it apart, as the menus will create fake IRC chat rooms and even other games (what's up Tree Dude, the true GOTY) to help build its world.  There truly isn't anything like Superhot, and this is definitely a team to watch going forward.    

4. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (Naughty Dog - PS4)

It's a testament to the quality of games this year to say that one of the best games in the highly respected Uncharted series didn't make the top 3, but that doesn't make it any less of a game.  Nathan Drake's swan song is one to remember, as Naughty Dog yet again created a wonderful story with both familiar and new faces.  While the treasure is always the story, A Thief's End does a great job of giving Sully, Elena, and Sam each their time to shine throughout the story to further build their relationship with Nate.  It's likely the best that the Nate and Elena story has been, especially after some of the questionable twists in that arc previous games have taken.  Needless to say, the game is beautiful and yet again is the hallmark of power for a Playstation platform.  The key set piece moments are there, and this is showcased with the brutally impressive truck chase sequence where you will constantly be left saying "Did I just pull that off?"  While it's a shame to walk away from Nate now, he's certainly had his time to shine, and it was one hell of a ride.

3. Overwatch (Blizzard - PC, PS4, XBO)

Stop me if you've heard this one before: Blizzard took a genre that typically is difficult for new players to penetrate and made a game that was easy for anyone to hop into.  Well, it happened again with their hero team-based FPS: Overwatch.  Using some ideas from the scrapped Project Titan, Blizzard created 21 (later 23) hero characters that each has their own unique abilities and play style to help conquer objectives.  Teams of six work against each other under various conditions to help achieve a single objective.  Certain heroes work well with each other, while some can be used to counter opposing heroes.  Plus, to keep it simple and allow games to swing, you can change your hero anytime after a death, so strategies can adapt on the fly.  Above all else though, Overwatch does a wonderful job in easing players in by simplifying their stats and not necessarily making it about your kill/death ratio.  Don't be confused, if you aren't helping your team, you aren't going to win, but not constantly knowing that you've died three more times than you taken down opponents helps a player's morale.  The game has a style all its own, and with the continuing free updates Blizzard has been making through the year, it's going to be great to see where this game goes down the road.

2. Hitman (IO Interactive - PC, PS4, XBO)

There is no game more surprising in 2016 than Hitman.  It was one of those games with a lot stacked up against it: the most recent Hitman was mostly disappointing, the business model changed to episodic at the last second, and everything just seemed like a mess.  However, once players got their first full episode in Paris, it was clear that something special was being made. Each episode of season one featured a new locale with two story targets to take out, but that was only just scratching the service.  As with most Hitman games, there are multiple ways to go about achieving your goal, and this is done wonderfully here as you explore and find breadcrumbs of meetings and interviews that can help disguise you to take down your enemy.  Optional targets and user-created missions helped give every map life, but the true shining gem is the elusive target feature.  Every other week, IO adds a character to a map and you need to find a way to take them down, but you only get one chance.  Think of it as Spelunky's daily challenge, where everyone has the same mountain to climb but only one crack at it.  Even your most thought out plans will lead to failure, but a lot of the fun in the experience is quickly adapting when everything is hitting the fan.  Hitman was a question coming into the year, but the only thing people are asking themselves going into 2017 is how soon season two will be here.

1. The Witness (Thekla, Inc. - iOS, PC, PS4, XBO)

In the Witness, you are presented with hundreds of puzzles that just require you to draw a line from the beginning of the panel to the end.  That sounds pretty simple, right?  Well, it's far from that.  Jonathan Blow created a masterpiece with intricate puzzles that will test the limits of your brain to get through all of them.  When you begin the game, the first puzzle just has you draw a straight line, which is a surprisingly simple yet great way to introduce you to each set of puzzles.  The game allows you to free roam, but every time you encounter a new set of puzzles, the first panel will show you an incredibly bare bones puzzle to teach you the logic of that area.  Using that knowledge, you'll need to apply it as the puzzle in that section get larger and larger.  As you move through the world, some puzzles will even take ideas from other puzzle and mix them together, which leads to some heavy thinking to push forward.  The exploration is also a wonder, and this isn't just because of the mysterious and beautiful world that Blow's team created in the game.  Sometimes you will come across puzzles with symbols that seem foreign and unsolvable.  However, after tackling an area and learning a new mechanic, there isn't a better feeling that realizing you can find that one-off puzzle and solve it.

The Witness goes much deeper, but spoiling the surprise and twists in game play would simply just take away from it.  The Witness is not easy, but it is so rewarding to figure out the solutions and intricacies of the world on your own.  There is one specific moment at the end of the game that will make you feel like an actual genius if you are able to complete it, and there was not greater moment in games this year than that.  Sometimes, the simplest of ideas can lay the groundwork for something much deeper, and that's exactly what the Witness does.  The journey wasn't always easy, but looking back, it's easy to wish you could forget all of the mechanics so that you could learn it fresh again.  The Witness is one of the strongest games of recent memories, and you owe it to yourself to try to conquer the puzzles found within.

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What it takes to expand into the UK: Pete Doyle interview

What it takes to expand into the UK: Pete Doyle interview

10/2/2019

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        By John Bostwick, Head of Content Management

The UK’s coming exit from the European Union has made headlines for years now, and for good reason. Even apart from the EU, the UK is a powerful economy — the fifth largest in the world — and businesses operating there want to know how Brexit will affect them and what actions they need to take to prepare.

While Vistra has experts and resources to help organisations do just that — such as our action assessment checklist — this particular interview is not about Brexit. We believe that whatever the ultimate terms of Brexit, the UK will remain a critical destination for multinationals due to its large market, robust financial services sector, well-educated workforce, strong legal system and other factors.

In this interview, Vistra’s Pete Doyle talks about his experiences helping companies expand into and operate in the UK. His lessons — learned over three decades — will remain relevant long after Brexit. He covers areas such as evolving corporate expansion strategies, the top risks of operating in the UK, and why complying with value-added tax requirements has an outsized importance for multinationals.

Pete is managing director of Vistra's Reading office in the UK. Early in his career, he trained as a chartered accountant with EY in their audit and business advisory group. In 1993, he cofounded Nortons, a firm of chartered accountants, which was acquired by Vistra in 2016.

  What types of clients do you typically work with in the UK?

A large part of my team’s client base are US HQ technology and life-sciences businesses. Start-up, VC-backed and recently IPO’d businesses are typical, although we also support elements of larger public companies. We also work with other international clients. A fair number of our tech clients are based in Israel, for example, especially those in IT security. We have a UK client base too, typically fast-growing owner-managed businesses, again with a bias towards technology but also engineering, consulting, retail and more. Interestingly, our largest current client is a division of an FTSE 250 PLC, a services business. We are helping them with their international expansion, and all the services we provide for them are outside of the UK.

What are some of the top reasons your clients expand into the UK?

International clients consistently tell us the UK is an important market in its own right, but it’s also seen as a stepping stone into other territories. The financial services sector in London in particular is a large market for tech and IT security, big data and so on. NHS [the UK’s National Health Service] is a draw for life-sciences businesses.

What markets do you typically see companies originating from?

The United States is still important for us, but through other Vistra offices we work with businesses based in Hong Kong, Singapore, Germany, Eastern Europe and elsewhere. We also have a good base of Israel-HQ clients.

Do you find that companies from certain countries more easily adapt to operating in the UK, either for regulatory or cultural reasons?

Interesting question. U.S. companies don’t always adapt as quickly as they think they’re going to. I think they often assume that operating in the UK is more or less the same as operating in the U.S., and they’re not prepared for the differences, which can be significant. HR and employment regulations are very different for example, as are our data privacy laws. That said, the UK is generally a straightforward market for a new foreign business, and our job is to help them navigate any complexities that do come up.

Do your clients tend to send expats or hire locals when expanding to the UK? What are some of the benefits and challenges of each option?

I would say most of our clients set up by hiring locals — or at least people already based in the UK — typically sales people who establish the local market. They generally hire folks with a track record in their sector, and the UK has a good talent pool for this, including individuals with experience working with U.S. tech companies in the UK and the rest of Europe.

  Occasionally, our clients do send expats to start off, but often there’s a specific reason for that. Sometimes detailed product knowledge is needed which is only available in-house, or perhaps a founder or another valued employee wants to relocate to the UK for personal and professional reasons, so the relocation is a win-win scenario.

  Obviously, there are immigration and tax challenges when you send an expat to establish your operations. Any organisation should know the full extent of those challenges and their related, often significant, costs before proceeding.

  That said, the success or failure of the choice will largely be determined by commercial factors. For example: Does the individual know the market? Keep in mind that what worked in the U.S. may not work in the UK or Europe. We often see clients that successfully use (say) a direct sales strategy in the U.S. But when operating in the UK and Europe, they may need to work with channel partners to be successful.

  How have perceptions of the UK as an international-expansion destination changed over the course of your career?

It’s hard to say, that’s probably a better question for our clients! I can say that when we started doing a lot of work with U.S.-based clients in the late 1990s and early 2000s, many of them saw the UK as a springboard to almost anywhere else in Europe and maybe even anywhere else in the world.

  They came to us to help them set up fairly large teams in the UK, and those folks then travelled to other markets initially. They set up a traditional UK subsidiary and hired a European managing director, along with sales, support and marketing teams. These folks sat in an expensive office which was often fairly autonomous from the U.S. HQ. That’s quite a big investment. Then they did the same in other key markets such as France, Germany and so on, and these groups may have been led by the UK hub.

  Now I would say U.S. clients set up far more nimble operations, often virtual teams with small numbers of employees set up in different locations supported by far less infrastructure. I would say that today smaller companies go international, or maybe the same businesses do so at an earlier stage in the lifecycle. Technology allows them to operate with small teams, folks working from home or from small virtual offices.

  Is the UK still the first target country for U.S. clients? Not always. Smaller clients now react to an opportunity to attract talent or follow a customer overseas without a great deal of strategic thinking, as there is a lot less heavy lifting involved, so they can set up anywhere when they see an opportunity.

  How do you see trends changing in the next five to 10 years?

You like asking me these difficult questions! Given no one really knows what will happen post-Brexit I think I am in good company in not wanting to comment even beyond a few months. But I would guess the businesses I work with will have access to disruptive technology in the near future. As a result, they will be able to do a lot more overseas administration themselves.

  However the old saying about rubbish in/rubbish out makes me think that the need for international support from specialists like Vistra could actually increase. Our clients will be able to use technology — including, say, AI — to do ever more complex things with less and less of their own infrastructure and perhaps far earlier in their lifecycle. Businesses will be global from day one. Those businesses will need our help — not least because the authorities looking after compliance, regulation and taxation will also have access to more and more data and will be able to follow our clients on their journeys more readily and challenge what they are doing.

  Have you found there’s one compliance area or consideration that businesses new to the UK often overlook during the expansion planning stages?

My clients are largely from outside the EU and usually do not think about VAT [value-added tax], and that can be a problem for them. Cross-border VAT depends on a lot of small details to work. Whether you’re dealing with goods or services or technology IP, you must have a very close look at the planned transactions.

  Often our clients don’t really understand their own supply chain or T&Cs [terms and conditions]. You must understand, for example: Who is the importer of goods, you or your distributor? Who are the principals and who are the agents in a digital revenue share agreement? What are you selling online, a B2C service or a B2B platform for others to sell their service on? I have seen cases where a client’s website says one thing and the real supply chain is different. A no-deal Brexit will make this even more interesting!

  Finally, some of our tech clients are doing things that are new and disruptive, and so their business activities do not fall into existing models that tax authorities understand or accept. This kind of scenario is difficult if it means the business has to decide for themselves whether a particular transaction needs to carry VAT or not and whether it should be UK VAT or VAT from another jurisdiction.

  Speaking of local experts, what are some of the other top challenges companies face when they expand to the UK?

I guess understanding that local regulations may be very different from home-country regulations, though that’s true when expanding into any new country. Complying with local regulations in the UK is as I mentioned pretty straightforward when compared to many other countries.

  Of course, those are all compliance challenges. There are other considerations, such as understanding local cultural norms in the workplace and appreciating commercial differences. For example, how do you adjust your home-country selling strategies to account for the realities of the UK market?

  If you had to give some general advice to a company considering expanding to the UK, what would you say?

When dealing with a prospect, I first ask them what they’re planning and what they want to achieve. Then I’ll address some subjects — such as complying with certain UK tax, employment and immigration regulations — that I’m pretty sure they’ll need to know about. Typically, this initial conversation needs to cover many commercial considerations as well, and then we home in on related risk areas.

  These kinds of discussions go wrong when you just answer the questions you’re asked. The smarter clients challenge us by asking, in effect, to tell them what they don’t know. That’s the right approach to take, and we’ll make it happen no matter what the situation. It’s our job to tell you what you need to know to succeed.

  What’s the most memorable thing someone has said to you about conducting business in the UK?

There are lots. I was asked once whether Paris was in London. It sounds funny, but if you put yourself in that client’s shoes it isn’t so strange. I can’t remember, but let’s say it was someone from a U.S. tech company whose market to date was hugely U.S.-focused, and that controller or CFO had never been to Europe. Why should they know where Paris is? The U.S. is big enough for anyone!

  Let’s face it, for years I thought Washington, D.C. was near Seattle (which is in Washington State, about 2500 miles away!) — so no different. In fact, this is an important lesson for international work: Do not assume people know stuff, ever. Their whole perspective and starting point is likely be very different from your own.

  In your career, have you noticed a single great truth about how to operate successfully in the UK or simply how to operate successfully in another country?

From my world, get payroll right and get expert help with anything like VAT, GST, sales taxes etc.

  Get payroll wrong and it is almost impossible to put right without a lot of pain for all. You’ll upset a team of employees — never a good idea — and payroll tax penalties can often be substantial.

  VAT and indirect taxes look deceptively simple but can go horribly wrong on a small detail, especially with cross-border transactions and in more complex areas such as financial services or real estate. The taxes involved are a percentage of revenue rather than profit (and so get very large very quickly) and are transactional, they’re happening every day. So they are hard to fix later, unlike say income taxes that can be perhaps be put right with an annual filing. An accountant’s answer for a single great truth: VAT! I don’t get out much!

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Guest Post: Time to Face the Music – Cyber Risk is D&O Risk – And Things Are Getting Worse!

Paul Ferrillo

Chris Veltsos

As this blog’s readers know, there have been a number of management liability claims that have been raised against companies that have experienced cybersecurity incidents. In the following guest post by Paul Ferrillo and Chris Veltsos, the authors argue that cyber risk is in fact D&O risk and that the risk is growing. The authors also suggest a 10-step plan to grapple with the risk. Paul is a shareholder in the Greenberg Traurig law firm’s Cybersecurity, Privacy, and Crisis Management Practice. Chris is a professor in the Department of Computer Information Science at Minnesota State University, Mankato where he regularly teaches Information Security and Information Warfare classes. My thanks to thank Paul and Chris for allowing me to publish this article as a guest post on this site. I welcome guest post submissions from responsible authors on topics of interest to this blog’s readers. Please contact me directly if you would like to submit a guest post. Here is Paul and Chris’s article.

  Ah, another article about cyber risk you say? Time for a late summer snooze? Or time for a serious chat post Labor Day? We think a serious chat is in order.

  Chris and I have been friends a while. We did not know each other during cybersecurity 1.0 – the early days. “Little House on the Server Farm.” This was when people really did not know what to expect about cybersecurity, its risks, its rewards and its tremendous downsides if ignored. There were a few reported breaches, but not many. People had heard of Stuxnet, but barely so.

  We met during Cybersecurity 2.0 – the post-Target days. You remember them? The big retailer breaches had begun. Many more were soon to come. Directors knew there was a problem (“Houston, we have a problem”) but it was hard to put your finger on its pulse. Yes, a big breach. A lot of data lost. A lot of remediation costs certainly. But then what? Did directors and officers really know how bad things had gotten. Our guess is probably not. At that stage the civil litigations were less than serious. Cases were getting settled on the cheap. The privacy bar was in its infancy. We would call it “jumpball.”

  Then “cybersecurity today.” We equate that to the Equifax breach. It was a case that hit 7.0 on the Richter scale. Something was seriously wrong. And we all knew it, including the public which was most affected by the breach. Congress knew it and held hearings with a just retired/sidelined CEO. Sidelined by cybersecurity. The plaintiffs bar also certainly knew this fact too.

  Said one congress person at the time of the full-blown congressional hearings, “You can’t stop stupidity. You can’t legislate against it, but you can hold people accountable for it….” See Congressman on Equifax: Can’t legislate against stupidity but can hold people accountable

  Paul has an expression for this new period we are in today: Cybersecurity 3.0 – “we really don’t trust you that much any more with our data. Step it up, or else!”

  So what is the “or else?”

  Here is what makes cybersecurity a serious, “pay attention to me or else” risk — the regulators are in high gear. After Equifax and continuing today, both federal and state and international regulators are all over cybersecurity, management and the board. First the regulation — the EU GDPR, NY DFS 500 and now California. But let’s now layer on the Securities and Exchange Commission too, with its anti-fraud and disclosure requirements on public companies. Then the fines started. First on the smaller side. Now on the tremendous side with the recent cyber breach and privacy fines against many of the name brand companies we speak about and write about daily. Those fines and penalties cause reputational damage. Those fines and penalties — and the mere fact of big breaches themselves — cause market capitalization losses. Those market cap losses cause securities and derivative action litigation to get filed. And so it begins:

Rule 1: cyber risk is D&O risk. Rule 2: Under-appreciated cyber risk is major D&O risk, or even a bankruptcy-level risk. See AMCA Bankruptcy Filing in Wake of Breach Reveals Impact

  Ok you say, we have this seen this before in corporate America, so what’s really so new? Oh, because these inopportune fines and decisions — even in other jurisdictions, like the United Kingdom and the European Union — will make their way into civil litigation in the United States, and will likely make it very difficult, if not unwinnable. Why? Because these fines and penalties tend to indicate “something was wrong.” And in some cases, something was seriously wrong. Those decisions end up as exhibit one in the securities class action. The privacy class action. The settlement papers. I saw this as a young lawyer. In many of my early securities cases, there were often occasions where the CEO or CFO was indicted early in the case. Or plead guilty. Though some of these cases had other factors to litigate, we often did not. We often could not. Because of reputation issues, many of those companies just didn’t make it past the opening volleys, and these were Fortune 500 companies.

  Ok you say, so what? We survived right? Well, not so fast. Corporate America survived the Enron and WorldCom days because Congress and Corporate America woke up. And Congress passed a comprehensive set of rules leading with the Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002 for both public companies and accounting firms. The rules had real teeth, real effects and real downsides if ignored. “The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 cracked down on corporate fraud. It created the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board to oversee the accounting industry. It banned company loans to executives and gave job protection to whistleblowers. The Act strengthens the independence and financial literacy of corporate boards. It holds CEOs personally responsible for errors in accounting audits… Section 404 requires corporate executives to certify the accuracy of financial statements personally. If the SEC finds violations, CEOs could face 20 years in jail… Section 404 made managers maintain “adequate internal control structure and procedures for financial reporting.” Companies’ auditors had to “attest” to these controls and disclose “material weaknesses.” See Sarbanes Oxley Summary.

  For whatever rules Sarbanes Oxley gave us, it also gave us definitive guidance, rules of the road, a compliance check, real penalties, potential jail time, and real corporate responsibility and accountability for stopping corporate fraud. Having lived through the cycle, and the later the Financial Crisis, I can tell you that Sarbanes Oxley helped. A lot.

  Today, corporate directors don’t have a Sarbanes-Oxley equivalent when it comes to cybersecurity. And that is the problem we need to grapple with. Right now. Today. Unless you are a federal regulated financial institution, advisor or fund, there is very little in terms of oversight and little in terms of ultimate corporate accountability. We have nothing like Section 404 of Sarbanes Oxley. And certainly, we have nothing like the Big 4, PCAOB driven accounting firms when it comes to cybersecurity oversight, compliance or review. We have a hodgepodge of cybersecurity vendors, from the very good to the “don’t go there.” This should not be comforting to a director of a name brand, data-driven company. Or any company. And just because you think you might have D&O or standalone cybersecurity insurance doesn’t mean you are ok. Indeed, you already probably don’t have enough limits of liability ready to face the threats of today, let alone those of tomorrow.

  So now what should directors do? Think? And how should they react? Aggressively!

  That was the wind up. Here is the pitch: an errant fastball high and tight. Almost on the jawline. Potentially catastrophic. But…. Maybe not. The Cyberavengers are here to sound the alarm, to point people and companies to safety. The world as we know it is under near-constant cyber-attack and so are your company’s systems. This is no time to stick your head in the sand. Now is the time to step up, to roll up your leadership and governance sleeves, and to get a grip on cyber risk.

  Chris and I are planners. We are also educators. Here is our 10-step plan to help boards grapple with the increasingly ugly face of cyber risk:

  Recognize that we have a humungous problem here. Not a small one. Cybersecurity breaches are not black swan events. They are everyday occurrences. They can hurt. They can be terminal. They can shut the power off. And many cybersecurity events are not even reported publicly. Treat cybersecurity with the respect it deserves.

Demand your company have some basic, fundamental approach to cybersecurity. The Cyberavengers basics: should be mandatory email filters/solutions, regular and timely patching, backing up your network, identity and access management tools. More details on our list of security basics.

Has your company adopted the NIST cybersecurity framework? If not, why? It should. If plaintiffs’ counsel can cite the Framework chapter and verse in their complaints, company directors should be able to as well during board meetings.

Does the board receive regular (quarterly) reports from IT and senior management? If not, why not? Reporting up is a big red flag. Not making adequate time to review these reports is also a big red flag.

What do those reports say? Are they metrics based? Or full of nerd speak?

Are risk assessments done on a semi-annual basis? Do they cover assets, threats, controls, effectiveness, risk, insurance, residual risk, risk appetite? Are the risks tracked, updated, and reviewed regularly.

Are vulnerability assessments done on a semi-annual basis? Leverage automated tools to shed light on your most vulnerable systems. Then patch, quickly if you can. Otherwise document, isolate and/or monitor.

Are compromise assessments done on a regular basis? If you suspect your company has been compromised, there is no time to waste. And if you think you haven’t, you should get a second opinion. A compromise assessment will check for sure, and give you insights into your company’s environment, its current performance on cyber hygiene, systemic risks, and just how effective your controls are. Psst: they’re probably not as effective as your CISO told you (unless they’re actually rigorously tested every quarter).

Is employee training for spearphishing and social Media training done on a quarterly basis (or even more frequently)? Does this training and testing include managers and executives? Does it include board directors themselves?

Finally does the company have a practiced and test incident response, business communication and crisis communication plan? If not, why not? The NIST Framework suggests those at a minimum.

  We could have a list of 20 or 30 items, but the same points would still be applicable. Your company needs to have a regular processes, policies, and procedures to effectively manage its cyber security risk. If it does not, problems will surely surface. And like in Equifax, or AMCA or many others, those problems could turn catastrophic and cause directors to face liability for not requiring “a well-rehearsed plan.”

  The ten-step plan above is a start, a baseline floor, with a lot of room overhead. Pick a framework (NIST CSF, ISO 27001, others) and embrace it. Embrace it fully. Yes, it will take time and resources, and a commitment for the long run. When it comes to cyber, inaction today gambles away your company’s future, its very existence. Your company’s cybersecurity doesn’t need to be perfect. Perfect is not what the law requires. Perfect should not get in the way of good. But you must attempt the good with reasonable efforts. There is no time to waste.

The post Guest Post: Time to Face the Music – Cyber Risk is D&O Risk – And Things Are Getting Worse! appeared first on The D&O Diary.

Guest Post: Time to Face the Music – Cyber Risk is D&O Risk – And Things Are Getting Worse! published first on