On March 27 the Faculty Council approved proposals to establish a master’s degree in biotechnology and to establish a quantitative reasoning with data requirement. They also approved a proposal on course registration and heard an update regarding graduate student unionization.The Council next meets on April 10. The next meeting of the Faculty is on April 2. The preliminary deadline for the May 7 meeting of the Faculty is April 16 at noon.
For years, University of Georgia plant breeder Scott NeSmith has created new blueberry varieties for the commercial market. Now, he has bred one just for home gardeners.Blue Suede is a Southern highbush blueberry for edible home landscapes, said Nesmith, a horticulturist with the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.It produces flavorful, large, light-blue berries, and performs well in USDA Hardiness zones 6a through 9a. “It bears attractive, very edible fruit and should look nice as a landscaping plant, too,” he said. “It has nice fall foliage color.”Bred especially for home gardenersBlue Suede is exclusively licensed to McCorkle Nursery, which plans to introduce it as part of their Gardener’s Confidence Collection early next year.But isn’t a berry just a berry? NeSmith says he has to consider an entirely different list of characteristics when he breeds a blueberry plant for the commercial market.“Commercial plants have to meet certain standards for several reasons, including the fact that berries have to travel long distances,” he said. “Yield is another factor. Commercial growers like all the berries of one variety to ripen at once, and then the next variety to come on. Home gardeners like to pick a bowlful at a time.”Blue Suede has a “protracted ripening period,” he said, allowing harvest over a longer period of time. Commercial berries have to survive shippingCommercial growers also worry about problems like berry scarring. If a berry attaches to the plant, an open scar is created when it’s picked.“You can’t have berries that leak and ooze while they are being shipped to the market,” he said. “But in a home setting, it doesn’t matter because you are going to eat them right away.”When adding blueberry plants to your home landscape, Nesmith says to set aside the first year as a growing year for the plant. “You may see a small amount of fruit the second year, but the third year will bring a good blueberry crop,” he said.Varieties bred for home planting like Blue Suede are designed to stand alone in the landscape. They are self-fruiting and do not require other plants for pollination.“If you are a home consumer who wants to plant 10 to 15 blueberry bushes and create a patch, you may want to select a standard commercial variety,” NeSmith said.Garden centers supplied by McCorkle’sMcCorkle Nurseries is promoting Blue Suede as a deck or patio container plant.“It’s perfect for people who live in condominiums or apartments and don’t have a space to plant more than one plant,” said Mike Sikes, a horticulturist with McCorkle Nurseries. “It’s perfect for all seasons, too. You can enjoy the beautiful colored foliage in the fall, green leaves in the winter, flowers in the spring and delicious berries in the summer.” More to comeBlue Suede is the first UGA edible ornamental blueberry release, but it won’t be the last, Nesmith said. There are plans to breed and release blueberry plants that produce a variety of different traits. “We are looking at one plant that produces a berry that turns yellow, orange and then kinda black,” he said. “They will all be very edible, very sweet and attractive in a landscape. One of our goals is to produce a plant that doesn’t just look like a stick most of the year.”
U.S. 11th Circuit to amend procedures Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §2071(b), notice and opportunity for comment is hereby given of proposed amendments to the Rules and Internal Operating Procedures of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.A copy of the proposed amendments may be obtained on and after December 1, from the court’s Web site at www.ca11.uscourts.gov. A copy may also be obtained without charge from the Office of the Clerk, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, 56 Forsyth St., N.W., Atlanta, GA 30303, phone (404) 335-6100. Comments on the proposed amendments may be submitted in writing to the clerk at the above street address by January 3, 2006. U.S. 11th Circuit to amend procedures December 1, 2005 Regular News
4SHARESShareShareSharePrintMailGooglePinterestDiggRedditStumbleuponDeliciousBufferTumblr NAFCU President and CEO Dan Berger urged NCUA Board Chairman Debbie Matz to review internal policies and procedures for safeguarding credit unions’ sensitive data in light of an NCUA examiner’s reported loss of an external flash drive containing secure information from a credit union.“This is a serious breach that has put credit union members at risk,” Berger said in a letter to Matz Tuesday. “NCUA is a steward of credit unions’ sensitive information and, as a federal regulator, must be held to the highest standard for safeguarding such data. NAFCU urges NCUA to not only carefully investigate this breach, but to also be fully transparent to the credit unions that you regulate and serve.”Berger also recommended that as NCUA investigates this breach, it also review its “internal policies and procedures for safeguarding credit unions’ sensitive information, including how it notifies members of a breach.”Credit Union Times reported Monday that the agency confirmed its examiner lost an external flash drive containing names, addresses, Social Security numbers and account numbers of members during an examination of Palm Springs Federal Credit Union in California. An NCUA spokesman is quoted saying the thumb drive contained no PINs and that there has been no indication of any unauthorized access to members’ accounts or efforts to gain such access. continue reading »
All across America, the oldest millennials have reached their early 30s and are settling into their careers. But credit unions and other financial institutions often miss the mark (whether angling to come off as “too cool” or, more often, using tired marketing techniques that only appeal to their Baby Boomer parents), when rolling out new offerings or services geared toward these millennials.This is due in part to credit unions’ lack of understanding on the subject of what makes millennials tick. Credit unions must address the uniqueness of this generation, sandwiched between the post-9/11, mobile-video-savvy Gen Z, and the older, 40-something Gen X.The generation born between 1980 and the early 1990s is the first group of individuals to experience Internet 1.0, from the days of dial up through its evolution into broadband. As such, millennials are the first generation to have spent at least some portion of their pre-collegiate years tethered to a mobile phone.Like their older counterparts, millennials want economic security and care about living well with as little debt as possible. And like their younger counterparts, they want 24/7 convenience, having spent most of their life using email and the Internet (many Gen Xers waited until college for this privilege!). I, for example, set up my first email account during my junior year of college and purchased my first “cell” phone when I was 22.Considering that millennials slightly outnumber Baby Boomers (ages 51-69) 75.4 million, to 74.9 million respectively, credit unions must focus marketing efforts towards this critical generation.Working to understand the millennial mind is key in the development of the proper approach: Millennials want to pay off ginormous student loans …Skyrocketing college costs have reached record highs, resulting in many 20- and 30-somethings graduating with thousands of dollars of debt. According to credit union think tank Filene and their 2015 Millennials Report, two-thirds of recent bachelor degree recipients carry student loans. The average student debt load for these millennials is approximately $27,000. Just two decades ago, only about half of recent graduates had student loans and the average student debt was $15,000. For this reason, finding the simplest, quickest, and most cost efficient way to pay off debt, is a huge priority as millennials enter their peak career and child-rearing years. A small but growing number of credit unions are capitalizing on this trend by providing individuals with student loans and quickly helping them refinance their college debt. They are concerned about money. According to the American Freshman annual survey of new college students, conducted by UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute, the number of millennials who said they considered wealth a very important attribute is higher than the number of Gen-Xers who said the same thing. This is, perhaps in part, attributable to growing economic insecurities. As noted by the White House’s Millennials report, “the oldest millennials were just 27 years old when the recession began in December 2007. … As unemployment surged from 2007 to 2009, many millennials struggled to find a place in the labor market.” On the bright side, these realities offer an opportunity for credit unions to showcase their financial advantages, from the favorable home- and auto-loan programs to the non-existence of “gotcha” minimum-balance fees. Millennials want to digitally network. According to a March 2014 Pew Research Center report, adult millennials tend to be “detached from institutions and networked with friends.” This means they’re more likely than their parents to use financial applications such as mobile person-to-person payment solutions. A 2015 Accenture North America study revealed millennials are key drivers as early adopters of digital payments over cash and cards. According to the report, 23% of millennials make a mobile payment to a merchant location at least weekly, compared to an overall average of 18%. Millennials and the generations that follow will be the drivers of P2P payments. As the average age of credit union members drops, their P2P payment volume will increase. … and capitalize on their big ideas. Millennials don’t want to work for “The Man,” they want to be “The Man.” And thanks to high-speed information technology, starting a business is as easy as coming up with an idea and owning a computer. As such, millennials are seeking out creative ways to finance their big ideas, such as through online crowd-funding sites and Kickstarter campaigns. Credit unions can make themselves more attractive to 19- to 34-year-old entrepreneurs by offering a variety of low-interest, personal loans.
Millennials want to know what makes a credit union special. Filene Research noted that in its Google Consumer Survey, conducted December 30, 2014 through January 9, 2015, when nearly 500 millennials were asked, “why don’t you use a credit union instead of a bank?”, a whopping 34% said “I don’t know much about them.” Also, while one-third of Americans are members of a local credit union, older generations are more likely than millennials to use them (38% of Boomers, 33% Gen Xers, and 26% of millennials). Remember that many of the Boomers had a credit union associated with their jobs, so, outbound marketing wasn’t vital to member growth. Banks have been marketing to consumers since inception however, B2C marketing is relatively new for credit unions.With millennials expected to account for 40% of the workforce by 2020, credit unions need to focus efforts on educating millennials through digital marketing efforts, personalized outreach, and targeted advertising. Credit Union philosophy fits well into the millennial financial picture. The key will be getting the message of our mission to the masses. 126SHARESShareShareSharePrintMailGooglePinterestDiggRedditStumbleuponDeliciousBufferTumblr,Joe Woods Joe Woods, CUDE is a 15-year credit union veteran. He has spent time with Corporate One FCU, Liberty Enterprises, co-founded Legacy Member Services and was part of the senior management … Web: www.dolphindebit.com Details
Celebrations ran well into the early hours of the morning, with videos posted of the team and coaching staff partying at their hotel.But now, Scotland are in Slovakia where they will play their penultimate Nations League match, live on Sky Sports, knowing they are one win away from promotion to the top league. And after that, they head to Israel. 
Former Scotland boss Alex McLeish says they ‘looked the business’ as they defeated Serbia away from home on penalties to secure their place at Euro 2020 Sunday 15th November 1:30pm – Advertisement – Reflecting on the play-off success, Clarke said his players have important work to do which could go towards earning them a place at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.He said: “It’s a fantastic achievement for this group of players. Thankfully it all came together on Thursday. It’s something we’ve been thinking about and working towards for what seems like over a year.“We came together on the night but now we have to park that one, put that in the cabinet and think about it in April because before then we’re going to have other matches that are really important for us.“The celebrations stopped on the night. They enjoyed themselves – it was a good night but it broke up naturally. Scotland manager Steve Clarke has called on his players to “park” their Euro 2020 celebrations and focus on promotion to League A in the UEFA Nations League.The Scots ended their 22 years of hurt on Thursday night with a penalty-shootout win over Serbia in Belgrade to book their place at next year’s tournament.- Advertisement – 8:53 Highlights of the European Championship Qualifying Path C play-off final between Serbia and Scotland 1:21 0:46 1:37 One person who won’t be running about on Sunday is Scotland assistant coach John Carver, who is on crutches after celebrating David Marshall’s penalty save.Clarke said: “Unfortunately for John, his injury is a little more serious – he’s on crutches. But as a member of the coaching staff it’s not so important that John runs down the touchline.“It’s a sore one but I should emphasise he got the injury on the pitch and not when they were doing the conga later on.”The Scotland conga danced and sang ‘David Marshall’ to Whigfield’s ‘Saturday Night’, but it was ‘Yes Sir, I Can Boogie’ that became the song of the qualification party.Having started from a leaked Andy Considine stag do video many years ago, the players were seen jumping around the dressing to the tune by Spanish duo Baccara.Band singer Maria Mendiola revealed she wants to re-record the song with the Scotland team and Clarke said he’ll let someone else decide if it becomes the official Scotland song for the Euros.He added: “I haven’t even thought about it to be honest. We had the celebration and we had a good night after the game and since then I’ve been thinking about team selection for Slovakia.“Something like that can be one for the commercial department. It was a good tune and it was fitting for the boys to use that and we had a good night on the back of two or three good tunes, but I’ll let someone else deal with that.” – Advertisement – 
Kick off 2:00pm While the players may be turning their attention to Slovakia and the Nations League, Clarke understands the fans will still be rejoicing over Thursday night.The squad have seen the images from back home and he hopes the Tartan Army will be able to experience the Euros next summer, even if the format changes from 12 host cities.He said: “From the social media aspect and the fact that media is so readily available now, you get a good feel for how the nation is.“From what I can gather we definitely made them smile, made them happy, which is great. But we’re a long way away from it, which in a way is going to help me get them refocused on the two important games coming up.“Hopefully next summer we are in a better position in terms of controlling the virus and maybe getting on top of it and back to normal life.“But I think wherever it is we can get some spectators in, gets crowds in, get the atmosphere and get a feel of the full occasion that’s the most important thing.“If it’s going to be in one place and supporters can be there then I think that’s a step forward.” Craig Brown, the last person to lead Scotland’s men to a major tournament, thinks the current squad have the experience and quality to get out of the group at Euro 2020 and qualify for consecutive tournaments Scott McTominay cannot wait to face some of his club team-mates when Scotland meet England at next summer’s European Championships “It was a long night and physically and emotionally they were very tired, so they got to sleep. We enjoyed it, we should do after such a long wait.“But we trained this morning – it was a good training session – and we’re ready for the game on Sunday.“We’ve had a great run of results that’s put us in a strong position in the little group that we’re in. The players understand the importance of the next games.“We’re in the Euro 2020 because of the path that Alex McLeish and the players got us to in 2018 – it’s the path that led us to Euro 2020.“As a nation we understand that it’s a very important tournament for us – the Nations League. This next pathway from the Nations League could be to the World Cup in Qatar 2022 and that’s got to be the target as well.”Clarke hopes fans can attend Euro 2020 Scotland will be without the suspended Lyndon Dykes against Slovakia after he picked up a yellow card in their last Nations League game against the Czech Republic.Captain Andy Robertson is an injury doubt and Clarke said to expect a number of changes to his side after a gruelling 120 minutes and penalties on an emotional night in Belgrade.The former Kilmarnock manager said: “I’ve got one or two knocks and niggles. Andy Robertson would be the most doubtful out of the ones that have got a question mark over them for the game. We will give them another 24 hours and see how they are.“Yes, (we will make changes) but the celebrations have nothing to do with it. It was a good celebration, but wasn’t crazy – it wasn’t over the top. It was a physically draining game but emotionally it was a very draining game for the players.“I’ll give them another 24 hours and speak to three or four players who I’ve got a doubt about and hopefully come up with a selection that gets us another three points.“I’m sure there’s a few of them thinking they’ve earned a rest but until I finalise the team selection they’ll not know if they’re getting a rest or not.” 
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In 2016, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina praised the integrity of the nation’s elections system, criticizing claims by Donald J. Trump that the vote was “rigged.”“Like most Americans, I have confidence in our democracy and our election system,” Mr. Graham said in a statement on Twitter. “If he loses, it will not be because the system is ‘rigged’ but because he failed as a candidate.”- Advertisement – What a difference four years make.Mr. Graham, who has transformed during that time to become one of Mr. Trump’s most loyal allies, now seems determined to reverse the election’s outcome on the president’s behalf. On Friday, he phoned Brad Raffensperger, the secretary of state of Georgia and a fellow Republican, wondering about the possibility of a slight tinkering with the state’s elections outcome.What if, Mr. Graham suggested on the call, according to Mr. Raffensperger, he had the power to toss out all of the mail-in votes from counties with high rates of questionable signatures on ballots?
The Croatian National Tourist Board has launched a special promotional campaign focused on the promotion of health tourism as one of the key segments of the Croatian tourist offer.The campaign will run until December 6 in six markets: Germany, Austria, Slovenia, the United Kingdom, Italy and Switzerland. The focus is on display and print ads and on special online formats and social networks Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.”Health tourism is the fastest growing part of the tourism industry, growing at a rate of 15 to 20 percent annually, and the user of health tourism services spends 20 to 30 percent more than the average guest. In this segment, Croatia has an extremely strong resource base and rich tradition. It is a product that is not related to the sun and the sea and as such has a strong impact on the extension of the tourist year, both on the coast and on the continent. We are sure of the positive effects and results of this campaign, which will position the Croatian health tourism offer even more strongly on the international market.”, Said CNTB director Kristjan Staničić, adding that according to the TOMAS summer 2017 survey, at the moment 7 percent of tourists visit Croatia motivated by health reasons, while 7,6 percent come for wellness.The current health tourism campaign is market-oriented and identified as promising from the position of compatibility of demand and Croatian supply characteristics in the health tourism segment.TOMAS Health Tourism 2018This year, for the first time, the Croatian National Tourist Board, in cooperation with the Institute for Tourism, is conducting a survey “Attitudes and consumption of users of health tourism services in Croatia – TOMAS Health Tourism 2018.”In addition to comparing the characteristics between three different segments of health tourism demand (wellness, spa and medical), this research will also enable the comparison of health tourism demand characteristics with other segments of tourist demand in Croatia, and the research results will be presented early next year.RELATED NEWS:CNTB PRESENTS PORTAL ON HEALTH TOURISM
Refrigerator trucks parked outside hospital doors, overwhelmed undertakers, and talk about temporary burials in parks: America’s coronavirus epicenter of New York is grappling with how to deal with the dead.As the Big Apple’s death toll from COVID-19 soared to 3,485 Monday, images of bodies covered in sheets being transported on stretchers by health workers in protective suits are a common sight outside hospitals.The trucks are storing bodies that are accumulating too quickly for funeral directors to pick them up directly from hospitals. “If you don’t have the space… you need those trucks,” added Brewster, whose small business has been bombarded with requests for funeral services for COVID-19 patients over the past week. ‘Like 9/11’ Pat Marmo manages five funeral homes across the city.He is finding it difficult to cope with the stress generated by influx of bodies, particularly because he himself just lost a cousin and close friend to the pandemic.”The hospitals are pushing [us]. They want the people picked up [as quickly as possible] and the funeral homes don’t have the facilities to handle these bodies,” he told AFP.Marmo estimates that his homes are currently dealing with three times more bodies that normal and that burials will last well into next month.”It’s almost like 9/11, going on for days and days and days,” he said, referring to the worst terror strikes on US soil back on Sept. 11, 2001.Undertakers are so overcrowded that a city official raised the possibility Monday of carrying out temporary burials in a public park.”Trenches will be dug for 10 caskets in a line. It will be done in a dignified, orderly and temporary manner. But it will be tough for NYers to take,” tweeted Mark Levine, a Manhattan council representative.The comments caused quite a stir in America’s most populous city, which has already been transformed by the pandemic, including in Central Park where a field hospital is tending to virus patients. Apex of deaths? The mayor’s spokeswoman, Freddi Goldstein, stressed that the city government was not considering using local parks as cemeteries.But she added that Hart Island, where around one million New Yorkers are buried in mass graves, may be used “for temporary burials, if the need grows.”Mayor Bill de Blasio himself spoke of the possibility of temporary burials “to tide us over until the end of the crisis.”We are not at that point,” he told reporters, before refusing to give any more details.Governor Andrew Cuomo announced Monday that the number of deaths across New York state had flattened out since Saturday’s high, below 600 a day.He suggested the state may be at the peak of its pandemic, but extended stay-at-home measures until April 29, saying now was not the time to end social distancing.
Topics : On Monday morning, AFP saw nine bodies loaded into trucks outside Wyckoff Hospital in Brooklyn.Several undertakers interviewed by AFP said they were struggling to deal with New York state’s coronavirus death toll of more than 500 a day. Between Friday and Saturday, a high of 630 deaths were recorded.”The majority of funeral homes do not have refrigeration or [have] limited refrigeration,” said Ken Brewster, owner of Crowe’s Funeral Homes in Queens.
Germany will ban most large events until the end of October to prevent a new wave of coronavirus transmission, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday.Social distancing rules and masks will continue to be required in shops and public transport, Merkel said after a meeting with premiers of Germany’s 16 states.But schools are expected to return to normal operations after the summer holidays. “As long as there is no vaccine and no medicine available we must maintain basic measures to protect ourselves,” said Merkel.The ban on large events could affect shows such as the Frankfurt book fair, although Bavarian state premier Markus Soeder opened the door to exceptions, saying some states may “show flexibility while others take a stricter interpretation” on the issue.Organizers of the Frankfurt book fair, which draws around 300,000 visitors, had until now said they planned to go ahead.With new infection rates sharply down from highs in March and a death toll significantly lower than those of its neighbors, Germany became the first major EU country to begin easing virus restrictions about six weeks ago. Topics :
The government noted that rules to maintain a minimum distance of 1.5 meters as well as requirements to cover up noses and mouths in closed public spaces have helped in the fight against new transmissions.It is now counting on contact tracing — both through human trackers as well as through a new app — to ensure that any new infections are isolated. The government added that large-scale testing for the virus would be carried out in places with “groups of vulnerable people”.Merkel has repeatedly warned against complacency before a viable vaccine is found.Underlining the volatility of the situation, an outbreak in a slaughterhouse in western Germany’s Rheda-Wiedenbrueck region led 400 workers to test positive for the virus.And in one Berlin neighborhood, 370 families living in high-rise flats have been put under quarantine after 70 infections were detected.Putting “hundreds of families in quarantine is hard work, but it must be done,” said Merkel. “These outbreaks show us that the virus has not gone away,” she warned. 