Storage in your laptop or smartphone is a compromise between volume, access speed and physical size. But, the industry’s competition to shrink them while boosting their specifications is fierce. A few months after shipping a 16TB solid-state drive, S…
A consortium of retailers, including Target and Home Depot, vowed to fight a data breach notification bill. The bill, HR 2205 from Reps. Randy Neugebauer (R-Texas) and John Carney (D-Del.), would require companies to tell customers when they’ve been…
After yesterday’s ASUS keynote, Computex has finally kicked off under the hot Taipei sunshine. The show is no stranger to a variety of unusual PC parts, including enthusiast motherboards, gaming keyboards and bizarre cases, so it was rather fitting t…
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These awesome candles will make you the Mother or Father of Dragons. Just light them up and wait patiently for your dragon hatchling to arrive. Who knew that getting your own baby dragons was so easy?
Each egg candle gradually melts to reveal a porcelain dragon inside, so you are getting a cool candle that provides light and a toy you get to kerep, all in one. The dragon that you get will be random. It might be red, green or a black dragon. These may be the coolest unofficial Game of Thrones merchandise yet. And you have to admit, they are pretty adorable.
You will definitely want to collect them all and then keep a couple of unlit candles as they are. Light yourself on fire and head over to Firebox to order yours now. They’re £29.99 (~$40 USD) each.
[via Geekologie]
Warning. Read any further, and your fear of cockroaches will be kicked up several notches. That’s because a collaboration between South Korea’s Seoul National University and UC Berkeley has created it’s latest unholy robot. Yes, mankind has built a robot cockroach that can crawl around and also jump five feet in the air.
It is called the JumpRoACH, naturally. It weighs two-ounces and has six crawling feet and a diamond-shaped jumping/launching mechanism powered by eight latex bands and a DC motor. What is groundbreaking here is the robo-roach’s ability to control the power of its catapult mechanism, and time its launch so it makes the jump.
It can’t fly yet, but it does have wings that it can open to flip itself over onto its feet. Give them time and these things will be flying. Then what will stop them? Nothing. After the nukes drop, real and robo-roaches will one day fight for control over the planet.
Researchers in the Netherlands claim to have created the world’s first “robots that procreate.” What does that mean exactly? Well, child, when two robots’ fitness evaluation algorithms come to a successful conclusion, something beautiful happens. You’ll know when you’re older — or if you scroll down. “This breakthrough is a significant first step… Read More
If you are like most of us, you are already well aware that there simply aren’t enough hours in each day to do everything. Being able to stay on top of things and get the job done is critical to achieving success in so many areas of our lives. From building a growing, thriving business to having a personal life outside of your work, finding a way to achieve all the tasks and keep your sanity, is a must.
Of course, we all know highly successful people that seem to have it all together, all of the time. From media personalities like Oprah Winfrey to government officials like former Prime Minister Julia Gillard, and even business executives such as Richard Branson of Virgin, successful individuals make it seem so easy to stay on top of things.
Wouldn’t it be nice if building your business and finding time to spend with your family or friends could be so effortless? It can be.
When we look closely at the lives of highly successful people, regardless of the sector or industry that they are in, one of the traits that they seemingly share is that each had, and continues to have, a lot of assistance in getting things done.
This is true because it’s simply easier to do it all when you are willing to let go of controlling things that you don’t do well, or don’t enjoy. Recruiting others to help you, and allowing them to help you, enables you to be more successful; it’s the new key to building a magnificent business.
Finding the right people to help you, however, can be the true challenge. This is why outsourcing is becoming a popular option for businesses of all sizes.
Do you lack the expertise necessary to look over a contract and know if it’s a fair deal before you sign it? Hate doing the books? Do you need someone to answer your phones and run errands on an occasional or part-time basis? The answer to all of these difficulties is the same – outsource the work.
Outsourcing enables you to get the help that you need, when you need it, without having to go to the time or expense of hiring and training someone and keeping them on your payroll on a full-time basis. Outsourcing allows you to enlist professionals such as bookkeepers on an as needed basis. Even traditional positions, such as that of a secretary, can now be filled quickly and cheaply by virtual assistants.
In addition to freeing up your time, outsourcing also lowers your costs because workers are independent contractors, saving you the expense of payroll taxes and benefit plans. While large organisations have been saving time and money by outsourcing many common jobs for quite some time, the cost of these services continues to fall. This allows owners and directors of even small and medium sized businesses to reap the benefits of outsourcing stressful and demanding aspects of both their professional and personal lives.
You no longer have to be a member of the jet-setting mega wealthy to afford and enjoy the benefits of having a personal assistant. From cleaning your home to walking the dog and cooking your meals, nearly every personal service imaginable can now be outsourced, and the prices continue to drop. In the past, you may have worried that you couldn’t afford to pay for help, but since services now cost so little, the question becomes can you afford not to outsource some of your work so that you have more time to spend on the work that matters?
Wish you had more hours in the day to focus on your strategic planning or to spend with family and friends? Wouldn’t it be great if you had time to exercise, volunteer, or just get more sleep? The solution is simple and the same for each; outsource it and watch your personal and professional life grow and flourish!
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
By Allison Tyler | Off the Shelf
There’s something delightfully endearing about Lisa Lutz’s kinetic and quirky The Spellman Files. It reads like a well-scripted television sitcom/family drama and, considering Lutz’s screenwriting background, that vibe makes perfect sense. As soon as I’d finished reading this offbeat novel, I wanted to binge-read the rest of the books in the series.
The Spellmans are a zany-but-lovable family of private investigators, full of foibles and beautifully human flaws. The twentysomething narrator, Izzy, is the middle child and the most troublesome of the bunch, especially in comparison to picture-perfect elder brother David and precocious little sister Rae. Steadfast David has chosen to escape the family business, but reformed Izzy is in deep, and crafty Rae wants to follow in her sister’s messy footsteps. Pandemonium ensues.
Lutz has described Izzy as “Nancy Drew meets Jack Daniels” and the characters’ introspection and self-deprecating sense of humor are what make this book so fun to read. Izzy’s like your smart but wayward friend who can’t say the words “I love you,” yet you know she does.
The Spellman Files isn’t quite a mystery novel, but then again it isn’t not one. It’s a fast-paced tangle through the threads of a hundred minor mysteries, and one major, woven amongst Izzy’s amusing, confessional lists and observances; well-crafted descriptions of eccentric family dynamics; and the never-mundane minutiae of daily life. All the characters are written boldly outside the lines, yet their dysfunction makes them believable and often relatable. There’s a palpable vulnerability and poignancy throughout that keeps the book from being too light and fluffy.
It’s hard to characterize, or even accurately describe, The Spellman Files, but it fits somewhere between Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series and Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion. I deeply liked the characters and was rooting for them, and at the same time I was good-naturedly rolling my eyes at their chaos and hoping they would finally pull their act together.
The Spellman Files is a fanciful take on the mystery crime genre and, after finishing it, you might want to binge-read the next five books in the series, too. It’s entertaining because it’s so nutty. And aren’t we all, at least a little?
Allison Tyler loves to read, and encourages you to support your local library.
More Recommendations from Off the Shelf:
This Land is Your Land: 13 Literary Pit Stops Across the USA
12 Bloody Good Mysteries–Even for the Faint of Heart
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— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
Workplace safety is an issue worldwide, with 6300 people dying daily across the globe. If you are not compliant with workplace standards, you are going to experience legal problems, regulatory problems, and the fact that your employees are putting themselves in danger every single time they come to work.
To avoid making any critical mistakes, you need to know what those mistakes are. This guide is going to show you the big mistakes companies are making when it comes to global workplace safety.
Creating More Work than Necessary
Safety is a topic most companies don’t like to talk about because it requires time and money to improve workplace safety. But you also have to remember that safety shouldn’t mean more work. If you are constantly typing reports and conducting audits, the chances are you are not making a positive change.
You shouldn’t be creating more work than necessary when ensuring your workers’ health. Keep the administration to a minimum and concentrate on making some actual change. Spend more of your time crafting safer systems.
Harness the People Working for You
It’s false to believe that your health and safety policy is the job of a specific department. In order to maintain a safe workplace, you need to harness everyone. If you are implementing corrective actions all the time, the chances are you are not addressing the root cause of the problem.
Make sure you invest more in the training and development of your staff to ensure that you are making a real difference in the long-term. The workers within the company are the ones who must avoid their jobs becoming hazardous to their health, so it makes sense to consult them in relation to these matters.
Not Following Through
A big part of your health and safety strategy will revolve around the reporting of incidents. All employees should be encouraged to report such incidents to the relevant department. Once you convince your workers to do this, you have to follow through on your promises.
Once a report has been filed, you should follow through on it. Furthermore, you should inform the person who reported the incident that action has been taken. If you don’t, you are going to have a hard time getting your employees to report problems in the future.
Why Do You Want to Focus on Health and Safety?
It’s not something that many companies consider. Think about why you want to focus on health and safety and what your main motivations are. What prompted you to focus on this part of your business in the first place?
If the main driver was that inspection report from the regulators, the chances are you are just trying to check a few boxes. This is the wrong way to look at health and safety because it means you are only going to do the bare minimum so you don’t receive a fine.
Organizations should want to focus on health and safety because they understand how important it is for the well-being of their employees, rather than because they have to due to the fact the law said they have to.
Does the Safety Culture Last?
It’s a traditional trend that a company safety plan will be a priority for approximately one week after the safety inspector has written their negative report. Once the company has made the relevant changes, people start to forget about safety until they stop taking it into account. Consequently, the cycle continues and the company never actually gets safer.
The safety sign experts at Clarion Safety Systems say that clear, effective signage can help to be a visual reminder of safety best practices. Signs communicate safety information that reinforces training for employees, subcontractors and visitors. Helping to ensure safety remains a priority, signs are critical to maintaining a safe work environment and minimizing liability exposure.
Is the Safety Team Doing the Work for You?
Sometimes the safety team can cross over from a purely advisory committee to actually implementing change themselves. This may sound like a good thing, but actually this is problematic because it means that the managers are having the work done for them.
This is not going to create lasting change because your workforce hasn’t been taught how to maintain high safety standards. They have always had someone else do it for them. It doesn’t take much for the safety team to become the department that solves everyone else’s problems.
What do you think is the greatest workplace safety problem today?
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
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