Monthly Archives: August 2017

Automation will bring new jobs to India, and these are the skills needed to work with robots – Quartz

Posted: August 2, 2017 at 9:15 am

The rise of automation isnt all doom and gloom for Indian IT.

Even as traditional IT jobs, such as data entry and server maintenance, are expected to decline over the next five years, new-age jobs are emerging, according to a report by Simplilearn, a San Francisco- and Bengaluru-based online professional skilling platform. New career paths for Indias IT workforce will open up in digital domains such as big data, artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, and cybersecurity, the company said in a press release on Aug. 01. Simplilearn surveyed 7,000 IT professionals, and mined job portals such as LinkedIn and Naukri.com for its assessment.

Here are the roles that are likely to have the most vacancies in the next few years:

But just because there are tens of thousands of openings for a web services consultant doesnt necessarily make it the most lucrative option. For instance, big data architect openings are far fewer in number but pay much more, according to the report. While a web services consultant position offers a median salary of Rs9.27 lakh ($14,461) annually, a big data architect could rake in Rs20.67 lakh ($32,234).

With technology evolving fast, its become all the more important for techies to keep their skills up to date with short learning programmes, according to Kashyap Dalal, the chief business officer of Simplilearn.

It is more a cultural shift people will need to go through, he said. They need to get used to the fact that every year, theyll have to learn something. Everybody will need to make some time, and companies will need to facilitate it, too.

The urgency to re-skill or perish is especially striking people with mid-level experience: Nearly 57% of the 7,000 IT professionals looking to level up on Simplilearn had four to 10 years of work experience, the companys report said. Meanwhile, only 11% of those with under four years of experience were seeking the online courses. This could be because early-stage employees, i.e. fresh college graduates, often receive in-house training at their respective companies, Dalal suggested, so they dont have to seek out their own resources, unlike their more experienced counterparts.

Around 41% of those looking to skill up on Simplilearn were from Indias IT capital Bengaluru, which is home to the most tech professionals, Dalal said, besides startups and older IT establishments such as Infosys and Wipro. The Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR), which is now Indias hottest startup destination, followed with 25%.

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LDOs Bring High Efficiency and Low Noise Regulation to Industrial Automation – Electronic Design

Posted: at 9:15 am

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Designing a power-supply system for industrial automation equipment requires a thorough understanding of the surroundings and conditions that affect the functionality of the wide range of equipment involved. The most important design decision is whether to use linear power supplies or switch-mode power supplies (SMPS).

Today, SMPS are the most popular because of their high efficiency. However, they do have downsides that make linear supplies more desirable. Linear supplies also have their disadvantages, but often turn out to be the best choice for industrial use. Even better is a have your cake and eat it too solution: Use a linear supply with low-dropout (LDO) regulators.

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Linear vs. SMPS

As mentioned, the primary reason for using switch-mode supplies is their high efficiency. Typical figures vary with the application, but efficiencies of greater than 90% are typical. High efficiency translates into minimum power loss in the supply with its attendant low heat dissipation. In large complex industrial settings with lots of equipment efficiency, power usage and heat dissipation become critical factors in terms of operating costs.

The main disadvantage of the SMPS is its noise generation. High-frequency pulse-width-modulated (PWM) pulses are filtered to form the desired dc level, but the resulting ripple and radiated or conducted noise generated can negatively impact the powered equipment and nearby devices.

Linear supplies with linear regulators dont have the noise problem. Furthermore, ripple is greatly reduced by large capacitive filters and the feedback action of the regulator circuitry.

1. Often, a traditional linear IC regulator architecture will use a Darlington bipolar series pass transistor.

The big issue with these supplies, though, is that the efficiency is very poor (Fig. 1). A series pass transistor between the dc input voltage and the regulated dc output requires a minimum amount of voltage drop in order to maintain regulation. This voltage, called the dropout or headroom voltage, is usually a minimum of 1.5 to 2.5 V or more.

Since the output current passes through the pass transistor, this device will dissipate a significant amount of power, all of which shows up as heat. As the input or output voltages vary, the feedback senses the change and drives the pass transistor to adjust its conductance to compensate from any variation. This linear operation requires the minimum overhead be observed to maintain regulation. The overall benefit is no noise generation traded off for efficiency.

One way to get the benefits of low noise and good efficiency concurrently is to use a LDO regulator.

LDO Operation and Benefits

One definition of LDO is a regulator that operates with a series-pass-transistor voltage drop of less than 1 V. A dropout voltage of 1 V or more defines a conventional linear regulator.

A dropout of less than 1 V can be achieved with a PNP bipolar series pass transistor, but modern designs generally use a P-type MOSFET with very low dropout voltages of less than 100 mV (in addition to low on-resistance) (Fig. 2). When working with low supply voltages of 3.3 V or less, low dropout levels become a significant percentage of the output, so less is more.

2. Heres a typical IC LDO circuit with a P-type MOSFET pass transistor.

The regulation process is similar to other series regulators in that any output voltage change is sensed and the gate drive to the MOSFET is varied to correct for the variation.

Key benefits of an LDO include:

The LDO is often used to power processors and field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) that require the fast transient response. And theyre ideal for critical linear circuits like signal-conditioning amplifiers, oscillators, and PLL synthesizers. In industrial-automation applications, LDOs make good regulators for sensors, data converters, and wireless/communications/networking circuits.

The Current-Limiting Issue

Some applications put excessive stress on power supplies, especially in industrial automation. High temperature and high voltages are very common. Another potential problem is excessive current draw or a short circuit. Sudden high current flow will typically damage the regulator unless its compensated for. That problem can be handled by incorporating LDOs with internal overcurrent protection.

Two basic types of current limiting are used in LDOs: brick wall and foldback. In the brick-wall method, a current limit is set and if that limit is exceeded, the LDO abruptly shuts down. The regulator continues to supply current at the cutoff level, but the output voltage is no longer regulated. The output voltage becomes the product of the current-limit value and the load resistance. The series pass transistor will continue to dissipate power until the internal protection process of thermal shutdown turns off the device.

The foldback method of current limiting attempts to keep total power dissipation at a constant level. If overcurrent conditions occur, the circuitry reduces the output current and theres a decrease in output voltage (Fig. 3). This keeps the power dissipation within the capability of the device. After that, thermal protection kicks in if elevated temperature conditions persist.

3. Looking at a comparison of output voltage vs. load current, it shows that foldback reduces the output voltage as output current exceeds the limit of the device.

Different LDOs use different methods of current limiting, so you should choose one that fits your application. For example, Texas Instruments offers the TPS7A16 LDO with brick-wall current limiting and the TLV71P LDO with foldback current limiting. More details on current limiting can be found at this reference.

Thermal Issues

While LDOs are more efficient than standard linear regulators, they still dissipate power. Most LDOs also include thermal-shutdown circuitry, which turns off the device if the temperature exceeds the limitusually in the 150-170 range. In some applications, a heat sink may be needed.

In addition, careful attention should be given to the thermal conditions in the power supply. Besides the thermal specifications of the IC itself, you should consider other factors such as PCB design and component placement in regards to the interaction with other devices. The greater the copper area devoted to the LDO, the better the heat dissipation. Other factors to consider are ambient temperature and airflow ventilation.

You can learn more about thermal considerations from videos that shows you how to measure thermal properties and how to avoid damaging an LDO through thermal excess. This and other LDO videos are available from Texas Instruments.

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Q&A: Molly Harriss Olson on the importance of a Modern Slavery Act – Devex

Posted: at 9:15 am

Molly Harriss Olson, Fairtrade Australia and New Zealands chief executive officer. Photo by: Fairtrade Australia and New Zealand

MELBOURNE, Australia A total of 196 submissions have been received for an Australiangovernment inquiry for the implementation of a Modern Slavery Act, including from corporations, nonprofits, government staffers, researchers and others with an interest in ensuring Australian businesses act ethically to ensure there is no slavery in their supply chains.

On Tuesday in Melbourne, the inquiry began its public hearing component, withFairtrade Australia and New ZealandandOxfamamong the organizations requested to speak to the committee members and provide additional information on their submission.

Among those in attendance was Molly Harriss Olson, chief executive officer of Fairtrade Australia and New Zealand, who shared with Devex her predictions for what Australian businesses and the community should expect from the inquiry recommendations to be released later this year.

Here is the interview, edited for length and clarity.

What was the line of questioning you received from the committee?

We were asked a broad set of questions about why the Modern Slavery Act is important, what is the situation today, what is international best practice and the essential things that we can improve upon from the recently released United Kingdom act.

There were also a lot of questions asked about its impact on business.

We emphasized that the act needs to be strong to support the business leaders already out there, already doing great work, and pulling the leg of laggards to help them to comply with a higher standard and make sure human rights and dignity are provided to all people.

Slavery is a continuum of abuses, and starts with the weakest and most vulnerable. For businesses, slavery is always going to be cheaper than paying a modern, living wage and the prevailing approach has been dont ask, dont tell to maintain plausible deniability.

Australian businesses readying for action to combat modern slavery

For Australian businesses, addressing modern slavery within supply chains is no longer a question of why it should be done, but how. The message, however, is not filtering through to the top level of governments. A new Australian government inquiry into establishing a Modern Slavery Act in Australia is seeking business comment and it is an opportunity business groups are urging their members to be vocal on.

But there are a lot of leading companies that deeply understand the problems and challenges that exist in supply chains, and believe that because of the pressure and the way global commerce systems work, there is enormous competition and pressure.

Fairtade has a unique perspective to offer on the value of this kind of transparency in eliminating things like modern slavery.

For more than 30 years we have worked with businesses to make their supply chain transparent and understand it from farmer through to the company and the marketplace. We have visibility across supply chains that I dont believe many other global certification systems would have. And this is important knowledge to share in creating a Modern Slavery Act.

When you discuss the importance of Australia taking a strong leadership approach to slavery through a strong act, what are your key points to focus on?

I think it is important to point out that, in Australia, we are in a region where 56 per cent of the global 21 million people in slave labor conditions are based. Asia is the biggest place and problem for slave labor, which has been identified by the International Labour Organization.

Australian leadership, and Australian business leadership, is absolutely pivotal.

And we also have a situation where leadership companies are doing the right thing and they are forced to play against non-leadership and poorly run companies who are benefitting from poor practices that are ultimately causing the issues of slavery we are seeing in the world.

What we hope this will do, is in a straightforward and simple way, provide clarity and requirements for a level playing field.

Its really important the system have clear reporting to monitor companies and create a public register for community organizations to access and know which companies are doing the right thing, reporting in a transparent manner, and which are getting on top of these issues.

And it is extremely important to have an ombudsman or commissioner who is well resourced to respond to problems or issues, raise awareness and conduct monitoring and evaluation for the act to make a powerful impact.

We have more slavery in the world than we had hundreds of years ago when we were trying to abolish it.

From the business perspective, it is just good business practice to know what is going on in your supply chain. In the 50s, there was concern about safety being too costly for business. The same happened with quality and environmental protection. It turns out that companies which adhere to these kinds of standards are more profitable in the end because they understand their businesses better.

Were in an interesting place in Australia, and I hope this will build on the experience of the U.K. From them, we are already seeing what is working well and what Australia can improve on.

Do you or Fairtrade have concerns of political barriers, or politicians, that could create problems in implementing a Modern Slavery Act?

I think it would be extremely hard to stand up publicly and say Im for slavery. So far, we havent seen anyone coming out overtly in that way.

The concern is that it is very easy to water down something like this, and to make it ineffectual. There would be enormous pressure on anyone trying to reduce impact and effectiveness. Making it voluntary, making it unenforceable, not being clear on reporting requirements, not monitoring reporting are all ways the act could be watered down.

But we have more slavery in the world than we had hundreds of years ago when we were trying to abolish it and the short-term challenge of developing the frameworks for monitoring, evaluation and reporting will be a long-term be cost saving to companies there is nothing more costly than for your reputation to be absolutely destroyed.

The problem we have seen in the U.K. is that only about 30 percent of companies who are required to report have reported. For the ones that have reported, there is no clear, publicly-available site where organizations can look up reports.

We can learn from this, and do better in Australia.

Based on the lines of questioning and political statements so far on a Modern Slavery Act, what do you think we will see with recommendations from this inquiry?

There is a high expectation that there will be mandatory reporting and enforcement of that reporting. We expect there will be a very well-resourced commissioner, and the CEO and the board of businesses will be identified as responsible for their companys business practices.

We expect it to be strong. I think there are a lot of organizations across Australia supporting strong legislation, and we are hopeful it will be an effective piece of improvement for the world.

With Australia expected to get a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council, how important is it to have strong and leading legislation such as the Modern Slavery Act to Australias international reputation?

It is extremely important.

In the eyes of the international community, Australia has a number of issues that it has not dealt with well in regard to human rights. But this is not a trade-off I see it as something where Australian leadership can be pivotal in providing regional integrity but for Australia to have a seat, our consistency and integrity across the board needs to be present.

Even if we pass the best Modern Slavery Act in the world, we still have to address these other human rights issues.

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Work gives trafficking victims dignity – NEWS.com.au

Posted: at 9:15 am

Stacking shelves or working on a factory production line may seem like ordinary jobs to some, but for trafficking victims newly hired at British supermarket Co-op, just being paid a decent wage to work has been a life-changing experience.

"I have a new life now, a better one. I've got good managers, good colleagues, a very good working environment," said Victor, who was trafficked from Romania.

In the first employment program of its kind, Co-op and anti-trafficking charity CityHearts launched 'Bright Future' in March, and have plans to offer work to 30 trafficking victims this year. So far, nine men and women have accepted jobs at the supermarket's stores or warehouses.

Victor, who declined to give his full name or say how he had been trafficked and exploited, has worked at a factory with Co-op for five months.

"I love the UK, I would like to live and work here. I want to keep this job," he said in a telephone interview through an interpreter.

In Britain, there are an estimated 13,000 victims of forced labour, sexual exploitation and domestic servitude, most of them from Albania, Nigeria, Poland and Vietnam.

Nearly 46 million people are enslaved globally, according to the 2016 Global Slavery Index.

In 2015, Britain passed tough anti-slavery legislation introducing life sentences for traffickers and forcing companies to disclose what they are doing to ensure their supply chains are free from slavery.

Britain's Anti-Slavery Commissioner Kevin Hyland said more businesses should follow the supermarket's lead and offer "the dignity of work" to trafficking victims across the country.

"Good work opportunities give them dignity and allow them to be part of the community again. It prevents them from being re-trafficked, it prevents them from being homeless," said Hyland.

"If we don't improve the victims' support, it will hinder the whole fight against modern slavery."

Paul Gerrard, Co-op's policy and campaigns director, said British companies had a moral obligation to help victims and should go beyond what's legally required under the Modern Slavery Act.

"If we could offer these people work, it will allow them to reclaim their lives and that's the important thing," he added.

"... this should be about UK businesses stepping up and doing more to help victims of modern slavery."

CityHeart support worker Kirsty Hart said ordinary, paid work was transformative for many of the people she helped.

"It's just amazing to see the transformation of clients, before and after, and for them to take control of their lives. It's very powerful," she said.

This rings true for Janusz, who was trafficked from Poland but was given a job with the supermarket a month ago.

"My life has changed 100 per cent because the job gives me the prospect of a normal life in the UK," said Janusz, who did not want to give his full name or details of how he was trafficked.

"The job allows me to be independent. (It) offers me hope for the future."

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Peaceful abolitionists and the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 – Miami County Republic

Posted: at 9:12 am

The founders of Osawatomie were peaceful abolitionists who sought to ensure that Kansas would enter the Union as a free state by simply obeying the dictates of the law.

In the case of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, they sought to ensure that so many abolitionist settlers emigrated to Kansas Territory that they would be able to out vote the proslavery advocates and ensure that Kansas would enter the Union as a free state.

Kansas Territory was only the first western territory that their plan was to be tried in, for they planned to replicate this strategy and tactic in every territory of the West.

Why? The abolitionists who made up the New England Emigrant Aid Society and other abolitionist organizations understood that southern agriculture was based on the plantation system, which exhausted soil after a time, and planters simply moved west to find more fertile fields.

Southern plantation farmers had reached Missouri and the Mississippi, and on into Texas, and the abolitionist plan was to block the expansion of slavery where it stood, utilizing the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854s clause of Popular Sovereignty, or a vote of the citizens of new territories to determine the status of slavery in the new territories.

The abolitionists planned to flood the new territories of the West with abolitionist and free-soil settlers who would vote to make each territory of the West enter the Union as a free state and build a wall of free states in which slavery would not be legal.

The effect of erecting this legal wall against slavery would ensure that the southern plantation style of agriculture would become unprofitable, and the economic reason for owning slaves, to work on plantations, would become moot, and southerners would end slavery on their own as the profit would be lost in owning slaves.

This plan was actually quite legal, and the peaceful abolitionists forbade any violence against proslavery advocates save violence done in strict self-defense. The peaceful abolitionists were determined to be the law-abiding citizens in the political fray over slavery in Kansas Territory and in other territories of the West. They believed that they had an effective, moderate peaceful means of ensuring the abolition of slavery in the United States.

The New England Emigrant Aid Society was one of the abolitionist organizations that set out to implement this peaceful plan to abolish slavery and sent agents to Kansas Territory to establish abolitionist communities in Kansas Territory.

The first community that the New England Emigrant Aid Society founded in Kansas Territory was Lawrence. The second was Grasshopper Falls, now Valley Falls, and the third was Osawatomie.

The peaceful abolitionists carved these communities out of the Kansas wilderness to facilitate Kansas Territories entrance into the union as a free state in a peaceful manner, but alas, when proslavery extremists and extremist abolitionists settled in Kansas Territory, they had no intention of being peaceful, and any hope of a peaceful resolution of the slavery issue in Kansas and the nation was dashed during the Bleeding Kansas era of United States History.

Grady Atwater is site administrator of the John Brown Museum and State Historic Site.

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Grant to help support girls in STEM – UPMatters.com

Posted: at 9:11 am

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MICHIGAN -- The Michigan Organization on Adolescent Sexual Health (MOASH) has been awarded a two-year grant from the American Association of University Women (AAUW) for their project Michigan Youth (MY) Girls Say.

This project offers holistic programming to K-12 self-identified girls in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) to cultivate personal advocacy and resilience.

Gender based discrimination is pervasive in STEM academia and workforce. Without a foundation of personal empowerment, girls will abandon the STEM field. Taryn Gal, Managing Director at MOASH said STEM programming prepares students for success in many areas, but it does not prepare girls for a future in a field that is predominantly male. Research shows that it is not lack of interest, relevant education, or ability that accounts for a low percentage of women in STEM professions, but an adverse learning and working culture of sexual harassment, assault, and discrimination that girls are not prepared to navigate and challenge.

Participants in MY Girls Say will learn concrete skills, understand their rights, and recognize the strength in their whole selves to demand and achieve equitable treatment in a male-dominated STEM field.

Awarded early last month through the Community Action Grant from AAUW, MOASH has already begun its work connecting with committed project partners including AAUW of Michigan, Females Excelling More in Math Engineering and the Sciences (FEMMES), Phi Sigma Rho, Girl Scouts Heart of Michigan, Stop Sexual Assault in Schools, and a certified mindfulness and yoga instructor.

On July 16, MOASH coordinated its first MY Girls Say workshop about combating gender expectations and understanding TItle IX with an Ann Arbor Daisy Girl Scouts troop of girls 6-9 years old.

Throughout the next two years, MOASH will implement workshops on Title IX, spearhead self-advocacy training, and coordinate gender-embodiment yoga sessions.

Project partners will help ensure the development and widespread dispersal of effective materials to girls across Ann Arbor and other areas in Southeast Michigan. Components of MY Girls Say are youth-informed and/or youth-led.

Prior to MOASHs MY Girls Say program, there was no holistic approach to empowering girls in STEM to challenge future gender discrimination and few opportunities for girls in Michigan to receive Title IX education.

MY Girls Say has the potential to transform the way girls view their potential, their education, as well as their community. Those who wish to follow MOASHs progress on this project are directed to sign up for the MOASH e-newsletter and to like MOASHs Facebook page to stay informed.

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DAC camp ‘Can-Do’ all about learning, growing, exploring – The Exponent Telegram (press release) (registration)

Posted: at 9:11 am

Summer Camp is certainly something most everyone can relate to.

Close your eyes and go back to those days when you learned to make homemade ice cream, tie rope knots, and work together as a team. The Disability Action Centers Summer Camp is not much different from camps that we remember.

We start with those sometimes awkward ice breaker games, make crafts and personal mementos, and partake in lots of eating, lots and lots of eating! DACs Camp CAN-DO, while much like camps we remember and hold dear, is also different in many ways.

The Disability Action Center Camp CAN-DO is about learning, growing, exploring and proving that our campers CAN-DO Anything. We want to challenge campers to do new things, proving both to themselves and others that they are full of way more ability than they are disability. Camp CAN-DO is not only open to individuals with special needs, but also their siblings, family members and non-disabled peers. It is truly an inclusive camp, where everyone, regardless of age or ability level, feels at home, welcomed and valued. Camp CAN-DO strives to provide an atmosphere of inclusion, personal empowerment, mentoring opportunities, creative expression, as well as provide innovative opportunities for campers and their families.

The DACs Camp CAN-DO will be held July 24-28, at the Disability Action Center and include travel to other accessible locations as part of the camp theme The DAC is Going Places. Much emphasis for this years camp will be the use of assistive technology in recreation, outdoor activity and travel. The week-long camp will focus on acclimating campers to new recreational activities and expanding their horizons through unique travel experiences, especially those experiences previously deemed as unattainable. Field trips are planned throughout Marion County to learn about our local history and points of interest, including the Marion County Historical Society, Pufferbellys Ice Cream Station, WV Folklife Center and the Homestead Farm Center. Other travel-related activities include cooking around the world, creating a personal passport, and mapping out future travel goals!

Camp CAN-DO is open to individuals age 8 and up, which is a departure from the primarily adult-driven programs that the DAC offers during the school year. The camp may be a child or familys first experience with the DAC and lays the ground work for their orientation to the DAC and the wide range of programs that are offered and will be much needed once the child is out of school.

Camp CAN-DO is held each week day from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and is open to individuals of all ages with physical and intellectual challenges. Siblings, family members and community supporters also play an important role in the success and integration of the camps activities. For more information about Camp CAN-DO and other DAC programs, you can visit http://www.disabilityactioncenter.com or call the center at 304-366-3213.

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Are campaigns like ‘Real Beauty’ real empowerment? – Campaign US

Posted: at 9:11 am

When it comes to empowerment, everyone jumps straight to Dove. Few brands get remotely close to the impact that Doves "Real Beauty" campaign has had on culture, which fundamentally changed the way we view beauty and liberated women to feel comfortable in their own skin, stretch marks and all. It was such an important shift in our culture, acting as catalyst for a wave of female empowerment campaigns.

As I reflected on the well-deserved praise for the campaign, it got me wondering is liberation the same as empowerment? Is it enough to make someone "feel good" about themself if the goal is to motivate them to do something to improve their life? Or does it just make them settle? And does it make sense for all the other "female empowerment" brands to adopt the same strategy as Dove? Or are they just noise?

People often think of self-esteem and self-efficacy as the same sort of thing, but there is a big difference, particularly in terms of how empowered they leave someone feeling. Self-esteem reflects a persons subjective evaluation of their worth. Self-efficacy refers to the personal belief about ones ability to perform specific tasks or achieve specific outcomes. Put another way, self-esteem is belief about who you are, which can be somewhat fixed, whereas self-efficacy is a belief about what youre capable of.

Dove falls into the self-esteem camp, which was an extremely effective strategy, considering the beauty industrys history of tearing a womans confidence down and fueling the inner critic that lives within us. For decades, women were depicted by unrealistic images, which were devastating to the self-esteem of women everywhere. It was liberating and empowering when Dove turned this on its head and made the beauty industry the enemy. However, self-esteem is not always an effective strategy.

Carol Dweck, the Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology at Stanford University, is famous for her research on mindset. Dweck showed that person-praise, such as "youre so smart, talented, gifted, brilliant, beautiful," etc., while it helps someone feel good about themselves, leads to what she coined a Fixed Mindset. Someone with a Fixed Mindset is likely to avoid challenges, give up easily, see effort as fruitless or, worse, ignore negative feedback, be threatened by the success of others and as a result fail to reach their potential. This is not empowering.

Conversely, process-praise, which emphasizes the process someone went through to achieve an outcome, cultivates a Growth Mindset and builds self-efficacy, as it enables the person to learn and replicate their behavior. Someone with a Growth Mindset embraces challenges, persists in the face of setbacks, sees effort as a path to mastery, learns from criticism, finds lessons and inspiration from the success of others and as a result can reach ever-higher levels of achievement. This is real empowerment.

Michael Jordan is probably one of the best examples of Growth Mindset individuals on earth. He was cut from his high-school basketball team and saw it as a challenge to work harder and give them no choice but to put him on the team. He was known to be the first to arrive at training and the last to leave. Over the years, Nikes Air Jordan brand has more closely reflected the Growth Mindset of its namesake.

Initially, the advertising was like that of any other superstar brand. Its actually quite entertaining to watch the old advertising reel, featuring Jordan achieving the impossible. Flying through the air like some kind of superhuman, dunking on a 20-foot-high ring. He makes it look easy. Its pure, natural talent. The advertising is praising the person, Michael Jordan. Inspiring, but not that empowering for anyone hoping to follow in his footsteps.

Contrast this a recent campaign. The monologue from Jordan sums it up. "Ive missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. Ive lost almost 300 games. 26 times Ive been trusted to take the game-winning shotand missed. Ive failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

The later campaign praised the journey that led to his success, celebrating his failures as opportunities to learn and grow. It reinforced that anything was possible through hard work, and the importance of perseverance. It left aspiring basketball players feeling ready for the challenge. The brand went from sponsoring sporting legends to creating sporting legends.

Brands have a unique ability to shape the mindsets of the people they are created for. We need to use that power to make sure were doing more than just making people feel good about themselves. Lets help them believe in themselves. This is real empowerment.

Alison Earl is the Director of Strategy for Burns Group.

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Dabawenya writes a self-empowerment book | SunStar – Sun.Star

Posted: at 9:11 am

A DABAWENYA authors for the first time a self-empowerment book.

Joan Mae Soco-Bantayan, 33, who is a nurturer at Tuburan Institute and 2003 Mutya ng Dabaw, wrote the book Remember Who You Really Are: 12 questions to help you how. The book launch was held last Friday, July 21, at the Abreeza Mall Activity Center.

I have been longing to write a book that will help empower our fellow men and finally, Ive done it, Soco-Bantayan says that even when she longed to write a book, she did not plan to do it this year.

Interestingly, Lady Bam Petilos, a TV and personality and a friend whom I met in Ike Pono seminar, came up to me last January and told me that its time for me to write a book, she says. Lady Bam also told me that the idea to write a book is divinely guided. Inwardly, I felt that too and I knew I had to honor that.

The book, according to Soco-Bantayan, is a summation of the lessons she learned from seminars like Ike Pono facilitated by Bruce Conching and Mission Courage Workshop facilitated by Alternative Nobel Prize awardee Nicanor Perlas. It also discusses the personal questions that we can use as a compass so that we are able to cope with our lives better, Soco-Bantayan adds. Because of the busy-ness that weighs in our lives, we have forgotten to look deeper into ourselves and find that deep inside lies the fulfillment.

Soco-Bantayan adds that Remember Who You Really Are not only talks about personal desires that one can achieve, I am emphasizing the sense of duty along with gratitude to in the book. This is because we have to change our inner perspective first before we can help in the world.

During the book launch, various guests were treated to angel message oracle card reading and gave angel card readings and guidance to guests for free.

This book would not have been possible without the help of the angels, she shares.

The book comes with an angel message bookmarker created by Angeologist Princess Buendia.

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Dabawenya writes a self-empowerment book | SunStar - Sun.Star

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New website tracks press freedom violations in United States – Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

Posted: at 9:10 am

Press Release | August 2, 2017

Coalition of more than 20 organizations launches nonpartisan U.S. Press Freedom Tracker

The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker will help us demonstrate to courts, using data, the very real threats to newsgathering that were seeing," said Bruce Brown, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. "By cataloguing these incidents publicly and in real-time, we hope that policymakers and courts take notice and hold those who would attempt to infringe upon freedom of the press accountable."

Led by the Committee to Protect Journalists and Freedom of the Press Foundation, the website will serve as a central repository for data at a time when journalists in the U.S. are facing increased hostility. The Reporters Committee serves on the steering committee for the website.

In recent months, journalists have been charged with crimes while covering protests in Washington D.C. and North Dakota; stopped at the border and subjected to searches of their electronic devices; and physically assaulted, in one case by a congressional candidate. Data collected on the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker shows that 19 journalists have been arrested in the course of their work in 2017 and that at least 10 reporters are currently facing charges. In 2017 at least four journalists have been stopped at the border and 11 have faced physical attacks, according to the tracker. These numbers may increase as we receive new information.

The United States has some of the strongest legal protections for press freedom in the world and a robust and varied media landscape, but this cannot be taken for granted. Open hostility, threats of leak prosecutions, and arrests have created a precarious situation for journalists, said Alex Ellerbeck, senior research associate for the U.S. at the Committee to Protect Journalists and chair of the steering committee for the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. A full and honest accounting of challenges to press freedom in this country is sorely needed.

The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker collects data based on news reports and tips submitted by journalists, professional organizations, and press freedom organizations. The coalition behind the tracker will use the research in letters, legal briefs, and advocacy campaigns.

With the Trump administration ramping up its war on journalism, this initiative could not come at a more important time, said Trevor Timm, executive director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation. We hope it will be vital to highlighting the threats to press freedom in the U.S. and the important work journalists do to hold the government accountable.

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New website tracks press freedom violations in United States - Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

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