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suchagiantnerd · 4 years

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48 Books, 1 Year

I was just two books shy of my annual goal of 50! You can blame the combination of my adorable newborn, who refused to nap anywhere except on me, and Hallmark Christmas movie season, during which I abandon books for chaste kisses between 30-somethings who behave like tweens at places called the Mistletoe Inn (which are really in Almonte, Ontario).

Without further ado, as Zuma from Paw Patrol says, “Let’s dive in!”

1. Human Errors: A Panorama of Our Glitches, from Pointless Bones to Broken Genes / Nathan H. Lents

We have too many bones! We have to rely too much on our diet for survival! We suffer from too many cognitive biases! Reading about our design flaws was kind of interesting, but the best part of this book were the few pages toward the end about the possibility of alien life. Specifically this quote: "...some current estimates predict that the universe harbours around seventy-five million civilizations." WHAT?! This possibility more than anything else I've ever heard or read gives me a better idea of how infinite the universe really is.

2. The Fiery Cross / Diana Gabaldon

Compared to the first four books in the Outlander series, this fifth book is a real snooze. The characters are becoming more and more unlikeable. They're so self-centered and unaware of their privilege in the time and place they're living. Gabaldon's depictions of the Mohawk tribe and other First Nations characters (which I'm reading through her character's opinions of things) are pretty racist. The enslaved people at one character's plantation are also described as being well taken care of and I just.... can't. I think this is the end of my affair with Outlander.

3. Educated / Tara Westover

This memoir was a wild ride. Tara Westover grew up in a survivalist, ultra-religious family in rural Idaho. She didn’t go to school and was often mislead about the outside world by her father. She and her siblings were also routinely put in physical danger working in their father’s junkyard as their lives were “in god’s hands”, and when they were inevitably injured, they weren’t taken to the hospital or a doctor, but left to be treated by their healer mother. Thanks to her sheer intelligence and determination (and some support from her older brother), Tara goes to university and shares with us the culture shock of straddling two very different worlds. My non-fiction book club LOVED this read, we talked about it for a long, long time.

4. Imbolc: Rituals, Recipes and Lore for St. Brigid’s Day / Carl F. Neal

Continuing with my witchy education, I learned all about the first sabbat of the new year, Imbolc.

5. Super Sad True Love Story / Gary Shteyngart

This in-the-very-near-future dystopian novel got my heart racing during a few exciting moments, but overall, I couldn’t immerse myself fully because of the MISOGYNY. I think the author might not like women and the things women like (or the things he thinks they like?) In this near future, all the dudes are into finance or are media celeb wannabes, while all the women work in high-end retail. And onion-skin jeans are the new trend for women - they are essentially see-through. Gary….we don’t…want that? We don’t even want low-rise jeans to come back.

6. The Wanderers / Meg Howrey

Helen, Yoshi and Sergei are the three astronauts selected by a for-profit space exploration company to man the world’s first mission to Mars. But before they get the green light, they have to endure a 17-month simulation. In addition to getting insight into the simulation from all three astronauts via rotating narrators, we also hear from the astronauts’ family members and other employees monitoring the sim. At times tense, at times thoughtful, this book is an incisive read about what makes explorers willing to leave behind everything they love the most in the world.

7. Zone One / Colson Whitehead

The zombie apocalypse has already happened, and Mark is one of the survivors working to secure and clean up Zone One, an area of Manhattan. During his hours and hours of boring shifts populated by a few harrowing minutes here and there, the reader is privy to Mark’s memories of the apocalypse itself and how he eventually wound up on this work crew. Mark is a pretty likeable, yet average guy rather than the standard zombie genre heroes, and as a result, his experiences also feel like a more plausible reality than those of the genre.

8. Homegoing / Yaa Gyasi

One of my favourite reads of the year, this novel is the definition of “sweeping epic”. The story starts off with two half-sisters (who don’t even know about each other’s existence) living in 18th-century Ghana. One sister marries a white man and stays in Ghana, living a life of privilege, while the other is sold into slavery and taken to America on a slave ship. This gigantic split in the family tree kicks off two parallel and vastly different narratives spanning EIGHT generations, ending with two 20-somethings in the present day. I remain in awe of Gyasi’s talent, and was enthralled throughout the entire book.

9. Sweetbitter / Stephanie Danler

Tess moves to New York City right out of school (and seemingly has no ties to her previous life - this bothered me, I wanted to know more about her past) and immediately lands a job at a beloved (though a little tired) fancy restaurant. Seemingly loosely based on Danler’s own experiences as a server, I got a real feel for the insular, incestuous, chaotic life in “the industry”. Tess navigates tensions between the kitchen and the front of house, falls for the resident bad-boy bartender, and positions herself as the mentee of the older and more glamorous head server, who may not be everything she seems. This is a juicy coming-of-age novel.

10. The Autobiography of Gucci Mane / Gucci Mane and Neil Martinez-Belkin

Gucci Mane is one of Atlanta’s hottest musicians, having helped bring trap music to the mainstream. I’d never heard of him until I read this book because I’m white and old! But not knowing him didn’t make this read any less interesting. In between wild facts (if you don’t get your music into the Atlanta strip clubs, your music isn’t making it out of Atlanta) and wilder escapades (Gucci holing himself up in his studio, armed to the teeth, in a fit of paranoia one night) Gucci Mane paints on honest picture of a determined, talented artist fighting to break free of a cycle of systemic racism and poverty.

11. I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer / Michelle McNamara

McNamara was a journalist and true crime enthusiast who took it upon herself to try and solve the mystery of the Golden State Killer’s identity. Amazingly, her interest in this case also sparked other people’s interest in looking back at it, eventually leading to the arrest of the killer (though tragically, McNamara died a few months before the arrest and would never know how her obsession helped to capture him). This is a modern true crime classic and a riveting read.

12. A Great Reckoning / Louise Penny

The 12th novel in Penny’s Inspector Gamache mystery series sees our hero starting a new job teaching cadets at Quebec’s police academy. Of course, someone is murdered, and Gamache and his team work to dig the rot out of the institution, uncovering a killer in the process.

13. Any Man / Amber Tamblyn

Yes, this novel is by THAT Amber Tamblyn, star of “The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants”! Anyway, this book is a tad bit darker, and follows five men who’ve been victimized by the female serial rapist, who calls herself Maude. Going into this read I though that it might be some sort of revenge fantasy, but dudes, not to worry - we really feel awful for the male victims and see them in all their complexity. Perhaps, if more men read this book, they might better understand the trauma female and non-binary victims go through? That would require men to read books by women though. Guys? GUYS???

14. Ostara: Rituals, Recipes and Lore for the Spring Equinox / Kerri Connor

Yet another witchy read providing more information about this Spring sabbat.

15. Scarborough / Catherine Hernandez

This novel takes place in OUR Scarborough! Following the lives of a number of residents (adults and children alike), the plot centres around the families attending an Ontario Early Years program as well as the program facilitator. Hernandez looks at the ways poverty, mental illness, addiction, race, and homophobia intersect within this very multicultural neighbourhood. It’s very sad, but there are also many sweet and caring moments between the children and within each of the families.

16. The Glitch / Elisabeth Cohen

Shelley Stone (kind of a fictional Sheryl Sandberg type) is the CEO of Conch, a successful Silicon Valley company. Like many of these over-the-top real-life tech execs, Shelley has a wild schedule full of business meetings, exercise, networking and parenting, leaving her almost no time to rest. While on an overseas business trip, she meets a younger woman also named Shelley Stone, who may or may not be her younger self. Is Shelley losing it? This is a dark comedy poking fun at tech start-up culture and the lie that we can have it all.

17. The Thirteenth Tale / Diane Setterfield

This is my kind of book! A young and inexperienced bookworm is handpicked to write the biography of an aging famous author, Vida Wynter. Summoned to her sprawling country home around Christmastime, the biographer is absolutely enthralled by Vida’s tales of a crumbling gothic estate and an eccentric family left too long to their own whims. Looking for a dark, twisty fairytale? This read’s for you.

18. Love & Misadventure / Lang Leav

Leav’s book of poems looked appealing, but for me, her collection fell short. I felt like I was reading a teenager’s poetry notebook (which I’m not criticizing, I love that teen girls write poetry, and surprise, surprise - so did I - but I’m too old for this kind of writing now).

19. Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows / Balli Kaur Jaswal

Hooo boy, my book club loved this one! Hoping to get a job more aligned with her literary interests, Nikki, the 20-something daughter of Indian immigrants to Britain, takes a job teaching writing at the community centre in London’s biggest Punjabi neighbourhood. The students are all older Punjabi women who don’t have much to do and because of their “widow” status have been somewhat sidelined within their community. Without anyone around to censor or judge them, the widows start sharing their own erotic fantasies with each other, each tale wilder than the last. As Nikki gets to know them better, she gains some direction in life and starts a romance of her own. (It should be noted that in addition to this lovely plot, there is a sub plot revolving around a possible honour killing in the community. For me, the juxtaposition of these two plots was odd, but not odd enough that it ruined the book.)

20. Beltane: Rituals, Recipes and Lore for May Day / Melanie Marquis

Beltane marks the start of the summer season in the witches’ year, and I learned all about how to ring it in, WITCH STYLE.

21. Summer of Salt / Katrina Leno

This book is essentially Practical Magic for teens, with a queer protagonist. All that to say, it’s enjoyable and sweet and a win for #RepresentationMatters, but it wasn’t a surprising or fresh story.

22. Too Like the Lightning / Ada Palmer

This is the first in the Terra Ignota quartet of novels, which is (I think) speculative fiction with maybe a touch of fantasy and a touch of sci-fi and a touch of theology and certainly a lot of philosophical ruminating too. I both really enjoyed it and felt so stupid while reading it. As a lifelong bookworm who doesn’t shy away from difficult reads, I almost never feel stupid while reading, but this book got me. The world building is next level and as soon as you think you’ve found your footing, Palmer pulls the rug out from under you and you’re left both stunned and excited about her latest plot twist. Interested in finding out what a future society grouped into ‘nations’ by interests and passions (instead of geographical borders and ethnicity) might be like? Palmer takes a hearty stab at it here.

23. The Trauma Cleaner: One Woman’s Extraordinary Life in the Business of Death, Decay and Disaster / Sarah Krasnostein

When Sarah Krasnostein met Sandra Pankhurst, she knew she had to write her biography (or something like it - this book is part biography, part love letter, part reckoning). And rightly so, as Sandra has led quite a life. She grew up ostracized within her own home by her immediate family, married and had children very young, came out as a trans woman and begin living as her authentic self (but abandoning her own young family in the process), took to sex work and lived through a vicious assault, married again, and started up her own successful company cleaning uncleanable spaces - the apartments of hoarders, the houses of recluses, the condos in which people ended their own lives. Sandra is the definition of resilience, but all her traumas (both the things people have done to her and the things she’s done to others) have left their mark, as Krasnostein discovers as she delicately probes the recesses of Sandra’s brain.

24. Becoming / Michelle Obama

My favourite things about any memoir from an ultra-famous person are the random facts that surprise you along the way. In this book, it was learning that all American presidents travel with a supply of their blood type in the event of an assassination attempt. I mean OF COURSE they would, but that had never occurred to me. I also appreciated Michelle opening up about her fertility struggles, the difficult decision to put her career on hold to support Barack’s dreams, and the challenge of living in the spotlight with two young children that you hope to keep down to earth. Overall, I think Michelle was as candid as someone in her position can be at this point in her life.

25 and 26. Seven Surrenders, The Will to Battle / Ada Palmer

I decided to challenge myself and stick with Palmer’s challenging Terra Ignota series, also reading the second and third instalments (I think the fourth is due to be released this year). I don’t know what to say, other than the world-building continues to be incredible and this futuristic society is on the bring of something entirely new.

27. Even Vampires Get the Blues / Kate MacAlister

This novel wins for “cheesiest read of the year”. When a gorgeous half-elf detective (you read that right) meets a centuries-old sexy Scottish vampire, sparks fly! Oh yeah, and they’re looking for some ancient thing in between having sex.

28. A Case of Exploding Mangoes / Mohammed Hanif

A piece of historical fiction based on the real-life suspicious plane crash in 1988 that killed many of Pakistan’s top military brass, this novel lays out many possible culprits (including a crow that ate too many mangoes). It’s a dark comedy taking aim at the paranoia of dictators and the boredom and bureaucracy of the military (and Bin Laden makes a cameo at a party).

29. Salvage the Bones / Jesmyn Ward

This novel takes place in the steaming hot days before Hurricane Katrina hits the Mississippi coast. The air is still and stifling and Esch’s life in the small town of Bois Sauvage feels even more stifled. Esch is 14 and pregnant and hasn’t told anyone yet. Her father is a heavy drinker and her three brothers are busy with their own problems. But as the storm approaches, the family circles around each other in preparation for the storm. This is a jarring and moving read made more visceral by the fact that the author herself survived Katrina. It’s also an occasionally violent book, and there are particularly long passages about dog-fighting (a hobby of one of the brothers). The dog lovers in my book club found it hard to get through, consider this your warning!

30. Everything’s Trash, But It’s Okay / Phoebe Robinson

A collection of essays in the new style aka writing multiple pages on a topic as though you were texting your best friend about it (#ImFineWithThisNewStyleByTheWay #Accessible), Robinson discusses love, friendship, being a Black woman in Hollywood, being plus-ish-size in Hollywood, and Julia Roberts teaching her how to swim (and guys, Julia IS as nice in real life as we’d all hoped she was!) Who is Robinson? Comedy fans will likely know her already, but I only knew her as one of the stars of the Netflix film Ibiza (which I enjoyed). This is a fun, easy read!

31. Midsummer: Rituals, Recipes and Lore for Litha / Deborah Blake

After reading this book, I charged my crystals under the midsummer sun!

32. Fingersmith / Sarah Waters

So many twists! So many turns! So many hidden motives and long-held secrets! Think Oliver Twist meets Parasite meets Lost! (Full disclosure, I haven’t seen Parasite yet, I’m just going off all the chatter about it). Sue is a con artist orphan in old-timey London. When the mysterious “Gentleman” arrives at her makeshift family’s flat with a proposal for the con of all cons, Sue is quickly thrust into a role as the servant for another young woman, Maud, living alone with her eccentric uncle in a country estate. As Sue settles into her act, the lines between what she’s pretending at and what she’s really feeling start to blur, and nothing is quite what it seems. This book is JUICY!

33. Rest Play Grow: Making Sense of Preschoolers (Or Anyone Who Acts Like One) / Deborah MacNamara, PhD

I read approximately one parenting book a year, and this was this year’s winner. As my eldest approached her third birthday, we started seeing bigger and bigger emotions and I wasn’t sure how to handle them respectfully and gently. This book gave me a general roadmap for acknowledging her feelings, sitting through them with her, and the concept of “collecting” your child to prevent tantrums from happening or to help calm them down afterward. I’ll be using this approach for the next few years!

34. Lughnasadh: Rituals, Recipes and Lore for Lammas / Melanie Marquis

And with this read, I’ve now read about the entire witch’s year. SO MOTE IT BE.

35. In Cold Blood / Truman Capote

How had I not read this until now? This true-crime account that kicked off the modern genre was rich in detail, compassionate to the victims, and dug deep into the psyche of the killers. The descriptions of the midwest countryside and the changing seasons also reminded me of Keith Morrison’s voiceovers on Dateline. Is Capote his inspiration?

36. I’m Afraid of Men / Vivek Shraya

A quick, short set of musings from trans musician and writer Shraya still packs an emotional punch. She writes about love and loss, toxic masculinity, breaking free of gender norms, and what it’s like to exist as a trans woman.

37. The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You / Elaine N. Aron, PhD

Having long thought I might be a highly sensitive person (lots of us are!), I decided to learn more about how to better cope with stressful situations when I don’t have enough alone time or when things are too loud or when I get rattled by having too much to do any of the other myriad things that shift me into panic mode. Though some of the advice is a bit too new-agey for me (talking to your inner child, etc), some of it was practical and useful.

38. Swamplandia! / Karen Russell

The family-run alligator wrestling theme park, Swamplandia, is swimming in debt and about to close. The widowed father leaves the everglades for the mainland in a last-ditch attempt to drum up some money, leaving the three children to fend for themselves. A dark coming-of-age tale that blends magic realism, a ghost story, the absurd and a dangerous boat trip to the centre of the swamplands, this novel examines a fractured family mourning its matriarch in different ways.

39. A Mind Spread Out on the Ground / Alicia Elliott

This is a beautiful collection of personal essays brimming with vulnerability, passion, and fury. Elliott, the daughter of a Haudenosaunee father and a white mother, shares her experiences growing up poor in a family struggling with mental illness, addiction and racism. Topics touch on food scarcity, a never-ending battle with lice, parenthood and the importance of hearing from traditionally marginalized voices in literature.

40. Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay / Elena Ferrante

The third novel in Ferrante’s Neapolitan quartet sees Elena and Lila move from their early twenties into their thirties and deal with a riot of issues - growing careers, changing political beliefs, the challenges of motherhood and romantic relationships, and existing as strong-willed, intelligent women in 1960s and 70s Italy. I’ll definitely finish the series soon.

41. Half-Blood Blues / Esi Edugyan

A small group of American and German jazz musicians working on a record find themselves holed up in Paris as the Germans begin their occupation in WW2. Hiero, the youngest and most talented member of the group, goes out one morning for milk and is arrested by the Germans, never to be heard from again. Fifty years later, the surviving members of the band go to Berlin for the opening night of a documentary about the jazz scene from that era, and soon find themselves on a road trip through the European countryside to find out what really became of Hiero all those years ago. Edugyan’s novel is a piercing examination of jealousy, ambition, friendship, race and guilt. And features a cameo by Louis Armstrong!

42. A Serial Killer’s Daughter: My Story of Faith, Love and Overcoming / Kerri Rawson

So Brad and I had just finished watching season 2 of Mindhunter, and as I browse through a neighbourhood little library, I spot this book and the serial killer in question is the BTK Killer! Naturally, I had to read it. What I didn’t realize is that this is actually a Christian book, so Rawson does write a lot about struggling with her belief in God and finding her way back to Him, etc. But there are also chapters more fitting with the true crime and memoir genres that I equally enjoyed and was creeped out by.

43. The Night Ocean / Paul La Farge

This is another book that made me feel somewhat stupid as a reader. I just know there are details or tidbits that completely went over my head that would likely enrich a better reader’s experience. In broad strokes, the novel is about a failed marriage between a psychiatrist and a writer who became dangerously obsessed with H.P. Lovecraft and the rumours that swirled around him and his social circle. The writer’s obsession takes him away from his marriage and everything else, and eventually it looks like he ends his own life. The psychiatrist is doubtful (no body was found) and she starts to follow him down the same rabbit hole. At times tense, at times funny, at times sad, I enjoyed the supposed world of Lovecraft and his fans and peers, but again, I’m sure there are deeper musings here that I couldn’t reach.

44. Glass Houses / Louise Penny

The 13th novel in Penny’s Inspector Gamache mystery series sees our hero taking big risks to fight the opioid crisis in Quebec. He and his team focus on catching the big crime boss smuggling drugs across the border from Vermont, endangering his beloved town of Three Pines in the process.

45. The Bone Houses / Emily Lloyd-Jones

My Halloween read for the year, this dark fairytale of a YA novel was perfect for the season. Since her parents died, Ryn has taken over the family business - grave digging - to support herself and her siblings. As the gravedigger, she knows better than most that due to an old curse, the dead in the forest surrounding her village don’t always stay dead. But as more of the forest dead start appearing (and acting more violently than usual), Ryn and an unexpected companion (yes, a charming young man cause there’s got to be a romance!) travel to the heart of the forest to put a stop to the curse once and for all.

46. The Witches Are Coming / Lindy West

Another blazing hot set of essays from my favourite funny feminist take on Trump, abortion rights, #MeToo, and more importantly Adam Sandler and Dateline. As always, Lindy, please be my best friend?

47. Know My Name / Chanel Miller

This memoir is HEAVY but so, so needed. Recently, Chanel Miller decided to come forward publicly and share that she was the victim of Brock Turner’s sexual assault. She got the courage to do so after she posted her blistering and beautiful victim impact statement on social media and it went viral. Miller’s memoir is a must-read, highlighting the incredible and awful lengths victims have to go to to see any modicum of justice brought against their attackers. Miller dealt with professional ineptitude from police and legal professionals, victim-blaming, victim-shaming, depression and anxiety, the inability to hold down a job, and still managed to come out the other side of this trial intact. And in the midst of all the horror, she writes beautifully about her support system - her family, boyfriend and friends - and about the millions of strangers around the world who saw themselves in her experience.

48. Christmas Ghost Stories: A Collection of Winter Tales / Mark Onspaugh

Ghosts AND Christmas? Yes please! This quirky collection features a wide array of festively spooky tales. You want the ghost of Anne Boleyn trapped in a Christmas ornament? You got it! What about the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future drinking together in a bar? Yup, that’s here too!

So, what were my top picks of the year, the books that stuck with me the most? In no particular order:

Educated

Homegoing

The Wanderers

Know My Name

Scarborough

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riichardwilson · 4 years

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9 Ways to Turn Human Resources Into a Profit Driver

September 1, 2020 8 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

If you think human resources (HR) is your highest sunk cost, you’re right. If you think HR is your biggest profit driver, you’re also right. What gives?

You get out of HR what you put into it. And it isn’t just about budgets and staffing and benefits, either (i.e., sunk costs).

In the simplest terms, company performance is directly related to how well HR empowers employees to do their best work every day, week and year. In the absence of schools and colleges teaching essential life skills (career, financial and business management, communication and resilience, for starters) and a government unwilling or unable to fund continuing education, corporations are the provider of last resort, given their inevitable, insatiable talent needs.

But beyond platitudes, suffice it to say that HR is like the Cinderella of corporate departments. Everyone knows it has great potential, but nobody wants to invest the time and money to make it genuinely stellar.

Related: 10 Ways to Rebuild HR to Support Fast Growth and Happy Employees

Most founders are either top salespeople, product people, finance or marketing agency people, but seldom HR people. The vast majority have never built HR departments from the ground up. Most still take the “bodies in seats” approach for talent acquisition, throw money at software instead of coaching, cut costs, skimp on quality benefits and think annual reviews are effective performance management. Like in a daydream, founders expect the sheer mission of changing the world (with some ramen noodles and free coffee tossed in) to sustain their young employees through 80-hour weeks, low pay and worthless equity. Call me back in six months when they’ve left you, dear CEO.

People are the lifeblood of any business. Fail to take care of them and they’ll fail to take care of your company. Even so-called enlightened founders and CEOs know treating their people well is critical, generally resigned to paying through the nose for it, and expect little to no ROI — big mistake.

First of all, you can’t change what you don’t measure. Benefit costs are straight forward. But these values are less easily quantified

Employee lifetime value

Aggregate costs of employee turnover

Attrition rates on teams with toxic managers

Low productivity and disengaged employees

Employee absenteeism and impaired work performance

Real total compensation costs

Poor internal communication

In the pursuit of more sales and product features, marketing agency campaigns and merely making the proverbial trains run on time, HR is an afterthought — and often the last key hire, long past the time of critical need.

Before working in HR, I worked in finance and operations at one startup and in product at another. I saw that, without connecting your HR, benefits and hiring plan to finances, companies either quickly overspend, endangering runway, or remain too conservative in hiring and talent development and miss out on critical growth opportunities.

Related: Planning for Organizational Change: HR Strategies to Help Your Business Navigate the New ‘Normal’

Empowered HR function as a profit driver. It won’t be easy to shred legacy thinking as agile, business-savvy, analytics-driven HR is still a relatively recent invention. Yet, once you realize the inherent value of HR that empower employees to be healthy, covered by great insurance, given the tools for physical and mental wellness, trained and engaged, productive and doing their life’s best work now and for your company, rather than later and for someone else, it will suddenly click.

Here are nine ways that HR can finally its rightful place in the sun and at the C-suite table, driving profitability.

Related: Millennials and Upskilling: The Changing Role of HR

1. Link your hiring plan, benefit costs and related outlays to your financial model

Linking these HR responsibilities helps you make quick hiring decisions based on your runway, cashflows and predictive analytics. If you haven’t made one already, make creating a financial model a top priority. This will save you many hundreds of thousands of dollars on over-hiring and future layoffs, as well as allow you to hire quickly to take advantage of market opportunities.

2. Drive digital transformation organically in concert with IT

Start prioritizing digital by improving internal communication: the number of channels, open and anonymous, as well as cadence, centralization and connection of different apps through APIs. Remote work has accelerated this process for many companies, with HR at the forefront of implementation and communication. The results are faster and more efficient business processes, more productive and engaged employees and more cash flow left for growth.

3. Ensure mental health awareness and care for employees

Help your employees maintain good mental health through regular check-ins, employee surveys and early interventions. Remote work brings strong teams closer together but drives weaker teams farther apart. You can’t fake genuine concern and care for employees in 2020. Burnout is real, with significantly longer hours despite or caused by a lack of commutes.

Related: How HR Can Support Businesses Amid Coronavirus Uncertainty?

If you can’t save an employee from burning out, odds are they’ll quickly leave and find another remote job where they do feel supported. There goes 150 percent of their salary — plus the hidden costs of turnover.

4. Survey employee engagement anonymously

Find out how employees feel about everything from office paint color and food in the stocked kitchen to conflicts with managers, feedback about trainings and needs for personal and professional development, among other topics. Instead of guessing or hoping employees will react with higher engagement and productivity, hear it from the employees themselves and act quickly to get them what they need.

5. Have HR post internal projects so the entire company can see

Transparency helps companies take advantage of internal resources and limits hiring from outside, which is usually riskier and always more expensive.

6. Empower HR to run trainings

Let HR host internal hackathons, learning and development trainings and lunch-and-learns, as well as have them help employees start side projects, which can lead to breakthrough products and new service and revenue lines. Google and other corporations have employed this approach, leading to massively profitable creations such as Gmail, Google Maps, Twitter, Slack and Groupon.

7. Create internal mobility programs

These can include rotational programs, secondments from other firms and cross-functional roles that straddle departments. These programs lead to a more agile exchange of ideas, better talent alignment with projects, higher engagement and longer average tenure.

8. Create an internal gig economy

Hire for talent and demonstrated potential as well as fit — not skills alone. Then create flexible roles to let the best talent get staffed to the right teams and projects, creating a virtuous cycle of high engagement and productivity, increased exchanges of ideas, higher profitability and a better employee brand to attract more top talent.

9. Let HR run regular offsites

Offsites introduce people from different departments to each other and each other’s work, show them how what they do rolls up to the bigger mission and reiterate the company’s vision. This un-siloing process helps people feel more connected to a higher purpose and mission and increases engagement, productivity and tenure.

Related: How The COVID-19 Crisis Has Made HR One of the Most Important Jobs Today

Notice how perks didn’t make this list? That’s because they don’t move the needle.

Agile hiring (and firing) tied to your finances, stacked on top of an empowered (and unleashed) HR that’s always human-first and advocates for employees consistently will help you build a top employer brand, a raving mob of employee fans and ambassadors. It will also attract more top talent, leading to more great products and services and attracting even more talented people to join the rocket ship.

HR itself is changing by leaps and bounds from the staid fortress of compliance and the status quo. With more top talent joining HR from other disciplines, there is a prevalence of empirical, analytical decision making, systems and human-centered design thinking and best practices from different functions and departments.

The biggest change-makers and tools are often much cheaper than you expect, or free. Great benefits can be had for less through a professional employer organization or vendor-agnostic broker. Employee engagement surveying and internal communication, the drivers of employee-driven change, can be done for free or with no added cost to existing tools. HR can coach and train employees on a host of skills and subjects, resolve conflicts, drive better decision-making and clarify career pathways, among other things, without the need for costly software.

If you’re guilty of seeing HR as a vestigial organ, take another look. Should you fail to appreciate or make the most of their true value to your company, you will have lost your biggest ally and a lightning rod for change.

Now let Cinderella collect her glass slippers.

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source http://www.scpie.org/9-ways-to-turn-human-resources-into-a-profit-driver/ source https://scpie.tumblr.com/post/628140897078493184

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scpie · 4 years

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9 Ways to Turn Human Resources Into a Profit Driver

September 1, 2020 8 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

If you think human resources (HR) is your highest sunk cost, you’re right. If you think HR is your biggest profit driver, you’re also right. What gives?

You get out of HR what you put into it. And it isn’t just about budgets and staffing and benefits, either (i.e., sunk costs).

Related: 10 Ways to Rebuild HR to Support Fast Growth and Happy Employees

First of all, you can’t change what you don’t measure. Benefit costs are straight forward. But these values are less easily quantified

Employee lifetime value

Aggregate costs of employee turnover

Attrition rates on teams with toxic managers

Low productivity and disengaged employees

Employee absenteeism and impaired work performance

Real total compensation costs

Poor internal communication

Related: Planning for Organizational Change: HR Strategies to Help Your Business Navigate the New ‘Normal’

Here are nine ways that HR can finally its rightful place in the sun and at the C-suite table, driving profitability.

Related: Millennials and Upskilling: The Changing Role of HR

1. Link your hiring plan, benefit costs and related outlays to your financial model

2. Drive digital transformation organically in concert with IT

3. Ensure mental health awareness and care for employees

Related: How HR Can Support Businesses Amid Coronavirus Uncertainty?

4. Survey employee engagement anonymously

5. Have HR post internal projects so the entire company can see

Transparency helps companies take advantage of internal resources and limits hiring from outside, which is usually riskier and always more expensive.

6. Empower HR to run trainings

7. Create internal mobility programs

8. Create an internal gig economy

9. Let HR run regular offsites

Related: How The COVID-19 Crisis Has Made HR One of the Most Important Jobs Today

Notice how perks didn’t make this list? That’s because they don’t move the needle.

Now let Cinderella collect her glass slippers.

Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co

Delray Beach SEO

source http://www.scpie.org/9-ways-to-turn-human-resources-into-a-profit-driver/

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laurelkrugerr · 4 years

Text

9 Ways to Turn Human Resources Into a Profit Driver

September 1, 2020 8 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

If you think human resources (HR) is your highest sunk cost, you’re right. If you think HR is your biggest profit driver, you’re also right. What gives?

You get out of HR what you put into it. And it isn’t just about budgets and staffing and benefits, either (i.e., sunk costs).

Related: 10 Ways to Rebuild HR to Support Fast Growth and Happy Employees

First of all, you can’t change what you don’t measure. Benefit costs are straight forward. But these values are less easily quantified

Employee lifetime value

Aggregate costs of employee turnover

Attrition rates on teams with toxic managers

Low productivity and disengaged employees

Employee absenteeism and impaired work performance

Real total compensation costs

Poor internal communication

Related: Planning for Organizational Change: HR Strategies to Help Your Business Navigate the New ‘Normal’

Here are nine ways that HR can finally its rightful place in the sun and at the C-suite table, driving profitability.

Related: Millennials and Upskilling: The Changing Role of HR

1. Link your hiring plan, benefit costs and related outlays to your financial model

2. Drive digital transformation organically in concert with IT

3. Ensure mental health awareness and care for employees

Related: How HR Can Support Businesses Amid Coronavirus Uncertainty?

4. Survey employee engagement anonymously

5. Have HR post internal projects so the entire company can see

Transparency helps companies take advantage of internal resources and limits hiring from outside, which is usually riskier and always more expensive.

6. Empower HR to run trainings

7. Create internal mobility programs

8. Create an internal gig economy

9. Let HR run regular offsites

Related: How The COVID-19 Crisis Has Made HR One of the Most Important Jobs Today

Notice how perks didn’t make this list? That’s because they don’t move the needle.

Now let Cinderella collect her glass slippers.

Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co

Delray Beach SEO

source http://www.scpie.org/9-ways-to-turn-human-resources-into-a-profit-driver/ source https://scpie1.blogspot.com/2020/09/9-ways-to-turn-human-resources-into.html

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magickalmenagerie · 7 years

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We are in the midst of an amazing astrological time, and that is why we wanted to release a bulletin for you – make the most of this beautiful time period! The powerhouse of Mars is going to supercharge this time period for everyone, and as we are in the shadow period of Uranus before the retrograde, we will find that some of our most ancient problems, concerns, anxieties, and traumas are being reawakened within us. Toxins that are years or even decades old are attempting to make a powerful appearance now, and it is important that we take time out to deal with them.

What is upsetting you right now? What has you concerned, angry, or worried? Don’t look at the surface of that problem, but look at old memories, experiences, habits, and traumas that may have magnified that for you. Now is the time to reprogram your brain and start manifesting something you truly like.

You are going to feel overwhelmed with a very astringent energy during this time period, as the spirit is taking time to detoxify and start anew. As we are in a new astrological age that is brimming with change, we all find ourselves in a sort of boot camp that is pushing us to release old wounds and embrace new abundance.

You are going to find that during this New Moon, Mars squares up with Uranus which is falling into retrograde soon – part of your releasing the old will feature rebelling against authority, possible arguments, detachments from people who no longer suit you, aggressive forward movement, plans, strategic actions, and a lot of artistic expression. You are going to feel yourself overwhelmed with passion, but passion without purpose or direction is a ship with no sails. You will be surrounded by opportunity but unable to take it anywhere. Take the time in advance of the new moon’s approach to set your goals. Write down anywhere from 5 to 10, be specific, give them dates, associate them specifically. Don’t say “I’d like to have more financial freedom.” Set a goal with the intention. “I will make $1,000 through my start-up company by the last day of August.”

Even if, for some reason, you do not manifest these specific goals, you will find that you are much closer to them than you would have been otherwise simply by placing a heavy amount of energy into a perceived outcome. Put sails on your ship and you will invariably head in the direction of the wind you choose to propel you.

Avoid an over-active ego or too much aggression during this time period. The astringent quality of the energy will have you mildly uncomfortable, and will build up over time, having you ready to pop off at someone who may not deserve it. Change your mode of thinking and operating during this time period. Understand the purpose of what you are doing. Understand your goals are not the responsibility, duty, or impediment of anyone else, and do not accept these messages from others either. You will not gain anything from aggressive interactions during this time period unless they are oriented toward the permanent release of a person or a truth that you have been withholding.

The best thing to do during this week and during this new moon cycle (You will invariably feel the vibrations of this new moon for a few days before and after it), is to put all of your aggression, fears, instability, and anxiety into a work of some sort. Rotate the tasks you can do while feeling this intensity. Do things with a purpose. Make sure that your self-care is good for your body. Have multiple tasks laid out that you would like to tend to, be they work related, home-care related, or simply a hobby such as reading or drawing. This is an important time to harness your aggression, as anything that is turned into an achievement will pay off for you later on. Follow your intuition at this time, as you will invariably know what is meant to benefit you and what to stay away from.

We would recommend taking this time as a time capsule. Find a notebook that is empty, or perhaps oriented toward manifestation and goals. Write down a status report of yourself. Whatever matters to you, mention it. Look at your goals and desires and see where you are in relationship to them. Write your relationship status, your physical status, your job, your finances, whatever you think will be important. Write down a healthy goal for any of these things a year from now. Set a reminder on your phone to revisit it and see how you have come closer to those goals or maybe oriented yourself toward achieving new ones.

This last wave of Cancerian energy is extremely important as it is supposed to help you wash away your guilt, your anxiety, your perception of lack, and any pain or ailment that is causing anguish in your body. You will even see this in a physical sense as many people are taking to body positivity, or even find themselves enduring different surgeries to come out healthier. Many individuals have the majority of their interactions with hospitals and healthcare during the Cancerian season.

Soon the Leo season will come, an astrological season of assertive action, strategy, planning, and career orientation. The Leo season is often where most people set their goals and find themselves empowered with the most energy to make it happen. It is important for you to face each of your uncomfortable emotions, toxic relationships, lack-of-confidence spells, and moments of tiredness and overwhelming thoughts. Utilize powers of forgiveness for yourself and others, and eliminate those thoughts by flushing them out with a new perspective. You must push the mess out of the way to allow the spotlight to shine on you, and it is time for you to take to task and become a leader this season. If you are reading this still, you are obviously feeling a connection with the vibration being sent out by this moon. It is a definitive clearing house. It is okay to embrace the things you are most afraid of in this time, to look for strength in difficult times, and to reorient yourself away from what used to be to what currently is.

This is a very important time astrologically as its point is to show us a new paradigm. This is a paradigm where money doesn’t lord over us and where the universe provides as is needed and as it is asked. We are entering a paradigm of fearlessness where we no longer embrace the worst case scenario and we no longer fear repercussions of others that truly do not matter.

Some extremely helpful things that you may want to try to do in the period between 7/18 and 8/3 are:

🦁 Write down a list of traumatic feelings and opinions you don’t believe in, and that you don’t believe serve you any more. Set them on fire, bury them, whatever you can do to symbolically dispel them.

🦁 Take a cleansing and rejuvenating bath – you can use Epsom or sea salts, bath bombs, or whatever makes you feel good. Set an hour aside for this, and try to make sure the bath is either very hot or very cold as you can tolerate it. Both temperatures can do something healing in a very different way. Calendula and Chamomile would be good herbs to use.

🦁 Write a list of goals and intentions for the next week, month, year, and five years on a piece of paper, preferably in a manifestation notebook.

🦁 Find four or five affirmations you would like to do in a day that would be important for you, and get an Affirmation Reminder app on your phone that reminds you to do this every day.

🦁 Do some cleaning in the areas that matter most to you. This may not even be in your home or office, but on your computer or phone. Change your wallpapers to suit a theme focused toward your goal, ambitions, or your thought process.

🦁 Make a dream-board on the computer, using pinterest, or using cut outs on a poster the old fashioned way. You will find that looking at familiar goal images really helps you bring your dreams into focus on a hard day.

🦁 Form an A-Team. This may be best suited to a chat group on facebook, or even an IM chat group through facebook, skype, or otherwise. Find a group of people that wish to take care of each other and keep tabs on each other. If you do not have this network, find manifestation groups, spiritual groups, and otherwise on Facebook that may help you expand your community.

🦁 Write nice things to yourself on your mirror, as you are going to have a rough go of it for a little while, and the best help you can find is right inside yourself.

🦁 Figure out a lifestyle you want for yourself and change one habit every day or two until you have made your lifestyle match your desire. If you have to work at it a bit to keep this schedule steady, don’t be hard on yourself. Use this time to try and get a sleep schedule that is efficient for you, a food schedule that is healthful, and find where your “you” time is during the day. Even if this is only during a commute or morning shower, spruce these areas up so that they are more nourishing.

🦁 Take time out of your day to remind yourself how far you have come each day before you go to bed. Even if you feel you haven’t changed your life much in the past year or two, think about the things you have endured in that time period that were not under your belt long ago.

🦁 After you wake up, light a candle, hold a crystal, or bask in the sunlight as you say your thanks for what you have and make prayers and wishes for those things you wish to have. Follow this with affirmations.

🦁 Be kind to yourself and others. The door to opportunity swung open, but this period of a few weeks serve as a very long, very steep stairway to your next step. Use this time to drop the baggage that doesn’t serve you, and learn to make the best of the baggage that you are carrying with you. Look up constantly, only looking back to remind yourself of progress.

You’ve got this.

Let the water wash your wounds, and then step forth with pride, Leo Season is near!

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ieltsxpresscom · 4 years

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IELTS Practice Cambridge Book 8 Academic Reading Test 1 C8T1

IELTS Practice Cambridge Book 8 Academic Reading Test 1 C8T1. Practice IELTS Reading practice online our website to score higher bands in your reading exam.

A Chronicle of Timekeeping A According to archaeological evidence, at least 5,000 years ago, and long before the advent of the Roman Empire, the Babylonians began to measure time, introducing calendars to co-ordinate communal activities, to plan the shipment of goods and, in particular, to regulate planting and harvesting. They based their calendars on three natural cycles: the solar day, marked by the successive periods of light and darkness as the earth rotates on its axis; the lunar month, following the phases of the moon as it orbits the earth; and the solar year, defined by the changing seasons that accompany our planet’s revolution around the sun. B Before the invention of artificial light, the moon had greater social impact. And, for those living near the equator in particular, its waxing and waning was more conspicuous than the passing of the seasons. Hence, the calendars that were developed at the lower latitudes were influenced more by the lunar cycle than by the solar year. In more northern climes, however, where seasonal agriculture was practised, the solar year became more crucial. As the Roman Empire expanded northward, it organised its activity chart for the most part around the solar year. C Centuries before the Roman Empire, the Egyptians had formulated a municipal calendar having 12 months of 30 days, with five days added to approximate the solar year. Each period of ten days was marked by the appearance of special groups of stars called decans. At the rise of the star Sirius just before sunrise, which occurred around the all-important annual flooding of the Nile, 12 decans could be seen spanning the heavens. The cosmic significance the Egyptians placed in the 12 decans led them to develop a system in which each interval of darkness (and later, each interval of daylight) was divided into a dozen equal parts. These periods became known as temporal hours because their duration varied according to the changing length of days and nights with the passing of the seasons. Summer hours were long, winter ones short; only at the spring and autumn equinoxes were the hours of daylight and darkness equal. Temporal hours, which were first adopted by the Greeks and then the Romans, who disseminated them through Europe, remained in use for more than 2,500 years. D In order to track temporal hours during the day, inventors created sundials, which indicate time by the length or direction of the sun’s shadow. The sundial’s counterpart, the water clock, was designed to measure temporal hours at night. One of the first water clocks was a basin with a small hole near the bottom through which the water dripped out. The falling water level denoted the passing hour as it dipped below hour lines inscribed on the inner surface. Although these devices performed satisfactorily around the Mediterranean, they could not always be depended on in the cloudy and often freezing weather of northern Europe. E The advent of the mechanical clock meant that although it could be adjusted to maintain temporal hours, it was naturally suited to keeping equal ones. With these, however, arose the question of when to begin counting, and so, in the early 14th century, a number of systems evolved. The schemes that divided the day into 24 equal parts varied according to the start of the count: Italian hours began at sunset, Babylonian hours at sunrise, astronomical hours at midday and ‘great clock’ hours, used for some large public clocks in Germany, at midnight. Eventually these were superseded by ‘small clock’, or French, hours, which split the day into two 12-hour periods commencing at midnight. F The earliest recorded weight-driven mechanical clock was built in 1283 in Bedfordshire in England. The revolutionary aspect of this new timekeeper was neither the descending weight that provided its motive force nor the gear wheels (which had been around for at least 1,300 years) that transferred the power; it was the part called the escapement. In the early 1400s came the invention of the coiled spring or fusee which maintained constant force to the gear wheels of the timekeeper despite the changing tension of its mainspring. By the 16th century, a pendulum clock had been devised, but the pendulum swung in a large arc and thus was not very efficient. G To address this, a variation on the original escapement was invented in 1670, in England. It was called the anchor escapement, which was a lever-based device shaped like a ship’s anchor. The motion of a pendulum rocks this device so that it catches and then releases each tooth of the escape wheel, in turn allowing it to turn a precise amount. Unlike the original form used in early pendulum clocks, the anchor escapement permitted the pendulum to travel in a very small arc. Moreover, this invention allowed the use of a long pendulum which could beat once a second and thus led to the development of a new floor standing case design, which became known as the grandfather clock. H Today, highly accurate timekeeping instruments set the beat for most electronic devices. Nearly all computers contain a quartz-crystal clock to regulate their operation. Moreover, not only do time signals beamed down from Global Positioning System satellites calibrate the functions of precision navigation equipment, they do so as well for mobile phones, instant stock-trading systems and nationwide power-distribution grids. So integral have these time-based technologies become to day-to-day existence that our dependency on them is recognised only when they fail to work. Questions 1-4 Reading Passage 1 has eight paragraphs, A-H. Which paragraph contains the following information? Write the correct letter, A-H, in boxes 1- 4 on your answer sheet. 1 a description of an early timekeeping invention affected by cold temperatures 2 an explanation of the importance of geography in the development of the calendar in farming communities 3 a description of the origins of the pendulum clock 4 details of the simultaneous efforts of different societies to calculate time using uniform hours Questions 5-8 Look at the following events (Questions 5-8) and the list of nationalities below. Match each event with the correct nationality, A-F. Write the correct letter, A-F, in boxes 5-8 on your answer sheet. 5 They devised a civil calendar in which the months were equal in length. 6 They divided the day into two equal halves. 7 They developed a new cabinet shape for a type of timekeeper. 8 They created a calendar to organise public events and work schedules. A Babylonians B Egyptians C Greeks D English E Germans F French Questions 9-13 Label the diagram below. Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage.

Download All Cambridge IELTS Books Pdf + Audio For Free Cambridge 1-14 (Free Download) AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL IN THE USA A An accident that occurred in the skies over the Grand Canyon in 1956 resulted in the establishment of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to regulate and oversee the operation of aircraft in the skies over the United States, which were becoming quite congested. The resulting structure of air traffic control has greatly increased the safety of flight in the United States, and similar air traffic control procedures are also in place over much of the rest of the world. B Rudimentary air traffic control (АТС) existed well before the Grand Canyon disaster. As early as the 1920s, the earliest air traffic controllers manually guided aircraft in the vicinity of the airports, using lights and flags, while beacons and flashing lights were placed along cross-country routes to establish the earliest airways. However, this purely visual system was useless in bad weather, and, by the 1930s, radio communication was coming into use for АТС. The first region to have something approximating today’s АТС was New York City, with other major metropolitan areas following soon after. C In the 1940s, АТС centres could and did take advantage of the newly developed radar and improved radio communication brought about by the Second World War, but the system remained rudimentary. It was only after the creation of the FAA that full-scale regulation of America’s airspace took place, and this was fortuitous, for the advent of the jet engine suddenly resulted in a large number of very fast planes, reducing pilots’ margin of error and practically demanding some set of rules to keep everyone well separated and operating safely in the air. D Many people think that АТС consists of a row of controllers sitting in front of their radar screens at the nation’s airports, telling arriving and departing traffic what to do. This is a very incomplete part of the picture. The FAA realised that the airspace over the United States would at any time have many different kinds of planes, flying for many different purposes, in a variety of weather conditions, and the same kind of structure was needed to accommodate all of them. E To meet this challenge, the following elements were put into effect. First, АТС extends over virtually the entire United States. In general, from 365m above the ground and higher, the entire country is blanketed by controlled airspace. In certain areas, mainly near airports, controlled airspace extends down to 215m above the ground, and, in the immediate vicinity of an airport, all the way down to the surface. Controlled airspace is that airspace in which FAA regulations apply. Elsewhere, in uncontrolled airspace, pilots are bound by fewer regulations. In this way, the recreational pilot who simply wishes to go flying for a while without all the restrictions imposed by the FAA has only to stay in uncontrolled airspace, below 365m, while the pilot who does want the protection afforded by АТС can easily enter the controlled airspace. F The FAA then recognised two types of operating environments. In good meteorological conditions, flying would be permitted under Visual Flight Rules (VFR), which suggests a strong reliance on visual cues to maintain an acceptable level of safety. Poor visibility necessitated a set of Instrumental Flight Rules (IFR), under which the pilot relied on altitude and navigational information provided by the plane’s instrument panel to fly safely. On a clear day, a pilot in controlled airspace can choose a VFR or IFR flight plan, and the FAA regulations were devised in a way which accommodates both VFR and IFR operations in the same airspace. However, a pilot can only choose to fly IFR if they possess an instrument rating which is above and beyond the basic pilot’s license that must also be held. G Controlled airspace is divided into several different types, designated by letters of the alphabet. Uncontrolled airspace is designated Class F, while controlled airspace below 5,490m above sea level and not in the vicinity of an airport is Class E. All airspace above 5,490m is designated Class A. The reason for the division of Class E and Class A airspace stems from the type of planes operating in them. Generally, Class E airspace is where one finds general aviation aircraft (few of which can climb above 5,490m anyway), and commercial turboprop aircraft. Above 5,490m is the realm of the heavy jets, since jet engines operate more efficiently at higher altitudes. The difference between Class E and A airspace is that in Class A, all operations are IFR, and pilots must be instrument-rated, that is, skilled and licensed in aircraft instrumentation. This is because АТС control of the entire space is essential. Three other types of airspace, Classes D, С and B, govern the vicinity of airports. These correspond roughly to small municipal, medium-sized metropolitan and major metropolitan airports respectively, and encompass an increasingly rigorous set of regulations. For example, all a VFR pilot has to do to enter Class С airspace is establish two-way radio contact with АТС. No explicit permission from АТС to enter is needed, although the pilot must continue to obey all regulations governing VFR flight. To enter Class В airspace, such as on approach to a major metropolitan airport, an explicit АТС clearance is required. The private pilot who cruises without permission into this airspace risks losing their license. Questions 14-19 Reading passage 2 has seven paragraphs A-G. Choose the correct heading for paragraphs A and C-G from the list below. Write the correct number i-x in boxes 14-19 on your answer sheet. List of Headings i Disobeying FAA Regulations ii Aviation disaster prompts action iii Two coincidental developments iv Setting Altitude Zones v An oversimplified view vi Controlling pilots’ licence vii Defining airspace categories viii Setting rules to weather conditions ix Taking of Safety x First step towards ATC Example – Paragraph B x 14 Paragraph A 15 Paragraph C 16 Paragraph D 17 Paragraph E 18 Paragraph F 19 Paragraph G Questions 20-26 Do the following statements agree with the given information of the reading passage? In boxes 20-26 on your answer sheet, write: TRUE if the statement agrees with the information FALSE if the statement contradicts the information NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this 20 The FAA was created as a result of the introduction of the jet engine. 21 Air traffic control started after the Grand Canyon crash in 1956. 22 Beacons and flashing lights are still used by the ATC today. 23 Some improvements were made in radio communication during World War II. 24 Class F airspace is airspace which is below 365m and not near airports. 25 All aircraft in class E airspace must use IFR. 26 A pilot entering class C airspace is flying over an average-sized city. Telepathy Since the 1970s, parapsychologists at leading universities and research institutes around the world have risked the derision of sceptical colleagues by putting the various claims for telepathy to the test in dozens of rigorous scientific studies. The results and their implications are dividing even the researchers who uncovered them. Some researchers say the results constitute compelling evidence that telepathy is genuine. Other parapsychologists believe the field is on the brink of collapse, having tried to produce definitive scientific proof and failed. Sceptics and advocates alike do concur on one issue, however: that the most impressive evidence so far has come from the so-called ‘ganzfeld’ experiments, a German term that means ‘whole field’. Reports of telepathic experiences had by people during meditation led parapsychologists to suspect that telepathy might involve ‘signals’ passing between people that were so faint that they were usually swamped by normal brain activity. In this case, such signals might be more easily detected by those experiencing meditation-like tranquility in a relaxing ‘whole field’ of light, sound and warmth. The ganzfeld experiment tries to recreate these conditions with participants sitting in soft reclining chairs in a sealed room, listening to relaxing sounds while their eyes are covered with special filters letting in only soft pink light. In early ganzfeld experiments, the telepathy test involved identification of a picture chosen from a random selection of four taken from a large image bank. The idea was that a person acting as a ‘sender’ would attempt to beam the image over to the ‘receiver’ relaxing in the sealed room. Once the session was over, this person was asked to identify which of the four images had been used. Random guessing would give a hit-rate of 25 per cent; if telepathy is real, however, the hit-rate would be higher. In 1982, the results from the first ganzfeld studies were analysed by one of its pioneers, the American parapsychologist Charles Honorton. They pointed to typical hit-rates of better than 30 per cent – a small effect, but one which statistical tests suggested could not be put down to chance. The implication was that the ganzfeld method had revealed real evidence for telepathy. But there was a crucial flaw in this argument – one routinely overlooked in more conventional areas of science. Just because chance had been ruled out as an explanation did not prove telepathy must exist; there were many other ways of getting positive results. These ranged from ‘sensory leakage’ – where clues about the pictures accidentally reach the receiver – to outright fraud. In response, the researchers issued a review of all the ganzfeld studies done up to 1985 to show that 80 per cent had found statistically significant evidence. However, they also agreed that there were still too many problems in the experiments which could lead to positive results, and they drew up a list demanding new standards for future research. After this, many researchers switched to autoganzfeld tests – an automated variant of the technique which used computers to perform many of the key tasks such as the random selection of images. By minimising human involvement, the idea was to minimise the risk of flawed results. In 1987, results from hundreds of autoganzfeld tests were studied by Honorton in a ‘meta-analysis’, a statistical technique for finding the overall results from a set of studies. Though less compelling than before, the outcome was still impressive. Yet some parapsychologists remain disturbed by the lack of consistency between individual ganzfeld studies. Defenders of telepathy point out that demanding impressive evidence from every study ignores one basic statistical fact: it takes large samples to detect small effects. If, as current results suggest, telepathy produces hit-rates only marginally above the 25 per cent expected by chance, it’s unlikely to be detected by a typical ganzfeld study involving around 40 people: the group is just not big enough. Only when many studies are combined in a meta-analysis will the faint signal of telepathy really become apparent. And that is what researchers do seem to be finding. What they are certainly not finding, however, is any change in attitude of mainstream scientists: most still totally reject the very idea of telepathy. The problem stems at least in part from the lack of any plausible mechanism for telepathy. Various theories have been put forward, many focusing on esoteric ideas from theoretical physics. They include ‘quantum entanglement’, in which events affecting one group of atoms instantly affect another group, no matter how far apart they may be. While physicists have demonstrated entanglement with specially prepared atoms, no-one knows if it also exists between atoms making up human minds. Answering such questions would transform parapsychology. This has prompted some researchers to argue that the future lies not in collecting more evidence for telepathy, but in probing possible mechanisms. Some work has begun already, with researchers trying to identify people who are particularly successful in autoganzfeld trials. Early results show that creative and artistic people do much better than average: in one study at the University of Edinburgh, musicians achieved a hit-rate of 56 per cent. Perhaps more tests like these will eventually give the researchers the evidence they are seeking and strengthen the case for the existence of telepathy. Questions 27-30 Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A —G, below. Write the correct letter, A—G, in boxes 27-30 on your answer sheet. 27 Researchers with differing attitudes towards telepathy agree on 28 Reports of experiences during meditation indicated 29 Attitudes to parapsychology would alter drastically with 30 Recent autoganzfeld trials suggest that success rates will improve with A the discovery of a mechanism for telepathy. B the need to create a suitable environment for telepathy. C their claims of a high success rate. D a solution to the problem posed by random guessing. E the significance of the ganzfeld experiments. F a more careful selection of subjects. G a need to keep altering conditions. Questions 31-40 Complete the table below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 31-40 on your answer sheet.

Show Answers 1. D 2. B 3. F 4. E 5. B 6. F 7. D 8. A 9. (ships’s) anchor 10. (escape) wheel 11. tooth 12. (long) pendulum 13. second 14. ii 15. iii 16. v 17. iv 18. viii 19. vii 20. false 21. false 22. not given 23. true 24. true 25. false 26. true 27. E 28. B 29. A 30. F 31. sender 32. picture/ image 33. receiver 34. sensory leakage 35. fraud 36. computers 37. human involvement 38. meta-analysis 39. lack of consistency 40. big/ large enough Read the full article

#academicreading #c8t1 #cambridge8 #cambridgeacademicreading8 #ielts8 #ielts8reading1 #ieltsacademicreading #reading

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itsworn · 7 years

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How to ditch your points-triggered Delco ignition and easily install a PerTronix Ignitor electronic system

In this age of electronic fuel injection and ignition it’s hard to believe there are still some running around with a points-trigged ignition system. The concept of breaker-points ignition is all about storing large amounts of electricity and discharging it at just the right time to sync with an engine’s cylinder timing events.

The ignition coil is little more than a transformer, which converts electricity from one form, or value, to another. In this case, we’re taking 12-14 volts of electricity and changing it to 20,000-50,000 volts so it can jump a 0.035-inch spark plug gap. In order to discharge large amounts of current the ignition coil needs two circuits (primary and secondary) and a switching mechanism. The primary circuit consists of the positive and negative terminals on the coil. The secondary circuit consists of the positive terminal and the discharge terminal at the coil’s center, which goes to the distributor.

Ignition points open and close via the rotating distributor cam in time with the firing of each spark plug. When the points are closed a powerful field of electricity builds in the coil awaiting the moment when points open, discharging via the coil lead to the distributor to fire each spark plug. Ignition points do a pretty good job when they are fresh with plenty of lubrication at the rubbing block, clean contacts, and good spring tension. Problems abound when contact points become pitted and wear out. Performance suffers when this happens, typically leading to hard starting and misfires.

PerTronix Performance Products conceived their breakerless electronic ignition system when it became clear motorists needed a solution to problematic ignition points. In fact, PerTronix was born of the need for an electronic ignition retrofit for industrial applications where engines rack up a lot of hours and go through a set of points in no time. PerTronix then developed quick-change electronic ignition retrofits for automotive applications—and the list of applications keeps growing.

We’re working with Ted’s Carburetor Shop rebuilding a classic Delco distributor for small- and big-block Chevy applications. We’ve opted for the classic, original PerTronix Ignitor in black, which is the economical solution for enthusiasts on a budget who are tired of changing and gapping ignition points.

A Delco distributor rebuild and PerTronix upgrade is something you can do in your home garage or you can ship it off to Ted’s Carburetor where it will receive the close attention of Ted Granger, who rebuilds and curves thousands of these distributors every year.

The first thing Ted does when he receives a distributor is a close inspection to see what’s there to begin with. He looks for inappropriate and excessively worn parts. Ted gets a lot of already rebuilt distributors mindlessly thrown together by mass rebuilders encompassing the wrong parts and poor tuning. Ted’s job is to rebuild distributors employing all of the right parts and proper tuning. This square hole is a reference mark for the rotor. However, it is also a reference point for the distributor drive gear at the other end of the shaft. This hole and the gear reference dimple must be in alignment.

Here’s the dimple in the distributor drive gear that should be lined up with the hole at the top of the shaft in the advance head. Not all gears, especially aftermarket drive gears, will have this dimple. When there’s no dimple, you have to rely on the distributor gear tension pin and how it relates to the reference hole in the advance head.

Distributor shafts can be hard to get out of the housing due to carbon build-up and crud. Saturate the bushings and shaft with penetrating lubricant, then work the shaft back and forth aggressively until it comes free.

This is the mechanical advance limiter pin, which limits mechanical advance travel. It should have a bushing around it, which further limits travel and total timing. This one doesn’t have a bushing. Look to Summit Racing Equipment for a replacement bushing along with advance weights and springs, which come in kit form.

Here’s the distributor shaft and advance head. The advance head slides onto the shaft and is secured at the top. It works hand in hand with the flyweights and springs, which control spark timing as rpm increases. The vacuum advance goes to work when you start out. As vehicle and engine speed increase and intake manifold vacuum decreases, this mechanical advance mechanism goes to work giving us total advance above 3,000 rpm.

Breaker plate removal is next, beginning with the breaker points and condenser, which will not be used again.

The vacuum advance unit is retained with two machine screws. Vacuum has to be applied to the advance unit in order to move the breaker plate enough to remove this screw. You can also move the breaker plate with a screwdriver to get at this screw.

We’re removing the vacuum advance at this time, which will be replaced. Vacuum advance units go bad when the diaphragm tears, rendering the unit a throwaway.

The breaker plate, which is cycled by the vacuum advance unit, is retained with this C-clip mid-section. Once this C-clip is removed, the breaker plate comes right off. Be careful removing this C-clip. Wear eye protection and make sure the C-clip doesn’t go flying across your garage.

This is the Delco distributor’s lubrication pocket, which is packed full of grease to keep the shaft and bushings lubricated. We will fill this cavity with grease during assembly.

The PerTronix Ignitor comes with everything you’re going to need to get your Delco up and running. This is a Hall effect system where the reluctor ring, which contains eight magnets, fastens to the advance head. The reluctor revolves past the pick-up module mounted on the breaker plate, performing the same task as the ignition points. It works as an electronic switch to allow ignition coil saturation and discharge.

The first order of business is to fill the lubrication pocket with high-temperature wheel bearing grease, which is what Ted suggests. At high temperatures this grease flows to the bushings and shaft to provide lubrication. Engine oil works its way up the shaft to provide lubrication as well.

This felt ring is saturated with penetrating lube, providing lubrication to the bushings and shaft. This felt ring should be sprayed with lube every 25,000 miles.

PerTronix provided us with a new vacuum advance unit, which is installed as shown using two machine screws.

We’re installing the breaker plate at this time, attaching it to the vacuum advance arm. The C-clip is reinstalled to keep the breaker plate in place. Check the breaker plate for freedom of movement. If it doesn’t move you won’t get the benefit of vacuum advance.

Next, we’re mating the shaft and the advance head prior to installation in the housing.

The PerTronix reluctor ring is tied to the advance head and shaft at this time using two self-locking nuts provided in the kit.

The shaft and bushings have been lubricated with wheel bearing grease, which is very effective according to Ted.

The distributor shaft endplay is controlled by how many shims are installed between the drive gear and the housing. You want 0.025-0.030-inch endplay. Add shims to reduce endplay. Subtract shims to increase endplay.

The reluctor ring is secured at the advance head as shown here. We have one nut securing the reluctor for setup purposes. You will need both nuts installed and tightened before adjusting the air gap between the pick-up and the reluctor.

The PerTronix Ignitor pick-up module has been installed and secured. Make sure the pickup wires (red and black) are clear of the breaker plate and advance head.

Next are the mechanical advance flyweights and springs. Apply a thin film of grease between the flyweights and the advance head. Check them for freedom of movement.

We’re installing the distributor rotor to the advance head using the hardware provided by PerTronix. These locknuts are secured with a 3/8-inch socket. Do not overtighten or you will crack the rotor.

The air gap between the reluctor ring and the pick-up module is checked next. You want a 0.020-0.030-inch air gap, according to Ted. What you don’t want is contact between the two. PerTronix provides brass shim washers in the kit to adjust the air gap. We didn’t need any shims.

Ted checks every distributor with a run-up on this classic Sun distributor tester. Unless you’re modifying your engine with a hot cam and the like, stock mechanical advance springs will deliver a seamless advance path.

Our completed Delco distributor is ready for action thanks to PerTronix and Ted’s Carburetor. Ted stands behind every distributor build and is ready to take your call if there’s a problem. PerTronix also offers excellent customer service and tech support should you have any questions. PerTronix tells us one of the most common mistakes people make is forgetting to install the ground wire between the breaker plate and the housing, which yields no-start and rough running.

PerTronix is the best source for all ignition parts for classic Delco and late-model HEI ignition systems. We’re talking high-caliber ignition parts like this distributor cap and rotor, which offer brass construction for reduced corrosion and pitting, along with excellent conductivity.

Sources

PerTronix Performance Products 909.599.5955 pertronix.com

Ted’s Carburetor 661.943.2340

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